I went to see Mission Impossible III in the theater today.

I'm glad I only paid $4 for a ticket.

I haven't seen the second movie in the series, so I don't really know how this compares.

The Bourne series is much better. Those seem to be better composed pieces less dependent on blowing up things.

I've changed the site layout again.

I didn't like the contrast of the previous theme.  The text could be hard to read at times and I didn't really like the logo all that much.

Plus, I was looking for a reason to use the picture in the header.  My dad's neighbor near Pratt, KS is a custom cutter.  Dad enjoys helping him out during the harvest.  We took this picture last year and it is one of my favorites.

The new theme isn't necessarily as polished as some of the other ones I've seen.  But, I like the layout and the color scheme.

If anyone has feedback on a better one, let me know. 

By request.

    1. Not spending more time with my grandfather.

My grandfather was a very intelligent person, probably the best example I know of a self made man.  He built his own house, taught economics and business at the collegiate level for 35 years, and was a fine woodworker.  He turned 80 the year I started college.  I spent my freshman year at the school he taught at for so many years.  I know now that he was in the very early stages of Alzheimer's at the time.  I spent too much time accomplishing little during that year and squandered a chance to spend more quality time with him.

    2. Bob Dylan opening for The Grateful Dead in RFK stadium

I believe it was the summer of 1995.  I was in Washington DC for a journalism conference one of my professors recommended I attend.  One of the guys I went to Poland with was living in DC at the time.  He had an extra ticket for the show.  I didn't have  enough money to change my plane ticket so I didn't go to the concert.  I'm not a huge fan of The Dead, but I regret not coming up with the money to go to the show.

    3. My failure to learn another language

I lived in Mexico for 6 months, I studied in Poland for a semester, and I took two semesters of German in college.  In spite of all of these things, I am horribly monolingual. 

    4. Radio internship

After my junior year in college, I had a chance to do an internship at KFDI in Wichita, KS.  KFDI is a country station with a good focus on local news and weather.  I needed money to pay the rent, so I didn't do the internship.  I'm fairly sure I wouldn't have ended up with a career in any type of media, but I still would've liked to have had the experience. 

    5. College

Overall, I would say that I had a very good college experience .  The liberal arts environment was very fruitful, and allowed me to participate in many different activities.  I enjoyed being on the radio, singing in the choir, doing lighting design for drama productions, editing the literary magazine.  I think I missed some opportunities in the academic arena.  I wish I would have taken more theory courses.

There's a Simpsons movie teaser online at:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/thesimpsonsmovie/teaser/

I haven't heard anything specific about the plot.  But I'm looking forward to the movie.  I know it has been in the works for years.  I wonder how long they'll keep the series on after the movie debuts. 

We went to the Kansas MCC Mennonite Relief Sale this morning.  Abe ate an entire piece of sausage and some verenika.   I ate too many New Year's cookies.

We looked at some of the quilts and walked through some of the other exhibits.  It was a nice day, a little chilly but no wind.

We wanted to go on Friday night, but the weather was awful.  Cold and dreary with 50 mph wind gusts.

Since I took Friday off, today seems like Sunday.