holly detail

holly detail, originally uploaded by andyrobe.

Merry Christmas!!!!

2008

So i sat down and thought about the albums that meant the most to me this year. This is my list, but i'm sure there are some that i have forgotten. The new Fall Out Boy album is fantastic but i've only listened to it three times and it just came out so it's not on the list... if it was it would probably be somewhere around three or four. So here are my top ten albums for 2008 in some sort of order.

1. MGMT - oracular spectacular
2. The Black Keys - attack and release
3. Coldplay - viva la vida
4. Drive-By Truckers - brighter than creation's dark
   
5. The Raconteurs - consolers of the lonely
6. TV on the Radio - dear science
7. My Morning Jacket - evil urges
8. Beck - modern guilt
9. Gnarls Barkley - odd couple
10. Ryan Adams - cardinology
11. The Black Crowes - warpaint
12. Ra Ra Riot - rhumb line

Here's my top 5 rap albums... again in some sort of order...

1. Lil Wayne - tha carter III
2. Black Milk - tronic
3. T.I. - paper trail
4. Nas -
5. Girl Talk - feed the animals
6. Jay-z / viva la hova

I have a list of my favorite songs but it's 50 songs long so i didn't post it. If you really want to know about it i could put it up, or make you a cd...

holly

holly, originally uploaded by andyrobe.

a christmas shot

so cold

, originally uploaded by andyrobe.

why is it 8* outside right now? why is there a 20 mph wind that makes it feel like -9*. wow.

mom, originally uploaded by andyrobe.

Happy Birthday! we love you.

the ultimate insult

so apparently this happened...

Embedded Video

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here's my question... Where were the Secret Service Guys? This fellow has time to chuck not one but TWO shoes at the President before he is tackled by another journalist. He lobs the first one, reaches down, grabs and throws the second one while Bush is showing off his mad dodgeball skills and pointing at the guy like "you watch your back!"... all this before security busts through the door and the crowd. If I were the President, that is the kind of service that would make me lock myself in the Presidential airplane and refuse to come back out. I'm just saying... isn't there someone who's job it is to make sure that this kind of thing doesn't happen... How funny!

from the riverbed

from the riverbed, originally uploaded by andyrobe.

it's sunday. and i'm studying. tomorrow is my last big final. i have one more on tuesday but it will be easy. crystal's gone christmas shopping, finley's asleep, so i should get to studying... bye

don't get the warranty

Finals are half over.

I learned today (from HowStuffWorks.com podcast) that buying an extended warranty on products is usually not a great idea. Last year Americans spent $16 Billion on extended warranties and the stores that sold them kept 80% of that as profit! That's almost $13 Billion they pocket off these things. In fact, last year, extended warranties bought by customers in the store was enough to cover the entire operating cost of Circuit City for the entire year... that could be a big reason that they are now filing bankruptcy...

in some cases it's good to go ahead and get the warranty (on phones, big expensive tvs, and computers). but in most cases hold off, you can always buy one from the manufacturer up to thirty days after your purchase, and they're usually cheaper.

Check out the link above... check out the podcast...

now you know...

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prickly evil bush

this year for my birthday Tim and Tammy wanted to get me a shop-vac for our garage. So I went to Sears and found this one that actually has a detachable leaf blower! So not only can I clean out the cars and clean out the garage, but i can also blow off the front porch and the driveway. I'm so excited!
Crystal bought me some new tennis shoes (we just haven't gone to pick them out.) finley got me some deodorant (which was great cause i had just run out). we had to go out for my birthday dinner three times before we got a restaurant that we liked (we finally settled on Fox Ridge Pizza... can't go wrong with that...) but I had such a wonderful birthday.

This morning I hung Christmas lights on the front of the house. We haven't plugged them in yet, but we are quite excited about it. It's so much fun to have a house that we can decorate any way we want...

While I was out there I decided it was time to remove the prickly stupid bush from around the mailbox. It was just plain out of control, and it has stabbed me too many times when I check the mail.

It is a huge bush. I was a little nervous that the neighbors might think it was dumb. But we are the only one on the block with a bush around the mailbox.

you can see the lights i hung this morning

So I started hacking and sawing.
and sawing
and sawing
apparently it had been growing there for a while...
until it was all gone
or at least it was all moved to the other side of the driveway...
it made quite a difference... it still needs some work to finish it off and keep it from coming back... but at least now i can check the mail without being afraid for my life.

starting tomorrow i will be studying every waking hour for the next week and a half. finals are here and the semester is over. merry christmas

christmas season

we decorated for christmas this evening. it was a lot of fun. the best part about it was that we have a house that we can decorate. no more cramped apartment conditions. i love it!

happy birthday.

i should be asleep.

photo funia is neat

Before and After

I know photographers don't usually show "before" unedited photos. But I think these two are fun to compare. Can you spot the major differences? Look closely (besides the fact that the color has changed in the final photo)...



I think my favorite part of this photo honestly has to be the man leaning against the building beside the pay-phone. I love that.

it will be nice to get out of this town for a minute.

you may be shot...

cold, rain, and heroin

This week in school we learned that a man in Germany in the mid 1800's created aspirin and heroin in the same year. Heinrich Dresser formulated both compounds, and thought that heroin was the more marketable of the two compounds. Bayer pharmaceuticals began marketing heroin as a cough suppressant and it was given in mass doses to Tuberculosis patients. In 1899 Bayer was manufacturing literally a ton of heroin a year. Naturally Dresser was an incredibly successful man thanks to the enormous popularity of his two drugs. In 1924 though, Dresser died a heroin addict. He died of a massive stroke that ironically could have been prevented if he had been taking an aspirin a day. very interesting... now you know.

i had to show this. i did not take this photo, but i love it! it's by caleb charland (www.calebcharland.com). i just wanted to share. you get bonus points if you can guess what i think is so cool about this one...

some pictures for friday...

so i absolutely love having a house to live in. one of the coolest things is being able to do little projects around the house. here are a few things i've done since we've moved in. i feel like such a man :)

this is a before picture of our kitchen sink area. it was not bad, actually it is by far our favorite kitchen sink that we've ever had. but i was inspired by Larry and Christy's kitchen light project. so Crystal and I went to Lowes and selected a nice light to go overhead (under the cabinet).
i drilled a hole through the cabinet to place the electrical cord.

and this is the finished product, i love love love the way this looks now. it is such an improvement to the kitchen atmosphere. and the best part of it is that the light switch you see in the picture works on the light. the left switch is the light, the right switch is the garbage disposal. love it! :)

dresser in a box. this has to be the heaviest box that i've picked up (or tried to pick up) in a long while. it took me almost four hours to screw this thing together (with some valuable help from Crystal). but we are very happy with the way it turned out. we were able to put her baby dresser (changing table) out in the garage (in a safe spot, man i love having a garage for storage!).



there... done... :)

The before product. The walls are still white (notice the final color in the last few pics) and the bedroom set is still super-90's.

goodbye 90's knobs...
the spraypainting process. it was fairly easy, but a little messy (notice my feet).
there... done... :)


so i've come to realize that traffic is really not bad here in memphis, especially for the size of the city. the scary thing is that people are really aggresive, crazy drivers. so there are a lot of wrecks around the city. one of my favorite things while i'm driving is to listen to the AM station that lists the traffic report every ten minutes. there are dozens of wrecks daily. today there was a huge one on one of the roads i take to school every morning. luckily i had an 8 am exam this morning so i was running very early and didn't get stuck in it. but on my way home they were still cleaning it up. i'm not sure what happened but there was a truck full of sand, a jeep, a pick-up truck, and a few other cars involved. you can see the truck under the red awning of the gas station to the right of the picture below.

so i drove around to get a better view... i'm parked here under that red awning at one of the gas pumps. you can see the sand that has spread across the whole road.


can you imagine if you had been standing there pumping gas and this truck came flying at you. thank goodness no one was using the pay-phone.

we know all about that

so this week in school we learned about the history of diabetes. the term mellitus (in diabetes mellitus) is the latin word for sweet like honey. this references the sweet taste of the diabetic urine. apparently the ancient greek and egyptian doctors would smell and taste the urine of their patients in order to diagnose certain diseases. pretty neat. but there is significant scientific research today to create hi-tech diagnostic sniffers that can quickly and accurately point out diseases in patients. (from npr... ).

so the cool thing about all this is that dogs can smell these scents in humans. there is some scientific proof that dogs can smell pregnancy, certain cancers, asthma, diabetes, and seizures (just to name a few). there are actually dogs that are trained to live with people suffering with seizures in order to alert them before a seizure happens. the dog can sense the seizure and warn the person to get into a safe position and call for help. wow. (from national geopgraphic... )

and finally, i learned this week to love using a mac. our small group in pharmacy school had to create a public service announcement. i used crystal's mac, and since i was the only one with any idea how to use imovie, i did all of the editing. it turns out that i helped with the vocals as well. it's amazing how easy apple has made all this editing business. i was able to put this together in a pretty short amount of time. so here it is... for your viewing pleasure... don't judge, it was my first time making a movie, and pharmacy students aren't necessarily the most creative people...

my life

i love this picture that crystal took yesterday. it is such a brilliant representation of how crazy life can get these days. she perfectly captured all the emotion in one shot. this is definitely one of those pictures that we will look back at and love years from now.

fall in memphis

it's fall. and it's cooling off here. we are still trying to get organized in this house. but we absolutely love it. today in school we learned about birth control pills. they change the way you metabolize carbohydrates, and the way you store energy (you store more energy in adipose tissue and use less of it ... aka... it makes you gain weight). they alter mood, can cause hypnosis (which is helpful in balancing PMS mood swings) and can cause depression. they also affect blood pressure and the way that your blood clots (which can cause heart disease and blood clots which can lead to stroke. so if you smoke too then you multiply your risks for heart disease, myocardial infarction (heart attack) and stroke). But they don't cause cancer! if you already have breast cancer then it can make it worse, but they absolutely do not cause cancer. these are not necessarily common side effects, but they can definitely occur.

we also learned that estrogen is the drug in the body that helps to regulate bone growth. it is the drug that stops the growing of bones. that's why you eventually stop growing taller. since women have a lot more estrogen, their bones stop growing sooner than men in most cases. in men, testosterone must be converted into estrogen in the body in order to affect the bone growth. this is why men usually grow taller than women.

alright, i'm going to go find our den.

abandoned

abandoned, originally uploaded by andyrobe.

i got some boxes packed today. there is a van full of stuff parked outside our house. we are going to get a uhaul in the morning. i'm sleepy. oh yeah... we have a HOUSE! it's perfect. we've seen some before and after photos provided by the guy who is selling it... it's absolutely incredible. i'm excited. but sleepy.