Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous, Nature, Photography, Videos

Secret’s out … Kurt can sing.

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Okay, there’s no more denying it. I’m one of those people who like to sing. Now that hundreds of Park Avenue Baptist Church members have seen the Gloria Christmas concert that I performed in last weekend, the cat is totally out of the bag.


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(Not me … Mark Wahlberg in the film Rock Star)

In case you want to witness this spectacle for yourself, I put some snippets of it on YouTube:


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Or you can just watch the YouTube snippets right here by clicking the play button below:

Since this performance, I’ve had lots of people come up to me and tell me that they didn’t know I could sing like that. I just tell them that I sing like this all the time along with the radio in my car, so it’s really not a big deal. I guess I’ve just never sung like this in public until now.

Thanks for all the kind words. I’m just using the gifts that God gave me, though.

Activities, Travel, Vacations, Miscellaneous, Science, Space, Technology

Help send the Acme Catapult to Belgium!

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If you’re like me, you love demonstrations of speed and power.  It’s a thrill to see a monster pumpkin catapult machine hurl a pumpkin two thousand feet downrange.  Or better still, to toss a 200 pound refrigerator over 200 feet in the air. Now that’s entertainment!

The World Famous Acme Catapult team has been invited to be the first American competitor at the European Championship Punkin Chuckin contest in Belgium for next year, 2010. This is an exciting opportunity to take the American brand of punkin chuckin global! But they can only do this with lots and lots of help from people like me and you.

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Full Disclosure:  The Acme Catapult team is comprised of Bob Kruse who is my stepdad, and a few of his closest friends and coworkers.

This is a huge undertaking and the round trip overseas shipping costs, airfare, lodging, and food expenses will add up very quickly.  They are in need of monetary donations and they’ve made it very simple to donate online via PayPal.  Just go to the Acme Catapult website (http://www.acmecatapult.com/) and click on the PayPal Donate button!

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Miscellaneous

Progress. Sometimes it’s sad.

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Here are some photos of the dismantling of the oldest building at my high school (Dee-Mack High School in Mackinaw, Illinois). Most of the other buildings have long been town down and replaced and this one was the last to be torn down and replaced.  These photos are over a year old now.

It’s been over 20 years since I hung out in this portion of the building with all of my high school friends. Some of my fondest memories from this particular building include working and goofing off in the computer lab, ditto in the yearbook staff office, ditto in geometry class, and ditto the library and in study hall.  Oh, and I almost forgot all about the cafeteria in the basement.  Well, it was a lunch room anyways.  Calling it a cafeteria implies that they actually cooked food in there.  And who could forget the big Shuttle mural.  Thanks to my high school art teacher, Mrs Schultz, for forwarding these great photos to me.  Click on a photo to see a full sized version.

Please add your comments below to tell me (and the 3 people who read this blog regularly) what your favorite memories of old Dee Mack are!

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It says “Mackinaw High School 1914” on the front of the building.

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Miscellaneous

Overheard confession of a dog owner

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A couple months ago I was sitting in a restaurant eating lunch when I overheard an odd confession at an adjacent table.  A young high school looking girl said the following to her male friend:  “My parents leave the TV on all night long for the dog.”

Wow.  At first I thought this was just plain funny.  But then it occurred to me that these people were wasting quite a lot of electricity by leaving the TV on all night long.  They must really really love their dog!