Happy Anniversary

You know what's really shocking? Somehow, I've been writing this blog for 20 years! What?!? That's right, I've been doing this since 2005! I remember, lo those many years ago, thinking that I'd give this blogging thing a try, but like most fads, I'd get sick of it and move on to the next thing. Well, I guess I was wrong. It's become an online journal for me, keeping track of all the different things I've been up to and collecting my thoughts and experiences for posterity. 

It started off as just a lark, something fun to write silly thoughts and opinions on, but as time went on, it became a place for me to compile all the different events in my life and try to appreciate what I was going through. And I have gone through a lot! Reflecting on what life was like for me back in 2005 vs. my life now is pretty shocking. Back then I was starting my 4th year of teaching, my second year in Indiana. No prospects of much of a social life and no dating prospects in years. Now, all these years later, I've been happily married for 16 years, I've got a 13 year old son, an adorable dog, and I live in Michigan as a supervisor at a factory. What?!? Who could have seen all that coming?!? Certainly not me!

I feel like I've become everything I wanted back then, with a few curveballs as well. I'm much happier and more fulfilled in all areas of my life and genuinely enjoy this life I've build. And amazingly, I'm still writing on this silly blog! Though there have been times where I write a lot, and times I haven't written at all, I will continue to keep poking things with a stick for years to come. 

Here's to 20 more!

My portrait

I've recently been doing a few different things online, making some changes. I left Twitter, for obvious reason, and instead made a profile on Bluesky. Along with a new profile, I figured I could use a new profile image. I asked my son, the resident artist, if he could make an image of me in his style. Here is what he came up with- and I love it! Is he way too generous with the hairline? Sure, but I'm willing to pretend its accurate...

all caught up

It's not very often that I comment on the blog itself, but I wanted to take a second and mention the little milestone I accomplished.  Due to the hustle and bustle of life, I usually don't take as much time as is needed to keep this thing up to date.  In fact, for the past 5-8 years I have been so far behind that i'm posting about stuff that happened as many as 12-13 months before I actually write about it...  Oops.  Well, with all this extra time we've got due to the quarantine, I am proud to say that I've actually gotten all caught up!  I've poured dozens of hours into this thing over the past few weeks and it is now current.  I haven't been able to say that in years- all it took was a worldwide pandemic!  Anyway, I will try to keep it caught up so it doesn't get backlogged again.  It's been fun writing about all this stuff for the past 15 years (yes, this blog is actually 15 years old- started back in 2005!) and I look forward to continuing.
I hope you enjoy!

that's me

I get told sometimes that I only put pictures of other people up here on this.  Usually this is said by people who think I am putting up pictures of them that they think are unflattering.  So, as a way of equaling things out, here's an unflattering picture of me.  

you're welcome.

ledger's art

ever since he was really little, ledger has loved to balance things on top of each other.  its kind of his own personal artistic expression- we call it balance art!  he's actually really good at it and so proud of himself when he gets a good one!  diana and i started taking pictures of the more impressive ones and now when he gets one he's especially pleased with, he asks us to take a picture!  i've been collecting them over on the image gallery page.  go and check them out here!

redesign

i thought it was about time to spruce things up a bit, so i did a little website redesign.  hope you enjoy it!

1000!

its a big day here at 'poke it with a stick.'! this marks the 1000th post on this site! yikes! i've been at this a while! what started off as something i thought would be a fad has become a very fun and very big part of my life- i love posting on here! i'm still pretty sure that its nerdy, but thats ok. i have had a ton of fun writing up all the ins and outs, all the goings on in my life. a lot of things have changed since i first started writing this blog, and i look forward to the changes that are ahead. what was that first post? well, you can see for yourself here. as you can tell i started off not really caring about it and not sure how long i would be at it. i thought i would give it a try and see if i actually liked it. turns out that i do! what started out as an afternoon tinkering around with this new thing called a 'blog', has swelled to include all kinds of different areas of writing. it has grown to include my thoughts on movies, music, critiquing just about anything, sharing object memories, an image gallery, random quotes, random pictures, a collection of words my dad made up, and a slightly scary obsession with the late late show...
this is my 1000th post on this blog page, but turns out i have actually had 3,733 posts over all my different pages! yikes! i need to get a life! anyway, be sure to check out the rest of my random ranting by clicking the links above. its been a blast writing this thing and i hope you have had a good time reading it. and if you havent, then go start your own blog!
oh, and by the way: no, i will not start capitalizing, you will just have to get used to it...

a new banner

thought i'd spruce the place up a bit and create a new banner for the blog, i was getting sick of the old one...

a small milestone

wow! this is my 500th post on this blog. its a small milestone, but i thought i could use it to reflect on this whole blog thing. my first post was on september 29, 2005, and quite sarcastic. when i started all that time ago, i remember thinking that there must be something to it since so many people seem to be doing it. i told myself i would try it for a month, if i liked it i would continue and start to share my blog with others. if i didnt like it, i would delete it and move on. from the tone of those early posts i certainly didnt think i would enjoy it, but i guess i was wrong! i started off posting a couple times a week, if i had the interest or time. today i eagerly look forward to the time each week that i can spent updating and improving this little slice of the internet i call my own.
from those first few posts it has grown into a whole collection of blogs! i started with just the 'poke it with a stick' page, but i quickly expanded to include pages on music, movies, critiques, an image gallery, a page for odds and ends, one defining some strange words, a page dedicated to a tv show, a strange inside joke, and a page for everything else! this is my 500th post on this main page, but i've actually racked up over 1600 posts all together on all my different pages! (yikes, it almost seems like an unhealthy obsession when i put it that way...) doing this blogging thing has changed me quite a bit: i have been challenging myself to write better, i examine the events of my life more and try to express what positive things have come from them, i take a ton more pictures (which not everyone seems to think is an improvement...), and i have been able to share my life a bit more with those who know me. not too bad for some dumb online journal, huh?

ive got more planned, so stay tuned for the next 500!

audio books

ever since i first started making the trip, back in the day, between home and dordt college i've been enjoying books on tape. every time i'd go on a big road trip i'd make sure i first stopped at the library and loaded up on some good audio books.

with all the driving i've been doing the past year going back and forth to dianas, i've really been taking advantage of these audio books! i've been listening to a ton of them lately, and have been writing a bit about the ones i listen to. if you have any road trips ahead, or would just like an alternative to that same old cd or radio station, take a look at some that i have enjoyed! find all my audio book reviews here.

oh, and don't forget to check out the other Poke It With A Stick contents listed at the right!

an expanding family

the family is expanding! this seems to happen pretty regularly and without warning, but here it is: another 'poke it with a stick' page! youd think id be out of stuff to write about, i mean with the eight pages that are already updated (semi)regularly, but you would be wrong! ive already got this page, a page for movies, music, critiques, an image gallery, a list of my dads wierd words, a strange tribute to craig ferguson, and a page for other random stuff. im sure i can squeeze in one more!

this new page is a bit unusual, so let me explain: recently ive decided (well, diana has decided for me...) that i need to clean out my second bed room so that when she moves in after were married there will be some room for her stuff. makes sense, right? well, the problem is that i am a bit of a pack rat. i figure that this is the motivation i need to get over that, so im taking the steps necessary to start throwing some old stuff away. part of the reason i keep all that old stuff is because it has sentimental value to me. each of the things ive saved reminds me of a part of my life and a story that goes with it. i like to look back on all of it from time to time and remember the stories. i figure a better, space saving way to do this would be to just write the stories here so that i can just peruse the website whenever im feeling nostalgic, instead of unnecessarily keeping a room full of junk! so that is just what i have done. i have been cataloguing the different items i have, and then throwing out a lot of it.

the new page, called 'odds and ends', is there so that i may still have the story to go along with these items, but i no longer need the items themselves. sounds like just further evidence that i have too much time on my hands, huh? oh well. if your interested, feel free to check it out!

labels

periodically i try to update this site, keep it fresh. i recently finished the latest update. ive spent a bit of time going back through old posts and labeling each of them to fit into different categories, and i finally finished! i dont know exactly who will care or why, but i figured i might as well try and organize this whole blog thing just because.

there are a lot of different categories like 'my family', 'the guys', 'my girl', and many more. if you have any interest in checking out the fun and craziness of my california trip this past spring, well now there is a category just for that! wondering what comic conventions are like? well there is a category for that too! feel free to take a look around, the categories are all listed on the right side of this page right under the blog archive.

oh, and dont forget to keep checking the other 'poke it with a stick' contents listed on the right at the top of this site!

b dubbs

this morning i went to panera bread to get online. i set everything up but my computer wasnt working right. argh. i was connected to their wi fi signal, but for some reason it wasnt working. i thought it might be my computer, but i figured i could try somewhere else. so i asked where else there might be free wi fi, and they told me a rather unlikely place: bw3! alright, ill give it a try...

i get here, and sure enough, theyve got free wi fi. the only table next to a plug is in the bar area, so i set up and loged on. it was really strange. im used to a rather mellow quite environment from all the times i go to panera, but bw3 is a lot louder and rowdier. it was hard at first to get used to the loud music, and the transient drunks, but it was actually kind of cool! im thinking maybe ill come here more often...

a quick reminder

i know i do this every couple of months, but i just wanted to remind everyone again that this is only the main page of the 'poke it with a stick' blog, there are many posts that dont appear on this page. there are different thoughts on movies, tv, music, books, more photos, random quotes, and even a page about craig ferguson (strange, i know).

be sure to click over to them as well! many of these other sites have been recently updated with new graphics and categories. be sure to check out the movie page and see what recent movie was so terrible it elicited an unheard of 0 out of 5 stars!

the links are over there on the right side of the page at the top, but just in case you dont want to direct your eyes all the way over there, then let me make it easier for you by listing them here.

movies

critiques

music

image gallery

etc.

scottish king

the new look

what do you think of the new look? i spent some time rooting around the layout section of the site, and messed with the html code, and figured out how to fix this place up a bit. i though a few changes were in order, so i updated the title graphic and mixed up some of the colors.

hope you like it! oh, and dont forget to check out the other contents of the 'poke it with a stick' family listed at the right.

the 'scottish king' page is my personal favorite...

the scottish king

ive found a new outlet for my love of craig ferguson...

go here.

at the movies

ever since christmas break i've rediscovered the joy of watching films in the theater. ive always enjoyed going to see a movie, but the past month or so ive really been loving it! so much in fact, that ive seen around 10 movies in the last five weeks. ridiculous, huh? its been just a lot of fun, so i keep going back!
ive decided im going to try and see as many oscar nominated movies as i can before the awards are given out, that way i can be genuinely frustrated when they give it to crappy movies ('crash' anyone?). in years past i havent even seen any of the films nominated for best picture, but this year i plan to see all of them. well, accept 'atonement', because that looks like a really stupid movie...
ive already seen and reviewed three of them, i am still looking forward to seeing 'no country for old men', but the rest i wrote about here:
juno
there will be blood
michael clayton
*update* i just saw no country for old menand a bunch of other ones i wrote about here. give em a read, feel free to leave a comment.

two for the show

this break i have been catching up a bit on my movie watching. a lot. in fact, ive gone to see a movie almost every night so far, and i hope to continue this pace for the rest of break. ive written about most of them so far, and ill add on as i see more, but this is the list so far. click on them to skip on a title to the short reviews/thoughts about them i wrote in the movie part of the blog:

sweeney todd: the demon barber of fleet street

the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford

national treasure 2: book of secrets

the brinktionary

for a long time i have always claimed that my dad is weird. not a bad weird, just weird. actually, i completely take after him in my personality and sense of humor. so, i guess that makes me weird by default too, which im quite fine with.

well, one of the things that i have always loved about my dad is that he has a vocabulary all his own. growing up we always thought these words were quite normal. much to our surprise, no one else in school understood what we were talking about when we would use one of these words. i soon learned to keep these words to myself, to avoid the confused looks others would give when i would use them.

after letting these words slip once too often among friends and at work, i figured i should show these words the respect they deserve. i have decided to start cataloguing these words and defining them as well, so that when i use them there might not be so much confusion.

so, without further adue, i would like to introduce the latest entry into the 'poke it with a stick' community: the brinktionary!

dearth

i havent updated in a while. sorry about that, i guess i just havent had much to say lately. hopefully that will change soon. starting today!