A couple month's ago, my friends and I decided that it would be a good idea for Jordan to kick me in the stomach as hard as he could. It didn't seem like a bad idea because my stomach is so incredibly buff and Jordan was in martial arts which means he has good aim. So here's the video... it hurt, but everything went to plan.

Anyway, my buddy, Zach was here last weekend and was wearing my tae kwon do uniform. Since he was wearing it we decided that it was a good time for someone to kick me in the stomach again. Now, Zach hasn't had any martial arts training so I was a little nervous about his aim. Mainly, I didn't want to get kicked in the ribs and I surely didn't want to get kicked in the junk. I told him that he had to practice …

My aunt's church is having a camp called "kids' camp xtreme" and they asked me to make a video for them. They just wanted something short that they could play everyday to get the kids pumped up.

They told me to just throw a bunch of "extreme stuff" together, which is exactly what I did. It's not awesome, but if you want to see it, click here. (2:07, wmv format)

You'll see a few of my closest buddies and I goofin around, skating, soaping, etc. All of the clips were shot by myself (unless I'm in the clip) and I put it together in about 4 hours.

So it looks like AOL Time Warner finally decided to pull the plug on Netscape and call it quits.

http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/919792.asp?cp1=1

...and the web developers of the world rejoice.

Derek R Brooks: i should have gotten pulled over to the MAX this morning
Derek R Brooks: i will just paste the conversation that i had with jammey
Derek R Brooks: so i dont have to type it again
sofa king kari: k
Derek R Brooks: well, to get to work i have to jump onto the interstate for like 5 minutes... and it's all 3 lane with big wall dividers between eastbound and westbound... so the only way you're gonna get pulled over is if there is a cop right in front of you or right behind you
Derek R Brooks: well this morning, i didn't have my radar detector on and i flew onto the interstate like i normally do... doing about 90
Derek R Brooks: about halfway to work i switched lanes from the far left lane to the far right lane to get around a …

I've been hearing some pretty good music lately and I thought I'd tell you about it. Normally I don't do this, but you won't hear any of it otherwise because it's all way underground.

First off, I went to a place called Java Joes on Saturday night. They had 2 bands playing, Kite Strings and Cleo's Apartment, which were both very good. Kite Strings was a mix between Acid Jazz, Hip Hop, and techno. They had a violin, turntables, drum machine, keyboard, and every once in a while a guy rapping. Cleo's Apartment combined Keyboards, synthesizers, turntables, and even horns. They're both pretty mellow but really good. Search for them on mp3.com or check out softfocus.com. The site isn't up yet, but when I talked to them they said it'd …

I bought the newest verion of the 10 gig iPod (v3) off of ebay the other day, and absolutely love it. I actually wanted the 30 gig, but couldn't see spending $500 on it. But seriously, this thing is so insanely dope. It looks so nice, it's so thin, all the buttons are touchpads, and the formatting/navigation is just so clean. Sometimes I really think that apple rules because they put a ton of thought into every aspect of their products, especially design. The box it came in was even cool.

The 10 gig still holds a lot of music, I've already got over 20 CDs on here and I haven't even used 2 gigs yet

If you ever want an mp3 player, I would suggest getting one of these. You can get a 20 gig from a different brand for the same …

I finally added a few new pictures to this site. So click the pictures link above and you will see pics of:

Juliet and I - I've known this girl since I was like 2

Katie and I - one of my best girl friends

Becca, Shawn, and I (and my brett favre jersey, which is a Large in BOYS)

Kevin and I at graduation

Kevin, Mark, and I. Notice my 70s style joggin suit, mark's killer tuxedo, and kevin... well, kevin's got his camera.

I love my car. In fact, I love my car so much that even though it almost has 130,000 miles on it, I've decided that I'm going to restore it rather than buy a new car. The only problem is, stupid things keep happening to it! For instance, last fall (shortly after I got my new body kit on) I went and bought a new cell phone (you probably saw the article about it on this site). Anyway, I was so caught up in my cell phone that when I went back out to my car I was only paying attention to the phone. I backed up, and "CRACK!" I backed right into a truck. It wasn't that hard but it was definitly hard enough to put a 6 inch crack in my bumper cover. It was completely my fault, but the truck was not there when I pulled in, so in a matter …

So I've been living in Des Moines for a little over a week and it's going pretty well... except for my lack of friends out here. Everyone I know is trying to be all professional n stuff. Don't get me wrong, I think it's important to be professional at work, but the only people I know are at work... while they're at work.

On another subject, I actually live in West Des Moines and my apartment could be easily described as a pimp-pad. My Job is in Johnston, which is about 10 minutes away from the apartment... so that's cool too. The company I work for has a "campus" and the building I work in is about as big as Cornell. Funny.

I'll have pictures of my Apartment, job, and cubicle soon. My whole floor should be moving around soon …

I got a really good job right outside of Des Moines in the city of Johnston. I start June 1, so I'll be outta here at the end of May. I'm gonna miss my friends a lot, but it's a great opportunity for me, so I'm taking it.

Update: I went to get an apartment yesterday. I found a pretty dope one in West Des Moines, right next to Clive. If anyone lives near there, I need someone to skate/soap with.

I'm graduating in about a month. I just made this graduation announcement that I thought I would post on my website. I don't really expect you all to come to either of my events, but I thought you might find the announcement humorous or would just like to know what's going on in my life. Check out my announcement here!

So spring break started yesterday and I'm flying to Phoenix this afternoon. I plan on getting tons of pictures and will be promoting Soap to the max. (for those of you that don't know, I'm sponsored by soap shoes again). If you need to get a hold of me you can call me on my cell phone or text message me here.

I joined a photography class this block at Cornell and I'm really looking forward to it. I really need more photo experience for work.broox.com, plus I think photography is one of the best forms of art there is. Anyway, we needed an SLR (Single Reflex Lens) camera, so I spent about 4 hours comparing cameras in my price range. I narrowed it down right away to the Canon Rebel 2000 and the Minolta Maxxum 5. I went to Best Buy and talked to 3 of the High School kids that know nothing about any product in the store except for the new 50 Cent CD. Then I got the privelage to talk to someone who might know what he's talking about. I asked him how fast the lens was on the camera (Aperture Range), and he just looked at me and then told me …

For previews of the upcoming feature film titled, Public Juice, click the following links.

Thug Version - Riverdance Version

This film has not yet been rated, and we have no idea what it's about yet...

A few months ago my sister entered the Miss Teen Illinois contest with 2000 other girls. Well, that 2000 was narrowed down to 175 which went to the actual pageant in Chicago. We went and watched, and probably had the loudest cheering section in the whole place (between about 6 of her friends, and my family). Everyone was really nervous but my sister made it to the top 15... and then the top 5. Then she ended up taking 2nd runner up (3rd place) out of the original 2,000 that entered the contest. If you would like to see a picture of the top 5, go to www.missillinoisusa.com/contestants-miss_teen.html. My sister is the girl in the white dress (Bre'anna Brooks)

I know it's about a week late, but I got my final Christmas presents today. I definitely had a good holiday; got to hang out with friends/family at home and got some cool stuff. Here's a short list of what I got: 2 Gamecube games (Tony Hawk 4 and Mortal Kombat), Gamecube controller, lots of nice clothes, a remote contolled "Whoopie Cushion", and some other stuff...

But my girlfriend probably got me the coolest gift, the green Shorty's Chadillac Muskalade Skateboard. On top of that, her parents got me a gift certificate to Scheels Sporting Goods so I could buy wheels n stuff to go along with the board. There I bought some wheels, bearrings, and risers (oh, and some adidas wristbands, haha). If you know anything about skateboards, …

Let's assume that you have a top of the line, color screen cell phone that can hold 5 wallpapers. What would your top 5 wallpapers be? Try not to put broad answers. A bad example might be: cars, buildings, scenery, animals, and people. A good example might be something like: Estella Warren, an Acura Intrgra, a cocker spaniel, Skateboard Logos, and the British Flag.

So what would your top 5 be?

Early this summer, a bunch of friends and i had a little conversation on AOL instant messenger to see what kind of things people had on their desks. It was rather amusing, so I'm going to start it again... but on my website this time. If you read this article, list the things that you have on your desk right now. (sometimes this gets kinda funny)

Now, many of you know that I've listened to ICP for years (about 7 to be exact). For those of you that don't know what ICP is, this article should mean nothing to you, just skip ahead and read about how cool my pockets are. However, if you know anything about ICP at all, anything... read further.

ICP has always been known for being wicked and rapping about things that no artist really talks about. Their music talks about some pretty messed up stuff, but there is something behind it. ICP doesn't go out and kill people, they don't want to go out and kill people. In fact, I laugh at at least 1 lyric in every single one of their songs! They're clowns, they're supposed to be funny!

Anyway, they just released their 6th jokers card (or …

Yesterday I decided to get 2 new techie toys. The first of which being a Nextel phone (since U.S. Cellular was screwing me around). The second is the new Sony Cli? ?X70V. So now, I think it's safe to say that my pockets are a lot cooler, and I'm sure that women will dig it, hah.

About the phone... I have a friend that works at Nextel that was able to hook me up with a killer phone for super cheap. It is the Motorola i95cl. The i95cl has a color screen and comes with games like Tiger Woods golf, and MotoGP. Nextel also rules because they have the two-way radio feature so you can talk to your friends with Nextel's, radio style. Also, if you have MSN messenger, you are able to right click on my name in your buddy list, and send IMs …