Man vs. Wild

While watching TV the other day, I was browsing around through some programs and I noticed that one of my favorite shows was back on the tube. Man vs. Wild, it is on the Discovery channel every Friday night. The show follows survival expert Bear Grylls. The show is all about Bear doing and eating crazy things that will help you survive in what ever wilderness that he happens to be in.
I love the show because he also knows little tips and tricks that I really find useful, even though I go camping once a year and there is no danger at all. Check out the clips below to see what Bear gets himself into.

A lot of money at the Box Office

I was messing around the other day on IMDB, (Internet Movie Data Base) a really cool website that has the all the info that you would ever need or want about any movie that you can think of, and I came across the All Time Worldwide Box Office list. This list has more then 300 movies on it and it lists them from the highest grossing down. I found it very interesting to see how much money these movies generate and how many of them bring in this kind of money. No wonder there is a new movie out every week. Here is 1-100. Check out the site for the complete list.

All-Time Worldwide Box office

Rank	Title	Worldwide Box Office
1.	Titanic (1997)	$1,835,300,000
2.	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)	$1,129,219,252
3.	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)	$1,060,332,628
4.	Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)	$968,657,891
5.	Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)	$958,404,152
6.	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)	$937,000,866
7.	Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)	$922,379,000
8.	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)	$921,600,000
9.	Jurassic Park (1993)	$919,700,000
10.	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)	$892,194,397
11.	Spider-Man 3 (2007)	$885,430,303
12.	Shrek 2 (2004)	$880,871,036
13.	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)	$866,300,000
14.	Finding Nemo (2003)	$865,000,000
15.	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)	$860,700,000
16.	Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)	$848,462,555
17.	Independence Day (1996)	$811,200,000
18.	Spider-Man (2002)	$806,700,000
19.	Star Wars (1977)	$797,900,000
20.	Shrek the Third (2007)	$791,106,665
21.	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)	$789,458,727
22.	Spider-Man 2 (2004)	$783,577,893
23.	The Lion King (1994)	$783,400,000
24.	The Da Vinci Code (2006)	$757,236,138
25.	E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)	$756,700,000
26.	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)	$738,809,845
27.	The Matrix Reloaded (2003)	$735,600,000
28.	Transformers (2007)	$700,759,914
29.	Forrest Gump (1994)	$679,400,000
30.	The Sixth Sense (1999)	$661,500,000
31.	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)	$653,200,000
32.	Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)	$648,200,000
33.	The Incredibles (2004)	$624,037,578
34.	Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)	$623,829,763
35.	Ratatouille (2007)	$615,935,493
36.	The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)	$614,300,000
37.	The Passion of the Christ (2004)	$604,370,943
38.	War of the Worlds (2005)	$591,377,056
39.	Casino Royale (2006)	$587,607,184
40.	Men in Black (1997)	$587,200,000
41.	I Am Legend (2007)	$583,986,216
42.	Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)	$572,700,000
43.	Night at the Museum (2006)	$571,063,268
44.	Armageddon (1998/I)	$554,600,000
45.	King Kong (2005)	$547,051,260
46.	Mission: Impossible II (2000)	$545,300,000
47.	Home Alone (1990)	$533,800,000
48.	Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)	$533,800,000
49.	Monsters, Inc. (2001)	$528,900,000
50.	The Day After Tomorrow (2004)	$527,939,919
51.	The Simpsons Movie (2007)	$525,532,370
52.	Ghost (1990)	$517,600,000
53.	Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)	$516,800,000
54.	Aladdin (1992)	$501,900,000
55.	Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)	$494,800,000
56.	Twister (1996)	$494,700,000
57.	Toy Story 2 (1999)	$485,700,000
58.	Troy (2004)	$481,228,348
59.	Saving Private Ryan (1998)	$479,300,000
60.	Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)	$471,856,431
61.	Jaws (1975)	$470,600,000
62.	Pretty Woman (1990)	$463,400,000
63.	Bruce Almighty (2003)	$458,900,000
64.	300 (2006)	$456,592,590
65.	The Matrix (1999)	$456,300,000
66.	Gladiator (2000)	$456,200,000
67.	X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)	$455,260,014
68.	Shrek (2001)	$455,100,000
69.	Cars (2006)	$454,752,771
70.	National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)	$453,342,259
71.	Mission: Impossible (1996)	$452,500,000
72.	Pearl Harbor (2001)	$450,400,000
73.	Ocean's Eleven (2001)	$444,200,000
74.	The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)	$440,725,045
75.	The Last Samurai (2003)	$435,400,000
76.	Tarzan (1999)	$435,200,000
77.	Meet the Fockers (2004)	$432,667,575
78.	Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)	$427,936,103
79.	Men in Black II (2002)	$425,600,000
80.	Die Another Day (2002)	$424,700,000
81.	Dances with Wolves (1990)	$424,200,000
82.	The Matrix Revolutions (2003)	$424,000,000
83.	Cast Away (2000)	$424,000,000
84.	Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)	$423,200,000
85.	The Mummy Returns (2001)	$418,700,000
86.	Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)	$418,200,000
87.	The Mummy (1999)	$413,300,000
88.	Batman (1989)	$413,200,000
89.	Rain Man (1988)	$412,800,000
90.	The Bodyguard (1992)	$410,900,000
91.	Signs (2002)	$407,900,000
92.	Madagascar (2005)	$406,800,000
93.	X2 (2003)	$406,400,000
94.	Mission: Impossible III (2006)	$395,382,309
95.	Gone with the Wind (1939)	$390,500,000
96.	Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)	$390,500,000
97.	Superman Returns (2006)	$389,569,408
98.	Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)	$383,900,000
99.	Grease (1978)	$379,800,000
100.	Happy Feet (2006)	$378,992,827

The Jazz and my Wife

My Problem-
I love the Utah Jazz and I am a huge fan. I am actually a huge fan of basketball in general. I watch every game that I can, and my poor wife has to put up with me wanting to watch all these basketball games. She does not mind that I watch TV, it is the fact that while the Jazz game is on, I zone out and she can not even get the smallest response out of me. She is not a fan of sports, so it is a little bit rude of me to torture her with all the basketball I watch.
My Solution-
I have a friend that is a scalper, or a ticket broker as he likes to be called. I asked him for some tickets to the next playoff game and like the good friend that he is he hooked me up. I wanted to take Megan to a game so she could get the feel of the intensity and atmosphere during a playoff game. We went to the game with some friends and had a blast. At the game they were giving out free t-shirts so that everyone in the arena was wearing white, it was pretty cool. (see photos below) While she is still not a Jazz or basketball fan, I like to think that she has a little bit more of a understanding of why I love the game.

I forgot to bring our camera so I had to use the BlackBerry to snap some photos. Not the best quality, but they will do.

Atmosphere

Ant (left) Slug (Right)

My favorite music group Atmosphere released their new album this week. I wanted to share my love for this group with the very few of you that read this blog.
Atmosphere is a hip-hop/indie group from Minnesota. (Atmosphere on Wikipedia) They remain underground and that is one of the reasons that I love them. They have a style all their own and I can't say they sound like anyone else. The group consists of Slug and Ant. Ant makes the music and Slug rhymes and sings. You can hear some of their samples here.
Sorry in advance of anyone is offended by the lyrics.
They have been approached by every major music label for a record deal and they keep turning them down. Slug, actually formed his own music label and signs artists that he likes. RhymeSayers

Atmospheres last 2 albums are both my favorite albums of all time.



Atmosphere is coming to Salt Lake City on May 16th at the Venue. I am going if anyone wants to come.

RockBand, SingStar and Friends

Last year my beautiful wife Megan bought me a PS2 so that I can play Guitar Hero. During the last couple months we have expanded our gaming library. I got RockBand for my birthday, as mentioned in a previous post. We also bought a cool little game called SingStar. (Check out all the cool songs to sing) I am the worst singer in the entire world so I was a little hesitant to purchase the game. The game comes with 2 microphones and you sing along to the songs and you get points for being on pitch and singing the song.
Although I suck at the game it is very fun and even funner when you have a bunch of people playing at the same time. We had our friends to play some RockBand and Singstar. It was a really fun time.

Me and my Bro RussJeff and Leslie Lowry singing (they both have really
good voices and make us all sound bad)

Jason watching three bad ''A'' rockers, wishing
that he was in our group

Jason and me singing while Megan drums it out

Chris and Courtney getting some energy for
RockBand and SingStar

Tom, Chris, Jeff and Jason Crooning

Jason and Jeff singing Metallica and Leslie
drumming her arms off

Crooning once more

Jason and Sash
Check out their blog

Leslie and Erica

My first official album design

I have a couple friends that are getting popular in the local Hip-Hop scene her in Utah. They have been doing shows in Provo and Salt Lake City quite often and they are getting a good fan base.
One of my buddies, Erik Frederikson aka Rapid, asked me to design the artwork for his new album knowing that I mess around with Photoshop but mainly GIMP. (For anyone that does not know what GIMP is, Check it out here. It is a free image manipulation program that has tons of great features.)
Going into the project I though that I was a capable GIMP user but I quickly learned that was not the case. So, for the last 3 or 4 weeks I have been working on the album cover of the CD and the insert artwork for him. It was really fun and also very frustrating for me to do, because so many times there was something that I wanted to do with the image or make it look a certain way and I just could not get it to work. As you can imagine I spent lots of time reading online help guides and watching some video tutorials. These helped me to get the artwork to look the way that I wanted, and I think that it came out quite nice. Erik really liked it and that is all that matters. He released his album on April 14th, 2008. If you happen to like Hip-Hop let me know and I can get you a copy of his album.
I wanted to show off my so called skills for you all.

Cover of- Rapid Development
Album insert
CD

Again, for anyone looking for a photo editing program, I highly recommend GIMP. It is free and will allow you to make your photos look the way you want.

National Champs!!!!

Kansas beat the Tigers in the championship game last night. It was a great game.
Rock, Chalk, Jayhawks!!!!!
Check out their site!!!!

Jayhawk Love

The Kansas Jayhawks defeated the North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday nigh to move to the championship game tonight against the Memphis Tigers. The Jay hawks destroyed the Tar Heels and I could not have been more happy. I wanted to post some love for them today and I can not wait for tonight when they beat the Tigers.
I also pulled out the old Kansas Jayhawks T-shirt to show my support.
Go Jayhawks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!