Thanks to the flubbed oath on inauguration day, President Barack Obama retook the oath of office yesterday out of “an abundance of caution.”
That’s an awesome phrase. I’m not the only one who thinks so.
So we should have a T-shirt: I have an Abundance of Caution.
Once upon a time I thought i’d be cool to make a T-shirt of the month. I never quite got there because I’m not much of a designer and I’m no Threadless. But I can dream, can’t I?
I’ve always heard stories about it being so cold you could throw water into the air and it would vaporize instantly. Since it was 20 degrees below zero in Minnesota today, I thought I’d give it a try:
Vaporizing Water in Minnesota from kevinhendricks on Vimeo.
Most of the water vaporized but some of it crystallized, turning to ice droplets (from the sound of it, I’d guess some of it still hit the ground as liquid). So some of it turned into a cloud that drifted off and some turned to ice that fell in a slow arc to the ground.
To really pull it off, it helps to boil the water and keep it as hot as possible. And, for the record, it didn’t feel that cold outside (granted I wasn’t out for very long). Here’s a better video of this experiment.
Wow. That’s about all I can say. At least one person found poetry instead of weirdness in my daily digest of Twitter posts (which I’ve already deleted). And he turned it into a poem about breakfast and Billy Graham, among other things.
You can read the poem here or after the jump (poetry like that is too potent to not give you a little warning).
On Tuesday last week I posted 345 photos from the peaceful RNC protest in St. Paul to my Flickr account. My traffic skyrocketed, as you can see.
I always think traffic stats are fascinating. My photo views went from an average of around 300 per day to 5,335 views on Tuesday. On Wednesday they were still pretty high at 2,487, but by Thursday they went into the basement with 80. Oops. So much for increasing my audience after a spike.
Though Friday and Saturday they were relatively high again (over 1,000), so I guess we’ll see (helped along by the fact that I posted a few more protester pics I’d overlooked, as well as a pile of other photos).
Not that these stats mean much of anything practically. I’ve noted before that my most popular photo isn’t even a photo.
I’ve been getting kind of weary of the vice presidential speculation and frenzy. How many times can we talk about how Barack Obama is going to text message his choice and you can be the first to know? I heard three of four times that Obama could make his announcement as early as Wednesday morning. Everyone’s a buzz. It’s as if the political junkies have nothing else to talk about and refuse to move on until both candidates name a VP.
So yesterday I had enough and decided I’d pretend to be the first to know and start spreading fake vice president announcements on Twitter. I did Obama VP picks yesterday and McCain picks today. And let me tell you, I had way too much fun.
Fake Barack Obama VP Picks:
I know people say Obama needs to beef up his foreign experience & military credentials, but picking Cobra Commander as a VP?!
I can’t believe Obama picked Clinton—Bill Clinton—as VP! First black presidential candidate picks first black president as VP.
You can hear nearly an hour of me on the Something Beautiful podcast. For some reason Jonathan Blundell thought it’d be fun to talk to me, so there I am. We talk about a wide range of issues, including:
It was a fun conversation and I hope I don’t sound like a jerk. I have to admit, however, that I do sound like Dr. Hibbert. My wife always says I have a Dr. Hibbert laugh, and after listening to this I have to concede that she’s right.
Two weeks ago I shaved my head. I just let everything grow back, but after a week I had to shave my neck and face for a wedding. So the mustache, goatee and the rest of my head are two weeks post shaving. We’ll see if the beard comes back.
What have I learned from shaving my head?
Continue reading 2 Weeks After Shaving the Head
You can now watch me be bald:
The Bald & The Beautiful (short version) from kevinhendricks on Vimeo. Video by Josh Lewis!
The long version offers the mullet, the biology teacher and the mustache:
The Bald & The Beautiful (long version) from kevinhendricks on Vimeo. Video by Josh Lewis!
(Read more about the method behind the madness)
A few months ago I sent out letters challenging people that if we could raise $2,000 by June 15 I’d shave my head. As of today we’ve raised $3,935. So I’m bald.
A total of 38 families donated to the effort (some ear-marked their funds for the shaving of my facial hair). So on the eve of my 29th birthday I’m now balder than my dad.
A big thanks to everyone who supported us, including the many who donated outside the baldness campaign and those who have supported us in the many non-financial ways, which is just as important (if not more so).
You can also check out photos of the entire process. Or just watch the video.
This is my sad, melty snowman. I made him a few days ago with Lexi’s help (sort of help). Then he melted to the point that his head shrunk. Then we got about five inches of snow. So it’s a white Easter and a sad snowman.
And not only is this a rare white Easter in Minnesota, but it’s also one of the earliest Easters in a while. The earliest Easter can ever come is March 22, and the last time it came this early was 80 years ago. It won’t come this early again for another 150 years. There’s your random trivia for the day.