BenSpark Family Adventures

Allison sent me this link a couple of days ago and since then I’ve read the site, watched the interviews and the trailer. Ellis Paul has written a song for this movie and so has Flynn and there is a snippet of the song on the website. The website I am talking about is for a move called The Legend of Lucy Keyes the Lost Child of Wachusett Mountain. Apparently this is a fairly famous legend in the western part of the state. I had heard nothing of it till Allison sent me the link.  The story is about a 4 year old Lucy Keyes who disappeared in the woods on the South side of Wachusett Mountain. A local filmmaker John Stimpson has researched the legend and has made a modern movie with ties to the legend and it sounds like it will be a very interesting movie.  John Stimpson has also produced a 14 minute movie called The Winter People, the concept of this movie is that spirits inhabit the houses of people how close them up during the winter on… Cape Cod. I would really like to see tha...

Well I just watched the newest episode of LOST. It was a Locke-centric episode. Again a great episode. And the previews of next week hint at a character dying. It would be highly unlikely that a character would die, who was hinted at dying in the preview. Won’t happen. We’ll find out next week. Current Poll results for who will die before the season ends. Who will die before the season ends. Jack18 % (2 votes)Sayid 0 % (0 votes)Charlie 9 % (1 votes)Hurley 0 % (0 votes)Sawyer 0 % (0 votes)Michael 0 % (0 votes)Locke 9 % (1 votes)Boone 18 % (2 votes)Walt 9 % (1 votes)Jin 27 % (3 votes)Kate 0 % (0 votes)Claire 0 % (0 votes)Shannon 0 % (0 votes)Sun 0 % (0 votes)Rose 0 % (0 votes)French Lady 9 % (1 votes) Total votes 11

Last night Allison and I along with Allison’s friend Jen went to the Lyon’s Den at Wheaton College to see Christopher Williams. We haven’t seen Christopher for two years, not since he fell in love and moved away to Nashville and recently (4 months ago) he got married, congratulations! So we were excited to see Christopher, so excited in fact that we moved space and time in our minds so that the show would start at 8:00pm instead of the intended 9:00pm. Actually we just didn’t check the correct time and got there super early so we went to Legend’s and got some dessert and came back to the Lyon’s Den at 8:15. We walked in and the place was empty, we went up to the counter to ask how much tickets were and to our great surprise they were FREE!!! I forget how much I miss college some days with all the free entertainment on campus through Student activities. Well their Student Activities Fee was our gain. We squished into a loveseat and stayed wedged there for the entire show. We got to watc...

Just some random notes for Tuesday morning. I’m working from home today so I am up early. Duncan knocked the windowshade and made it fly open this morning around 5:30. So much for sleeping in a bit. I want to congratulate my friend Patrick on his recent engagement. Patrick we are so happy for you. I have added a few more webcomics that I have been reading, namely Real Life Comics, It’s Walky and Shortpacked. Real Life Comics is basically about the cartoonist Greg Dean and his roommates and their lives. Greg recently revamped the website and added an archive to all the old comics. They are pretty funny. It’s Walky started out about some roommates and then spiraled into an epic comic about a secret government alien fighting organization and it had lots of twists and turns throughout. Shortpacked started out about toy collecting and now it is about people who work in a toy store.

It is my sister Tara’s Birthday today. Happy Birthday!

Happy Easter everyone! Got a full day ahead. Church with Mom and Dad and Tara and Erik then heading to Fitchburg to pick up eva and John and bring them up to Marcia and Dan’s. Have a Happy Easter and play today’s trivia game. Bible Trivia. Also my friend Andrea has been known to rock in a corner saying over and over, bunnies and eggs in reference to Easter. Why do we hide Easter eggs. Here is the theory: There were 12 apostles. There are 12 eggs in a dozen. Almost always one of the eggs is cracked…. Judas. The Judas egg. I’m still working on the theory about the eggs being colored and hidden. Where the rabbit comes in I’m also still working on that, but the egg theory is sound all the way.

So today we have been busy here with the wedding plans. We’ve been printing out the Save The Dates and will be mailing them out Monday, I think. But today Allison and I worked on our registry. We went to Target and played with the bar code scanning gun and picked out a few things. We’ll probably register at Macy’s also for some of the remaining things. And we did some other couple type things like get a joint checking account too. For our Registry just search on our names. I couldn’t register for this but I’d add it if I could.

Our new neighbors are almost finished moving in. Welcome home Tara and Erik. And of course Daisy and Taylor too.

Paul Schumann, a German-American hit man living in New York City is caught and has to go to Berlin as a spy or serve a prison term, is featured in:Garden of Beasts : A Novel of Berlin 1936 (2004) Lincoln Rhyme, a disabled ex-head of NYPD forensics & Amelia Sachs, a rookie beat cop in New York, New York, are featured in: In Chronological Order The Bone Collector (1997) The Coffin Dancer (1998) The Empty Chair (2000) Stone Monkey (2002) The Vanished Man (2003) The Twelfth Card Rune, NYPD detective in New York, New York, is featured in: Chronological Order Manhattan Is My Beat (1989) Death of a Blue Movie Star (1990) Hard News (1991) Parker Kincaid, a former FBI forensic document examiner and Margaret Lukas, a FBI Special Agent, are featured in: Devil’s Teardrop (1999) Written as William Jefferies John Pellam, a location scout for a movie studio is featured in: In Chronological Order Shallow Graves (1992) Bloody River Blues (1993) Hell’s Kitchen (2001) Non-series books: Lesson of ...

Here is a link to some nice photos of horses that my co-worker Joanne took on her recent trip to Lexington, KY. Joanne also keeps a blog and she takes many pictures on her trips. She is way more detailed in her descriptions of her photos. It’s like being on the trip too, which is pretty cool. She’s got some great photos from Venice as well. Joanne’s Trip to the Horse Farm. Joanne’s Blog I’ve added Joanne’s Blog link to the Blogs of note section.

Tonight Allison and I went to the Route One Cinema Pub and saw Sideways. Sideways was a pretty good movie. There was great dialogue and also some laugh out loud funny parts. Thomas Hayden Church was a riot and Paul Giamatti has some fantastic expressions. I’d recommend that you take a chance and see this movie.

Well, I’m in Jasper, IN. Observing demos all day today. Last night went out with the group to the German-American restaurant next door, Schnider-bank or something. It was really good food, tried a bunch of German-American meals with a sampler. Also very good beer. Happy Birthday Uncle Murph and Cousin Haley!

Today we headed home from New Hampshire. Dad and I went to the Motorcycles of Manchester Open House. It was pretty sparse. Yeah there were tons of motorcycles but not much else to keep us there. No BBQ and entertainment. Oh well. Headed to Indiana tomorrow. Will post from the road.

So I was closest to Harry Potter and Prof. Lupin. Who are you? Leave me a comment? You scored as . Harry Potter 90% Remus Lupin 90% Ron Weasley 85% Severus Snape 80% Sirius Black 75% Hermione Granger 70% Ginny Weasley 65% Draco Malfoy 60% Albus Dumbledore 55% Lord Voldemort 30% Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is…? created with QuizFarm.com

Okay so I tried this religion quiz. Apparently I am best suited for is Buddhism. Interesting. I wonder how they compile the answers given. So, what religion are you best suited for, according to this quiz? Leave me a comment with your answer.   You scored as Buddhism. Your beliefs most closely resemble those of Buddhism. Do more research on Buddhism and possibly consider becoming Buddhist, if you are not already. In Buddhism, there are Four Noble Truths: (1) Life is suffering. (2) All suffering is caused by ignorance of the nature of reality and the craving, attachment, and grasping that result from such ignorance. (3) Suffering can be ended by overcoming ignorance and attachment. (4) The path to the suppression of suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path, which consists of right views, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right-mindedness, and right contemplation. These eight are usually divided into three categories that base the Buddhist fait...

This morning Allison, Dan and I went to Filenese for our annual wait in line for Buffett Tickets. We dispersed ourselves among the line and got our tickets. My number was 426 the number called was 422, Yeah! That means that everyone after 422 is closer to the front of the line. I gave the ticket to Dan and headed back to the house to get tickets online. Blasted Ticketmaster, may you wait forever and then tell you that since you have two sessions open you can’t buy tickets. Evil I tell you Evil!!!! Is it my fault that I want to get tickets for both days and there is no option to buy tickets for both days. I tried every single number combination on each day and now luck! Arrgh! Arrgh! I was not able to get tickets online from ticketmaster. I hate them and their crappy system! And their high fees and crappy service. Allison and I saw this great license plate on our way to Filenes. Except it was a New Hampshire one. Update: Dan was 3rd in line and only able to get ONE ticket!! One ticket. ...

If you have been reading The Mows web comic strip daily then you probably already know. Jay Dyke’s cat Tigerlily passed away on March 16. Tigerlily was the inspiration for the character of Tigey in the Mows web comic strip. We want Jay to know that we know what it is like to lose a beloved pet. You are in our thoughts. Puma will look out for Tigey now. He can play with Kip too. Hug your pets. Donate to a local animal shelter.

Google has opened the floodgates on their new e-mail system. G-mail had been at beta status up till the other day and the only way to get in was through an invite. Well now it is open to everyone. I got myself a G-mail account. If you act fast then maybe that name that you’ve been searching for may still be available. Go to www.google.com. Also you may have noticed that I added a couple of new web comics to the webtainment links section. I added two comics by the same guy, one is called Shortpacked and it is about toy collecting. Allison figured that the guy just followed me around and wrote down what I did. The second is called It’s Walky. Basically about a couple of roommates in college. Both are funny. Enjoy. I’m also adding another one called Martin’s Misdirection. It is about a struggling magician. The first 55 strips are not online anymore. They were collected into a book and are now being sold on the site. From a business perspective that is good because if you are someone who n...

Ah, that Corned Beef and Cabbage. My favorite meal a year. I think I look so forward to it because I know I will only have it once a year. This year the corned beef was once again excellent. I don’t think you can possibly screw it up with a crock pot but what can I say it was good. And the cheapest piece ever, and it was the leanest piece of corned beef I’ve yet made. A 4.1lb point brisket for $4.11. Add to it some carrots and cabbage and potatoes and we are talking a $12.00 meal that fed Allison, myself, my parents, my sister and her husband, and there were left-overs. Fantastic. Dad picked up some Guinness and some Harp and Allison got a soda bread from the Depot, what a great meal. I was so excited to eat the meal that I didn’t even get a picture of it. Sorry Derek.

Hello Everyone! Saint Patrick’s Day is here! It is one of my favorite holidays. Does everyone have their green on? I certainly hope so. It’s gonna be hard to concentrate whilst thinking about corned beef and cabbage for dinner tonight. Allison and I set up the corned beef brisket in the crock pot this morning and are letting it go on low all day. It has become our Saint Patrick’s Day tradition. And Allison just checked in, she has set the crock pot on low. Boiled corned beef awaits me for dinner. Yeah! Here’s a Food Network recipe for Corned Beef and Cabbage. Also, today is my cousin Nick’s birthday! Happy Birthday Nick! (I’m going to try and be good about remembering birthdays and anniversaries here on the blog.)

The Vatican has appointed Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Archbishop of Genoa and a possible successor to the Pope to be the official debunker of the Da Vinci Code. Didn’t that book come out TWO YEARS ago! Disclaimer: I mean no disrespect to the Vatican but I want to point out that the response was how shall I put it, speedy. I personally liked the book. It was entertaining, but not something to base your faith on. I suppose that a response needs to come out officially because there are alot of stupid people out there that take a work of fiction at face value. I mean, look how many people died while looking for that necklace that the old lady dropped into the ocean at the end of Titanic. That was a true story right? Actually I know of no one searching for the necklace from Titanic, let alone dying but I wouldn’t put it past some people to try.

Found a couple of new generators out there. Remember my post about the church sign generator, well I found a couple more. Acme License Plate Generator Acme Candy Heart Generator Acme Label Generator Windows Error Generator Tombstone Generator and of course Church Sign Generator If you make a particularly funny one of these please send it to me.

Every once in a while I come across something that is actually intelligent and not just entertaining. While checking out the webcomic Questionable Content this morning I came across a link to this website by Richard Garlikov which illustrates how the Socratic method of teaching, (asking questions) can be used to teach third graders binary arithmetic. After further exploration I find that he has a whole website of Educational and Philosophical Writings. If the rest of the articles are as interesting as the Socratic Method of Teaching then you will truly entertain your brain.

Okay just got a flash of news from two friends. Biggest news: Jimmy Buffett is coming back to Tweeter, Ack!, Great Woods. Tour Dates -Thanks Peter Other news, or rather a site to check out. For you Alton Brown/Good Eats fans there is a good eats fan website. Of course there is! Good Eats Fan Page – Thanks Andrea But after checking it out I found something very fun. 8Legged.com The only food show hosted by an appetizer.

The final project for a group of students at the DAVE school (The Digital Animation & Visual Effects School) was a movie about batman using minimates construction pieces. They actually got Adam West to play Batman. It is a big file but worth watching. Batman: New Times

The trailer from Episode III is now available to the general populace, and, well, it really looks awesome. I don’t want to get my hopes up that this installment will do justice to the story as a whole and as a movie will stand well on its own, but it really looks like it has promise. And in 2052 when the complete DVD set with all the edits is complete I will finally buy them. Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith – TRAILER

Looks like LOST will be back with Episode 19: Deus Ex Machina sooner than I thought. Apparently the schedule has been changed so that the new episode for LOST will be on March 30th instead of April 13th. It also looks like the final two episodes on the season final will be 2.5 hours instead of 2 hours. Awesome! The full 1st season of LOST will be out on DVD on September 6, 2005. Pre Order It below. Also completely randomly today I was searching for the definition of adenocarcinoma for a project at work, and I stumbled upon the celebrity dictionary project for Breastcancer.org. Celebrities like Richard Roundtree (Shaft) and Willard Scott lend their voices to the definitions of words related to breast cancer. Also I have found a new thing called My Calendar which allows me to put up my Calendar and share if with everyone and let people add events to the calendar. It’s gonna be a great way to keep up on where I am across the country or where Allison and I are going to be seeing our favori...

Okay, I’ve only read 3 of this guys comics but # three was so appropriate for those who are planning a wedding, namely Allison and I. And it just so happens that this weekend we are working on the save the date cards. So, even funnier. Check it out. Real Life Comics – The Guest List So I kept reading and found this too. Real Life Comics – The Napkins.

Last night Allison and I hosted a potluck night with our friends Neil and Andrea and Derek and Michelle. Each couple was responsible for one dish in the meal. Derek and Michelle brought a fantastic salad and some crescent roll breadsticks. Allison made a Mexican Meatloaf and I did Margaritas and a Dilly Ranch Dip, Neil and Andrea brought a key lime pie that Andrea made. As Neil stated, when the discussion turned to what to bring, “I got very quiet”. And since the evening centered around good friends and good food, I have photos of each course. Michelle fills the salad bowls while Derek, Neil and Andrea pretend to act non-chalant for the camera. Salad and Margaritas and glowing cat eyes in the background. Mexican meatloaf and breadsticks. The meatloaf is overflowing with cheesey goodness. It may not be too photogenic but man it tasted great. Andrea’s awesome Key Lime Pie. (see a favorable review on the Blog, no worries, you always make great desserts Andrea.) After dinner we all sat aro...

Its like a Reality show without the smarmy host.Where: Boston When: Saturday, June 18, 2005 What: Unique urban adventure! Who: 2-person teams on foot — grab a friend! How: Take photos of yourselves at each checkpoint How: Solve clever clues to find unmarked checkpoint locations How: Solve clues with any means necessary: call friends, use the Internet, trade with other teams, ask folks on the street… How: Trivia Challenge at start of race determines order — savviest teams get a head start. Why: National champions win $50,000 cash! More Info: Learn more about Urban Challenge I’d love to do this but I’ll be away. Just thought I’d share the info with everyone. Someone might like to go. If you are interested in doing this leave a comment and maybe some folks here will hook up and become a team.

I’ve created the word webtainment to encompass all those funny and interesting things that one can find on the web to entertain oneself. One aspect of webtainment is that of the web comic. Web comics are growing in popularity through word of mouth of fans. I consider myself a fan of a few web comics and I will give you links and a synopsis of each of the web comics that round out my daily reading. First up is PVP, PVP was the first web comic I found and it is the one that I really like. Scott Kurtz has created a great cast of characters. Pictured in the image above:Skull: The naive and loveable troll that is an intern at PVP magazine. Cole Richards: The Dad of the bunch and owner and operator of PVP magazine. Robbie: Cole and Brent’s college roommate, he and Jase spend all their time drinking beer, eating pizza and playing sports video games, apparently they are supposed to review that genre for the magazine. Jase: Robbie’s pal on the couch, the quietest of the bunch but smarter than h...

Star Wars Episode III is not out until May but fans are constantly making movies based on Star Wars. This one is particularly good, it is called R.2. The Extra-Special Astromech. It tells the story of a young George Lucas and his inspiration for Star Wars. Don’t miss the special nods to Steven Spielberg and his movies too.

Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, Navajo tribal police officers in the southwest USA, is featured in: In Chronological Order The Blessing Way (1970) * Dance Hall of the Dead (1973) * Listening Woman (1978) * Skinwalkers (1986) People of Darkness (1980)** The Dark Wind (1982)** The Ghostway (1984)** Thief of Time (1988) Talking God (1989) Coyote Waits (1990) Sacred Clowns (1993) The Fallen Man (1996) The First Eagle (1998) Hunting Badger (1999) The Wailing Wind (2002) The Sinister Pig (2003) Skeleton Man (2004) * does not include Jim Chee ** Jim Chee only

Flash animation is quickly becoming more than just a way to get funny time wasting snippets to the masses. There are some really good animators out there using flash for some pretty extensive and well put together stuff. Speaking of Stuff, stuffanimation.com as two great Flash movies, One is called Dude Where’s my Lightsaber and the other is Bounty Hunter’s Talk Back. DWML is a take on Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure/Bogus Journey, Dude Where’s My Car? and Episode II of Star Wars. It is most excellent. BHTB is a behind the music style interview with the Bounty hunters of the Star Wars series. It is pretty long and has some great interviews with the Bounty Hunters and some surprise guests. Check out Flash TV for some other great and not so great Flash animations.

Well, our little Oliver learned a big lesson this morning. Look before you leap. It’s is Ollie’s frequent habit to jump into the bathtub after the apartment’s human occupants have finished their daily cleaning rituals, so that he can lick up any bit of water left on the tub floor. (I swear we water them daily!) Somehow I managed to flip the stopper on the drain this morning – it was early and I don’t do mornings, okay? So the tub filled with about two inches of water when I showered. I dried off, got dressed and upon my return to the bathroom heard splashing. That’s odd, I thought. Then Oliver appeared from behind the curtain and was he looking unhappy! Poor guy’s back legs and tush were all wet!!! He’d hopped on in looking to lick some soapy goodness from the bottom of the tub and got a rather wet surprise! I don’t think he cared for the attempt to dry him off, either. For the rest of the morning he kept eyeing me like I’d thrown him in or something. It was a very funny adventure – at...

Karaoke was much fun on Saturday night. Dinner was tasty, the company was great and the karaoke wasn’t bad either! The begining of the evening was dominated by singers from our group, but after a little while others began to join in the fray. I did take some pictures but couldn’t figure out how to get them set up right for Blogging purposes, so I’ll have Drew post them when he returns from Snowshoeing. I spoke with Drew Sunday morning, they had a great dinner Saturday night and were looking forward to getting out on the trail. I’m sure he’ll have TONS of details for you! And he’ll change the Trivia Topic tomorrow! For your viewing enjoyment, here are the pictures that Allison took, sorry no snappy titles to these since I wasn’t there. I’m working on the snowshoeing post. Many pictures for you tomorrow. – DREW

So I took out the snow shoes, that I rented from EMS, this morning for a test walk. The front lawn had a perfect cover of pristine snow and it was perfect to walk around and practice snowshoeing. I wanted to make sure that I could put on the snow shoes, walk in the snow shoes, and not look like an idiot by falling down right away. So I grabbed my cross country ski poles and popped on the snow shoes, Altitude 30’s by Tubbs and I headed out to the front yard. Wow snowshoeing is pretty fun. I can’t wait for our hike tomorrow. I was tearing around the front yard and walking up on high areas around the shrubs. Allison came out and took a few pictures. Check them out. Stomping around the yard. This is fun! Too fast for ya Allison! Everest of the front yard. 🙂

If you are planning on taping something that you really want to watch. Here’s one step that could prevent certain madness. Check to see if the VCR has a tape in it. I missed Robot Chicken because I assumed I had a tape in the VCR. Oh Well. I’m getting my gear ready for this weekend’s snowshoeing trip to Zealand Falls in Grafton NH. Pictures and a recap should be online by Tuesday. It’ll be up to Allison to keep the site updated between now and then. She’s going to Spring Karaoke tonight and taking the other camera so there should be pictures from that tomorrow.

I found a fun flash animation site toda called Tedi Online. Tedi is a martial arts teddy bear. There are a few flash animation stories on this site. Not a lot but they are entertaining and the animation is pretty good. Check out Tedi Online.

I have found a place where you can set up your own polls for your blog. It is called BlogPolling. I’ve added a poll to this site for the TV show LOST. Apparently someone will most likely die before the season end. So who is it gonna be.. You can vote on the sidebar. After you vote you will see the results. The poll will be up until April 13, 2005 which is the date of the next Lost Episode.

I found alot of cool parodies for the Transformers G.I. Joe and one for Star Wars. The first site I found was called Me Love Grimlock, it is a flash site that has cartoons that parody the Dinobots from Transformers. The second was called They Might Be Giant Robots. This site has some parodies of Transformers and G.I. Joe., there is a really funny comic about the 80’s cartoon lines returning to the mainstream. It is titled Coming Back. The last Transformers one I found was called Stupid Lamborghini Tricks! and is primarily dedicated to Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. The other one I found was called the Wonderful World of Nate and there is a G.I. parody and a Star War’s Nintendo parody. Enjoy.

After last nights Hurley-centric episode (finally) there is a six week hiatus between last night’s episode and the next new episode on April 13th. Last night’s episode was a really good one with three distinct references to Indiana Jones movies. 1. Sawyer calls Walt “Short Round”, 2. The rickety rope bridge, and 3. The pressure plate where the idea to replace Hurley”s weight (With What!) on the pressure plate. But luckily Hurley is spry for a big guy. I wonder how many people rushed out after the show and tried to play the numbers in the lottery, it would have been really freaky if those numbers came up and won. So we see the story moving along and we also see some connections between the islanders. Hurley owned a box company in Tustin, John Locke worked for a box company in… Tustin. Locke built the cradle for Claire, but was it the same cradle that was in her nightmares? I’d have to go back to that episode to double check but I don’t think it was the same one. (UPDATE: The cribs are ...

I just finished Al Franken’s “Lies and the Lying Liars – Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balance Look at the Right” on CD. Interesting and humorous. He kinda lost me with his ramblings towards the end. There were some really funny parts and some to make you think too. And I’ve just started another Dirk Pitt adventure. Inca Gold takes Pitt across South America and the Southwest US. Good book, I liked it alot the first time around, hoping that by reading the books in order I’ll gain some more insight into this series and this book. I think I have six more Dirk Pitt Books left in the series. I’m hoping to have them all finished but April, we’ll see how my travel schedule works out, because plane/airport time is reading time.

What is robot chicken? Robot chicken is a 15 minute show on the cartoon network. It is stop motion animation with action figures. And it is in the vein of Saturday Night Live and Mad TV as sketch comedy. The show is produced by Seth Green. Who is also a huge action figure collector. You may remember the Optimus Prime Public Service Announcement that I posted last week. Well that was a skit from Robot Chicken. Here’s some great information about what is sure to be a pop culture sensation.

The Segway has a special place in my heart, despite it being a weird little device that makes you look really silly while riding it, but man I want to try it. Anyway Dean Kamen has come up with some more variations of the Segway including one with a golf bag and one with huge tires for off roading. Makes me think of that commercial with the guy running around the trails on his invisible bike and then taking a face plant down a hill. Not sure if I want to take a Segway into the woods. Well there is a guy who has taken a Segway from Seattle to Boston. And made a documentary about it. It is called 10 mph: Dreams: America: Livin’ it: Segway. I haven’t completely explored the site yet but there are some great pictures from across the country, and since I enjoy taking pictures all over the country I know I’m gonna like these.