Making Something Special

Last May you should recall that Becca and myself, as well as the international community (mainly consisting of New Jersey and Western Australia) celebrated the greatest and newest fake holiday known as Lowemannzeit. With this, Becca and I spent time making a short stop-motion animated holiday special known as The Legend of the Norgenchewer, which can be seen here:



With Christmas coming, we've been watching some older holiday specials, including He Man/She Ra, Pee Wee Herman, and John Denver and the Muppets, and have been following friends blogs who have been watching and talking about them as well. This leaves me with a solid conclusion that I must make another holiday special.

So this leads us to the question, what kind of holiday special should I make, let alone for what holiday? Should it be another stop-motion? Should it be full of friends and guests singing and dancing like you'd find in a Bob Hope special? should it be bizarre, long, and depressing much akin to the Star Wars holiday Special? I need your thoughts.

Also, if I am to take this course of action, I may need your help. Are you up for the challenge? or will I be doing it all on my own, and by on my own, I mean Becca will be doing it too. What say you friend, all 18 of you?
This could be you and your excitement to be a part of something you might regret for the rest of your life.

The Great Advent Event

Christmas is only 10 days away, and I don't think that it has come quite as quickly as it has this year compared to previous years. Trust me, I have checked into it, and there is scientific proof that this holiday season is moving quicker. This means that I don't have nearly as much time to do things as I would like, which is pretty ironic all things considered. Becca and I still need to decorate most of the house, as well as figure out what we are going to do for Christmas cards this year (in years past we have made our own using a combination homemade stamp and a photo taken to commemorate the holiday. We plan to do the same this year, but were slacking), as well as figure out what we are going to do for the day of (stay and host or leave and visit family), as well as gifting for friends and family.

Fortunately, I actually am done shopping for Becca, and have been for some time (surprisingly), thanks to some inspiration from some friends. Luke and Suzanne had decided to create home made advent calendars for each other, and in turn they have been documenting their gifting on their own blogs respectively, and in doing so inspired me to steal their idea and make an advent calendar for Becca, though by the time I got to it, two days had passed, so I had to move quickly and become an engineer. Allow me to show you the "Advent Calendar 5000":


Now, on the outside, it may not look that pretty, and you may think to yourself "thats pretty great Mike, you got her a shitty old box and drew all over it" and you would be right, but this is an engineering marvel that would rival the tallest tower in Japan (which is much taller than you would think)

On five of the six sides to this box are drawn doors to the exact size and measurements needed to get one and only one gift. Becca is to cut open each door (as seen above) daily to get her gifts, leaving her with a box full of holes. But wait, theres more! every day, she gets to reach inside the "one a day" door and pull out an envelope full of puzzle pieces that when assembled will make a puzzle (I know, right?)

Now, I know all you out there are just dying to see the inside of the box, and I have a special treat for you. We have exclusive photos of the inside that you will not see anywhere else online! You don't know what we had to do to get these photos for you, so please enjoy them!


The marvels of modern science will never cease.

Already Off to an Awesome Start.

Ever get the feeling that you are going to do something so awesome that you constantly think about it all the time, especially when you are not doing it so when you start you will create something that will just blow people away, but then you never get around to starting it? That seems to be what this is turning into.

I think I started this blog about a week or so ago, and everyday since my revelations about the mysteries of the inhabitants of Pluto I have been playing in my mind how great something I am going to write and post here is going to be, but then I go off and watch a movie, or move a fooz-ball table out of my kitchen, and never get around to it. I totally want to write about it all, and I just summarized all sorts of wonders that have filled my past week or so, but then erased it all because you deserve better than just a summary. You deserve the whole damn thing that will leave you in love with me, and not the cute boy meets girl type. I mean the "rent the house next to mine and watch me from the window with inappropriate drawings of me and you together tacked to your walls" in love with me.

So, starting tomorrow I will actually write and post things for you to be amazed by. I share this with you now so that when it comes time to read it all, you will have had time to prepare for it. I would hate for you to be blown away by an antidote I may share and shuffle away with an annurism. To get you through the next few painful hours until it is time to come back and read what I have to say, I have prepared the following three pictures for you to look at, as well as a recipe to pass the time:

Picture #1:

Picture #2:
Picture #3:

Recipe:

Cheesecake Brownies

One 9-inch (23cm) square pan

6 tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4 ounces (115g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
2/3 cup (130g) sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup (70g) flour
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (80g) chocolate chips

8 ounces (200g) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk
5 tablespoons (75g) sugar
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Line a 9-inch (23cm) square pan with foil, making sure it goes up all four sides. Use two sheets if necessary. Mist with non-stick spray or grease lightly.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (180C).

3. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and beat in the 2/3 cup (130g) sugar, then the eggs.

4. Mix in the flour, cocoa powder and salt, then the vanilla and chocolate chips. Spread evenly in the prepared pan.

5. In a separate bowl, beat together the cream cheese, the yolk, 5 tablespoons (75g) of sugar, and vanilla until smooth.

6. Distribute the cream cheese mixture in eight dollops across the top of the brownie mixture, then take a dull knife or spatula and swirl the cream cheese mixture with the chocolate batter.

7. Bake for 35 minutes, or until the batter in the center of the pan feels just set.

Let cool, then lift out the foil and peel it away. Cut the brownies into squares.

Storage: These will keep in an airtight container for a couple of days. They also freeze well, too.

Spread Out the Plastic Sheets

I've been toying around with the idea of starting up a personal blog that actually is a personal blog for a while now. After the huge and continuing success I have had with some professional side ventures, such as When Dinosaurs Attack, I found that I enjoyed writing, but I am not always as professionally minded to continuously write about the seriousness of Science on a daily basis, as the mind can not always process the raw awesome power of digging a hole through the Earth, and needs to expand into other things.

While I don't want to commit myself to writing daily here, I definitely want to try to write and post as close to daily as I can.

As always, stay Vigilant.