Memorial Day

Ah, Memorial day. The official start of summer. A three day weekend, that some convert into four, for camping, bbqing, car racing, whatever floats your boat.

I find it said that few americans would be able to explain the origins or purpose od the holiday. I don't claim to be an expert, I too had to do some research to verify that my understanding was correct. I had it half right. Memorial day was originally called Decoration day. It was established to remember the thousands who died defending the union in the civil war. As is still done today, the relatives of the deceased decorated the graves to remember their sacrifice. It later was expanded to remember all those that have died to preserve our freedom.

I ask that sometime this weekend you take a moment to reflect upon the sacred nature of the date.
As always, Go America

Sightings on the bus

First day on king county metro riding into the Emerald City.
These are a few of the things I saw.
A semi full of chickens
A semi driver talking on a cell phone (scary) (he had the chickens)
I wish I was sly or bold enough to snap a pic of all the people around me on their smart phones.
I believe I am the only one still using a dedicated music player for my music. Rocking my iPod video. Where my hipsters at?
I have missed the diversity of Seattle. Too many white people in Rexburg.

Passing Boeing Field now, maybe Ill keep this up every morning. It could be a fun blog.

Seahawks new uniforms

When I first saw this new logo, I was in fear. The bottom section is grey, a grey very similar to many other teams. I feared that the much anticipated new uniforms would end up looking like so many other teams in the league. The Dallas Cowboys have been sporting the basic blue and grey formula for years. That works for them, that is their brand. I don't want that for my Seahawks.
I was very pleasantly surprised this morning as I saw the new uniforms. I sat on twitter all morning watching for updates. I had the live blog up on the Seahawk's site. Waiting for a sign. Finally one came through, a link to a gallery with all that I had waited to see. The first picture was of a current Seahawk icon, Beast mode himself, Marshawn Lynch.

To be honest, I wasn't sure how I felt at first. I browsed through the whole gallery trying to stay objective until I could fully see them all. The above picture is an intense and awesome picture but it doesn't allow for much detail to be seen. After I saw all the pictures, a love started to brew. I, like many others, would like to see more of the Hawks logo and less of the Nike logo. That really is my only complaint.
And now for your viewing pleasure...

The Home Jersey

The Away Jersey

The Alternate Jersey

The Helmet

If you would like to check out the rest of the photos, head here Seahawks New Uniforms

Online presence

As a way to be able to find my full online presence in one place, I have set up a handy new page.

http://about.me/justin_s_mckell

I have a lot of pages out there and now they can be found in one spot.

Ronald Reagan

I have long considered myself a republican and through my teenage years generally accepted everything that was told to me by the right wing media. Now however, I don't really like to call myself a republican but rather a conservative. That coming from not liking the direction of the republican party as a whole. That is for another blog post.

Right now I would like to address the president of this noble nation when I was born, Ronald Reagan. He was president for 2 terms in the eighties, won all but one state in his reelection campaign, and is considered a god send, maybe even a god, by the republican base. I want to know why. If he is the model for modern conservatism, why did he increase our national debt by roughly 200%? What makes him so great? I would appreciate feedback.

Presidential Primary

Before super tuesday, I was able to see Mitt Romney and Ron Paul in person at their respective rallies. It was very cool to see potential future presidents. I enjoyed both of their speeches but my choice is clear. I'm for Ron Paul. I've liked what he has been saying since I started pating attention to him early in the campaign season but I'm completely sold now after seeing him live. Something I will remember for time to come and I hope to find some way to help along the ideals he supports like smaller government.

Dreams

When I get to heaven I have a few questions I want answered. First, how did evolution work?. Second, who really killed JFK?. Then somewhere after that, what is the purpose of dreams?

I don't like to dream. It is a feeling I've had for a long time which is only compounded now by my fear of being incepted. My dreams are rarely a pleasant ordeal. They disturb me and freak me out. This also leads to why I don't like taking sedatives because they make me have very vivid dreams all night long. Not my kind of a good time.

My dream last night was not disturbing or freaky just weird. I was at a church building where there had just been a concert. I don't remember the concert itself. All of a sudden I am getting an autograph from Tom Delonge, for those of you who don't know that is one of the members of blink-182. He signs my sweatshirt and then goes to sign my notebook but then asks what I want him to write. We talk about the possibility of him writing me a letter/poem/song. He says to do that he needs to know me better and that I should contact him over google +. I told you my dreams are weird. Then my dream transitions to me trying to get to a class I have to get to in the building. I go through one of those weird stages in my dream where I can't walk right and my vision goes all whack. After a long period of this I make it to my class which is the class I was very irritated with before going to sleep and I verbally beat the crap out of my teacher.

So dreams are bad.

SOPA

I know I'm late with the black out stuff but I still feel like I should blog about this. I think this legislation is wrong and that it should be approached a different way. This will impede our free speech. Do the right thing and sign the petition

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

What's new world?

Sorry for the long gap without a post. So, Happy Thanksgiving! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

Ok,  well I'm chilling in Rexburg with not an inkling of snow on the ground while back in the FW it looks like this




I'm jealous. Right now I'm just hoping the wind doesn't blow out my windows. Enjoy your day.

Movember

I, like many other men, am participating in movember. This is to raise awareness for men's health in particular prostate cancer to raise money for a good cause.

You can find my mospace at http://mobro.co/justinmckell

Fickle

I like the word.

Wish List

Just a few things I want....


I really want a jacket like this one. I tried this on at Macy's last night. Loved it. Not real leather but I'm too poor for real leather so this will do.

http://www1.macys.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=587620&CategoryID=3763&LinkType=#fn=COAT_STYLE%3DBomber%26sp%3D1%26spc%3D67


One of many movie sets that I want.

http://www.amazon.com/Indiana-Jones-Complete-Adventure-Collection/dp/B001E75QH0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318804029&sr=8-1


I want some poker chips. I like these ones because it shows a denomination on them and I believe they are made of clay and not plastic. Basically I want some made of clay that feel legit.

http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Casino-Poker-Dealer-Buttons/dp/B0009XDB8G/ref=pd_sbs_sg3

I really want a green Sounders jersey and this one is currently on sale!

http://proshop.SoundersFC.com/ProductDetail.aspx?CategoryID=2679&Page=1,1&ProductID=37829


Also want a US soccer jersey. The blue one is nice too. But in the end I'd rather have the Sounders one then the US one.

http://www.ussoccerstore.com/us00m113111cb.html

I just discovered that this comes out next month. I want this. A lot.

http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Complete-Collection-Years/dp/B005OCFGTO/ref=sr_1_4?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1318805194&sr=1-4

http://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1451648537/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318815741&sr=8-1

Chemistry Cake Auction

Recently for Chem Society we did a cake auction. I took the idea from when I was at Western. At the institute we all make gingerbread houses then they were auctioned off for service hours. We took that idea and applied it to us. And these are the cakes

This is the cake Jennie and I made

And these are the others

Blink is Back

blink-182 is better then ever with their new cd. Their last album came out when I was 14. I remember the day in 9th grade. During weight training class I first heard the cd as a couple of seniors had gone out that morning to buy it. I would receive me copy later that day I believe from the pre order. I'm now 22 and in college. What I'm trying to say is that I have waited a long time for this cd, as have all fans of blink. It short, it was worth it. 

I first heard Up All Night a couple months ago when it was first posted on blink's website. I wasn't impressed at first. After many plays though, I was hooked. I love that song now. Earlier this month, blink gave away After Midnight online. It took many tries to win the game to permit me to download the song. It was love at first listen. From then I have been counting the days until I could hear the rest of this masterpiece. 

I was in for quite the surprise yesterday when I got home from a long day of classes to find a link to blink's website which was streaming the album in its entirety. The concept was genius. Neighborhoods is the album title, paying homage to this the website enabled the fans to discuss the album with those in their "neighborhood". I enjoyed talking about the album with other local fans. 

I went out this morning to Kmart to purchase the cd, they didn't have it. Proving once again why no one should shop at Kmart but that is for another day. I then vowed to not go home until I had in my hands a copy. This took me on a drive to Idaho Falls to Target. I debated during the half hour to get their if my trip was worth it. Once I had that cd blasting in the car, I knew I had made the right choice. 

From yesterday when it was online to today in the car, my stereo and my iPod, I have been listening every moment I can. I love this cd. I must say though if your the person who thinks that blink -182 should only play songs like they did on Dude Ranch, you will not like this. On the other hand, for those of you who believe in progression this is a cd for you. I have grown up with blink. Their music got my threw my teenage years. I first heard them back in elementary school. I became obsessed with them in junior high. They broke up when I was in high school and for awhile I was irritated about that and didn't listen to them. Then came Angels and Airwaves (also a huge fan) and (+44). Both made great music but it wasn't quite the same without Mark, Tom and Travis all playing together. 

I'm rambling, this is great music. I recommend getting this cd. Putting it into your stereo. Max out the volume. Enjoy. It's a more mature sound but I'm a more mature person. My favorites so far are Ghosts on the Dance Floor, Snake Charmer, and This is Home. The whole album is awesome though. Those have just stuck out to me right now.

Neighborhoods

I'm anxiously awaiting the release of this cd. It comes on on Tuesday. I've heard two songs so far and I dig it. Maybe I will review the cd next week. Of course I was planning on giving a review of the movie Love by Angels and Airwaves and still haven't.