I write, occasionally

I'm really confused about Google's index. I used to think I understood it really well, but now that I've gotten into this sitemaps business, it's much more confusing.

I mean, Google had www.cedarrapidsalive.com indexed fairly well shortly after I released it. Then I added the link to Google Sitemaps (without submitting an actual sitemap) in an attempt to get the pages picked up faster. It made things worse... So I eventually made an actual sitemap and submitted it. However, now if you check out the index, they only have 2 results indexed, wtf.

QC Alive seems a bit underindexed as well, but it's doing a little better with 514 results. However, I'd really like them to be fully indexed like Des Moines Alive, which currently has …

Hmm, so I've done enough extreme activities and hurt myself enough times that I keep a couple of those wrist/ankle/knee wraps around - and today I'm wearing one, haha. Stupid wrists.

See, Zach and I were skating last night for quite a while. I was finally starting to stick a couple grinds that felt super unnatural to me before. It was going well. So well in fact, that I started hitting them with more speed. And as some of you know, when grinding, especially with torqued grinds such as royales, it's easy to let your feet slip out from under you and fall hard, thus hurting your wrist or back or whatever.

Well, this didn't happen. Although it would maybe make for a better story. Actually, i didn't fall once. I hurt my wrist …

Seriously it is soooo ghetto. I usually try to avoid it at all costs. But I came in today to return some headphones that I got in florida and didn't like - it straight sucked. I sometimes forget how ghetto and sucky Walmart is, and then I return only to regret it - immensely.

And you know what the worst part of walmart is? It's the customer service department. Because it is there that even non-ghetto people act ghettoly. But when you have ghetto people acting ghettoly in a ghetto store, it's horrible. I had a woman in front of me today returning a toolset that she apparently bought for her husband. She was like, "he didn't wan'em. Said they're cheap!" No kidding, lady. She was also returning some opened dog pee pads, among …

So, this weekend I went to Chicago for a few minutes, which will put an end to a month straight of weekends I was out of town - without Kari, haha. Rochester, Minneapolis, Orlando, and Chicago. Traveling without Kari was a little weird, a little lame, but also nice. We both enjoy time with each other as much as we enjoy time without each other. However, 4 weeks in a row may be a little excessive... So this weekend, I am in Des Moines! Where Kari, her fam, and I will eat sushi, watch movies, drink homebrew, and love life.

And now for a recap of Chicago.

I drove straight there - no need to drop off Ninja, no tolls, etc. It ruled so much, and seemed like a super short drive - especially after that Orlando trip. And now I'm to …

...seen the Grand Canyon 66 times, spittin wicked sh*t rhymes.

So yeah. If you didn't know, I had this Map that kept track of everywhere I've traveled to. It made use of the Google Maps API (v1) and was fairly ghetto. So I upgraded to v2, used xml, and integrated it into derek.broox.com.

Peep /travel

If 1 more person asks me if I heard about the crocodile hunter dying from a stingray barb to the heart, I am going to punch them.

I was in Orlando, not space. Tanner sent me the CNN story Saturday. I know about it.

Ok so, kevi totally changed everything in his life up again with a new place to live, new job, and new gf... Imagine that. In fact he still owes me a case of dewski for winning this bet...

how long were you at yellow book?
2 months
how long were you at the hospital?
3 months
how long were you at stamats?
1 year 4 months
ok, i'll bet you another case of mt dew, you quit your current job within 2 years
ok
haha
should i quit my job here at geolearning before april 7, 2007, i will give you one case of mt. dew
Derek R Brooks
Kevin E Switzer

So that said. We had a mini going away party at my house last wednesday. Fun time.

Then I somehow managed to let kevi talk me into helping him move to orlando. He sold it by saying …

Ok, so Canon fixed my cam for free, woot!. It was actually really a fast fix and they sent the cam back to me yesterday... So I checked the tracking status today and was quite surprised to find that my cam was supposed to be delivered today... just in time for my trip to Orlando tomorrow! I then checked it again at 11am and found this:
Sep 1, 2006 | 10:12 AM | Delivery exception | CLIVE, IA | Customer not available or business closed

So I called FedEx just like I normally do with UPS to let them know I want to pick my package up. They said that I cannot pick it up because the package wouldn't be back to the station until after they had closed. wtf. How come every other shipping company can get back and give me my package? …

Hmm. I sort of said, "yeah right" when I first heard about this this morning. Because netrality and freeness is really what the internet is all about. And I rarely like to stand behind causes - but since internet is what I do... this one seemed scary enough for my attention.

The bottom line is this: Internet freedom is under attack as Congress pushes a law that would give companies like AT&T the power to control what you do and see online.

Apparently, some bigger companies like AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon are wanting to control the internet. They basically want people to pay for their sites be seen. For example, if I don't pay AT&T, x amount of money, my site will load slower and be further down the chain than Harper's site, …

Welp, as most of you know, Nathan, Chuck, and I went up to Minneapolis this weekend, which started out as a birthday bash for Josh, but ended up being a celebration of all our birthdays. Mine's in August... Nathan's is in June, and Chuck's is in November, haha.

On the way, we ended up making a last minute pitstop into Clear Lake to pick up Monica and drop her off at her BF's place just outside of the cities.

We got to our hotel around 9ish, which was in a pretty rough part of downtown - greyhound station, dudes getting handcuffed, etc. Actually we saw people getting cuffed on 3 separate occasions right in front of our building, haha.

So, we quickly threw our stuff in the room and walked straight to Gluek's bar. As soon as we …

This error has been forwarded to MySpace's technical group.

Why does MySpace suck so bad? Seriously. It's horrible. I think I see that message more than whatever it is I'm actually trying to look at.

This is going to be so "college" and "lame" and "sappy" and "retarded" of me. So I apologize up front.

I've been meaning to write about this since the first time I saw SLC Punk, which was some time in college. In the movie, there's a quote by the main character, Steve-O (Matthew Lillard), that was interesting to me. Actually there were several quotes that sparked some thought - which is weird for such a "B movie," but this one in particular really got me.

Steve-O and Bob are visiting their friend Mark, who's talking about all his sweet/expensive stuff - laserdiscs, shower head, remote control, waveless waterbed, etc. He's doing so in an almost "bragging" manner - even though he's not meaning to brag at all. To which, Steve-O …

Welp, Rochester was pretty rad. We tried to hit all the hot spots in 1 night, which made things quite insane. It ruled though because everything was pretty much within walking distance.

So we started the night off by eating at Newt's. I had heard that Newt's has the best burgers in town. So we went in expecting to order their burger - a normal, but really good burger. We didn't realize that they had a several awesome burgers with special recipes. I had this burger with Jalapenos and garlic ground into the meat prior to cooking. Zach had a Cheyenne bleu cheese burger, and Nathan had a burger with eggs and bacon on it. Seriously, best burgers in town... or maybe even the country!!! (chalk another one up for Minnesota, Josh).

So, my Car Insurance only went down $10 a month... booo. Maybe it will go down more when Kari is 25 too.

On another note, I really love the Asian Market. There are always interesting things there, plus everything is always spelled wrong. I seriously can't believe how you can spell the same word 2 different ways on 2 signs, 8 inches from each other. Or how you can spell something wrong with the correct spelling is directly in front of you. Haha.

Anyway, yeah.

Oh yeah, I redid the home/splash/main/whatever page for www.broox.com.

I figured that after over 3 years of that blue design, it was time for something new. Plus I don't wear suits, I have facial hair, I'm cooler, etc. However, I'm not quite ready to admit that I don't skateboard.

P.S. One of my cameras (Canon SD550) is broken and sent in for repairs. Luckily I had a month left in the warranty, w00t. I sometimes wonder about the reliability Canon - or maybe it's just the way I treat cameras.

Things have been pretty fun lately, busy again, but fun - and slowly becoming more insane.

Friday night was Zach's housewarming party, which was quite nice. Saturday, Jeff and I made 2 batches of beer, which I'm pretty sure will turn out awesome. We were focused on these batches, I'm excited. Afterwards, we all went to Newton to celebrate Morris' 80th B-Day. 200-300 people showed up, which is pretty insane. It's sort of sad that my parties are totally getting schooled by 80 year old folks, haha, wtf. Then, Sunday we went back to Newton for another family lunch. Things in Kari's family are a lot different than mine. When they get together, they do so for 3 days in a row several times a year. In my family, we get together for 3 …

What an insane birthday. Seriously. And now that my life is 1/3 over, my insurance should go down now, ha. W00t.

Ok. Thursday, kari and I went to my parents' house for pizza, hanging out, etc.

Friday morning, we met my grandparents for breakfast, then headed into chicago for lollapalooza - my birthday present from kari. First we got the hotel - on the 37th floor of the grand Marriott on Michigan ave - my birthday present from jeff. Then we headed to lollapalooza, checked out the grounds, met up with the DSM peeps, and ended friday's fest with Ween. What a live show - incredible.

Later, we all met up @ Sushi Wabi for my bday dinner, which was amazing as usual.

After dinner we went to Sonotheque to see lady sovereign play. …

hahaha. Omg. So I just decided to trim my hair down to about an inch long with my clippers. However my long hair kept clogging them so I took the attachment off to clean the blades. Instead of putting the attachment back on I simply slammed the open clippers into my head - taking a big gouge out.

So yeah. Now my head is shaved again, haha. I am retarded.

It may seem weird that I have so much to say about bathrooms. However, if you think about it, you spend a fair amount of time in a bathroom. Seriously, you're in there at least 5 times every single day. It's something that everyone does but never really talks about the politics of. This is the exact reason that I've written my "theories" or thoughts about things that happen in restrooms.

If you haven't read my other bathroom rants, here they are:

My Bathroom Theory (No. 1): Washing Your Hands
My Bathroom Theory (No. 2): The Toilet Seat

Moving on...

Urinals. Urinals are seriously designed to be one of the most awkward pieces of ceramic ever. They (combined with men's restrooms) are the worst-thought-out design ever. I mean …

My shelves are (mostly) done (again)!!! Haha.

So yeah... Thursday, Rico and I finished spraying the shelves in my office - well, Rico did anyway. I just built the big ol tent and let the pro finish the work. Then I took half of Friday off to finsh sanding, assembling, and stocking them. I'm super happy with how they turned out. ...Now, I just need to make doors for the cabinets. Here are pics of all the construction so far.

Later Friday, Zach and I installed a new intake in his focus then Soaped a bit with Nathan. At Midnight, Nathan and I headed downtown to meet the Heelys guys and go out for a couple drinks, which ended up being a mini-party at my house, playing ping pong and soaping til 4:30am.

Saturday was also really …