Archive for June, 2008

Heavy Lifting

Monday, June 30th, 2008

In a single weekend, Lauren and I moved most all of her possessions two miles, with the use of a Mazda and a Honda (neither known for their size, though you can really pack stuff in that Mazda - long live hatchbacks). Okay, true, we did have a single trip worth of Ford Expedition […]

A Look Back: Michael Braun’s Blog at 3 Years

Sunday, June 29th, 2008

Three years ago, I made the decision, with much encouragement from Tony, to start my own website and blog. TheBriz.org was born, and this blog started. I don’t much fancy those early posts, lots of personal musings, generally poorly written, though still a good record of what was going on back in the […]

Wimbledon

Friday, June 27th, 2008

Tennis doesn’t get much more exciting than the Wimbledon championship. White clothes, green grass stains, Andy Roddick getting angry. The tournament has everything. And with Roger Federer (the Tony Gregerson look-a-like) competing for his sixth Wimbledon win IN A ROW!, it can hardly get any better. I am predicting Nadal/Federer in […]

James Dobson Wrote The Bible

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

Breaking news, famed evangelical psycho James Dobson, founder of “Focus on the Family”, has announced that he wrote the bible, thus ending years of speculation as to who the author (actually, presumed authors) was. Such a prolific work, its reach extending through generations, yet all written by Mr. Dobson. Exceptional, when you consider […]

How We Are Green, Part 2

Monday, June 23rd, 2008

Take a glance at this article, published May 17, 2002 in the Isthmus. It relates, quite plainly, to the post I wrote few weeks ago, about how companies can take environmentalism seriously.
From the Article, things that happened:
“It’s sprawl on an Epic scale,” says County Supv. Brett Hulsey, who works for the Midwest office of […]

Final Fantasy Tactics A2

Sunday, June 22nd, 2008

Wow! Before you know it (meaning, this Tuesday) a new exciting game will arrive for the Nintendo DS. It’s the follow-up to Final Fantasy Tactics for the PlayStation and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for the GameBoy Advance. I’ve never played the former, but have spent many, many hours playing the GBA version. […]

Quick Note to SUV Owners

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

Just heard a story on Public Radio about a man driving a Ford Excursion. You remember the Excursion - it’s the size of a short school bus. He lives with a woman who drives a Ford Expedition, which is 26″ shorter than the Excursion. Between the two of them, they’ve got five […]

New Music: Wolf Parade, “At Zoomer Mountain”

Tuesday, June 17th, 2008

The album for which I have been waiting months has finally arrived! This morning, I purchased it from the iTunes Music store, pleased to find it priced at only $7.99, mostly because it’s just 9 tracks long (though plenty long enough time-wise). I’ve listened to it through 3-4 times now and am very, […]

Barack Obama’s Father’s Day Speech

Monday, June 16th, 2008

I went and wrote an entire blog post criticizing Barack Obama for the speech he delivered yesterday about, I assumed, absent African-American fathers. After all, media reports lead me to believe that Mr. Obama delivered a hard-hitting criticism against absentee parenting by Black men. Then, I figured I’d better read the text of […]

Women Love Obama

Sunday, June 15th, 2008

There’s a great opinion piece in the New York Times today, written by Frank Rich. Basically, he breaks down the poll numbers between Obama and McCain and uses this to criticize media coverage of Obama’s “problem areas.” While the media claims he has issues with women and White males, the numbers and history […]

Flooding - Up Close!

Saturday, June 14th, 2008

Yesterday was Lauren’s grandmother’s 80th birthday. A family dinner was planned at the Fox and Hounds restaurant in Hubertus, WI. Lauren’s mom picked us up at 4:45, and we set off driving. Now, for those of you who don’t know, Wisconsin has had a bit of rain lately. Last weekend we […]

The Microsoft Gadget Police

Friday, June 13th, 2008

I saw this article linked from Slashdot a couple of days ago. It seems that Microsoft has applied for a patent that would allow gadget integration with a manners system. This would automatically disable some features on the device when a person enters a certain radius. For example, cell phones could be […]

I Want This Job!

Thursday, June 12th, 2008

Lauren forwarded me this UW job listing. It sounds like the perfect position for me. Unfortunately, what with school, and teaching, I won’t even be applying. But it is very refreshing to see that jobs like this do exist (though the salary is a little lower than I would like). Anyway, […]

TV on DVD: Ugly Betty

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

On a whim, Lauren and I rented the first four episodes of Ugly Betty (ABC, Thursday, 7 PM Central). We enjoyed those well enough to buy the whole first season. Last night, we watched the last two episodes, finishing up season 1. We anxiously await the second season on DVD, as well […]

Oh Snap – Cheap iPhone

Monday, June 9th, 2008

How can you not buy one? The new 3G iPhone, 8 gb size, will retail for $199. No, this is not a joke; you have not read wrong, nor gone crazy. Though you might just have to go crazy for that insane deal. If you are looking for a new cell […]