Author: Jonathan Blundell

Well I think we finally got our wish, and prayers, the rains have come and washed the itsy bitsy spider and everything else down the waterspout.
And now after a few days of heavy rains, everyone’s begging for the sun to come and dry the spider out.
But not me – at least not yet.
I happen to love the rain and all the free water it puts on my not-so-green lawn.
And as I sit here, watching the rain come and the storm advisories, wishing I was out playing and not sitting in my office, I’ve begun to think of all the things I could be doing, besides sitting in my office.
So here’s a Top 10 list of things to do when the rains come down.
10. Create random,
“highly important scientific experiments”. How many drops of rain does it take to extinguish a match? How many drops of rain does it take to get the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop? Record your data and then send it to all the major science journals. And don’t forget about your favorite hometown paper either.
9. Visit a waterpark. For some reason, people are afraid of waterparks when it rains. I’ve seen people make mad dashes to cover at waterparks when the rain starts to fall. I think they’re afraid they might get wet. So rainy days are great days to visit your local waterpark – as long as there’s no lightening around.
8. Buy a shop vac. With all the rain we’re getting suddenly, it’s very likely you may have a roof leak or other flooding in your house. Don’t let the rush to buy shop vacs leave you in a lurch. Be prepared and ready to suck all the water away.
7. Stand guard by roads closed due to high waters. Find your nearest low water crossing and stand by Road Closed signs and make sure no one drives around or continues down the road. For added fun, write down the license plate numbers of those who continue to ignore the warnings and the call them at home and let them know you were worried about their safety.
6. Make random Top 10 lists. I mean seriously what else is there to do? And if you don’t have anything to do, or anything to write about in your column, just ask Allman — Top 10 lists are great fillers.
5. Tube the river. Why travel all the way to New Braunfels to catch a tube ride. Grab an inner tube from Wal-Mart and hit Nolan Creek. You should be able to make it from Harker Heights to my backyard in Belton in roughly 5 minutes. PUBLISHERS NOTE: After hearing the horror stories from fellow employees, this paper does not condone or sanction this event. In fact, we ask that you ignore number 5 and consider this a Top 9 list instead.
4. Sing in the rain. This ones pretty self explanatory. Try and do your best impression of Gene Kelly in the classic musical.
3. Build a sand castle. Hold a competition with your friend and test the Biblical parable about the wise man building his house upon the rock and the foolish man building on sand. One of you can build your sand castle on the driveway and one can build it in the sandbox. Answer the question, “If both houses are built of sand, does it really matter what they’re built upon?”
2. Ride a bike. You’re gonna get soaked and you’re feet will likely slip off the pedals — numerous times, but it’s loads of fun. And if you go with a friend you can both take turns laughing at all the mud and water your tires splashed up and down your back.
1. Sleep. There is nothing I like more than sleeping and napping during a thunderstorm or rainy day. Speaking of which, now that my column is all done, isn’t it nap time.
Whatever you chose to do, be sure and take lots of pictures and send them in.

The rains came… and they’ve gone for a while. Good thing!
I’ve had a big gapping hole on the front of my sports page, waiting to get a photo or two of the Harker Heights football two-a-days and the rain has kept them off the field most of the week.
And luckily I finally got a call from the coach to find out their remaining schedule today so I can go get some pictures of the team working out.
Whew!

How is it that you can be having an absolutly perfect day and then have it ruined by 2 or 3 e-mails at the end of the day?
Even with a dounpour of 3-4 inches today, I was having a great, wonderful, perfect day.
Then I get a few e-mails and I can’t think straight ever since. I left work in such frustration that I left my cell phone on my desk and several notes I’ll need to finish my stories tonight.
And who wants to drive 15 minutes to get a cell phone (which doubles as an alarm clock)? Well don’t guess it really matters – I’m just going to continue trying to refocus and finish my otherwise perfect day.

Someones made a newsmap from Google’s newspage. Awesome.
Basically its a graphic representation of Google’s News Page.
Google scours the net constantly looking for news stories and then combines all their searches and runs the stories that are highly linked to on their news page. So rather than getting one newspaper or television station telling you “what’s important” you get a broad spectrum of media outlets telling you “what’s important.”
If 25 newspapers report on Peter Jennings then it is bumped above a story 2 newspapers reported about a plane crash in Alabama. The newsmap is like a pie chart, made of squares, giving larger boxes to stories with more links or “importance.”
“Newsmap is an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator. “

No, its not a sex toy. It’s the
Kinky Friedman Action Figure. The Texas Governor candidate is giving the dolls away to people who contribute $100 or more to his campaign. So far it’s help raise $49,555.

“It’s time to start the real action! As we prepare to battle the millions of bucks the parties are going to throw at us, we need a hero, and here he is: the ‘Kinky Friedman Talking Action Figure.’ He’s all we need to combat the dark forces! It looks like Kinky, it talks like Kinky, it IS Kinky – our hero! It has Kinky’s actual voice, spouting the mots and witticisms for which he is so known and loved. And, of course, he is adorable.”