blog.bharper: the blog of brandon harper

Officially Abandoned – Check Out My New Site

24Sep10

It’s safe to say this blog has been pretty much abandoned at this point. Between Facebook and Twitter, I’m not sure there is much of a point any longer for a personal blog, especially when it takes so long to write a real blog entry.

If I had to guess there are only a couple of people who even have this blog in their RSS feeds, but I thought I’d post anyway.

At the same time, I decided to start a new photo blog of sorts, but it’s more like a photo stream of daily life captured by my camera phone which basically replaces this blog. Check-out Brandon’s Mobile Bits and please add it to your RSS feeds as it seems to be something I can easily keep up with that might actually be fun for you too.

No idea how much longer I will keep maintaining this blog, but I’d say it’s probably done.

Filed under A Day In The Life Of, Geekery and Site News. |0 Comments

Walsh Featured on NPR Twice Recently

05Nov08

My tiny hometown of Walsh has been featured TWICE in recent months on NPR. If you go look-up Walsh, CO on Google Maps, you’ll see how small and isolated it is. That said, it’s a big deal when anything like being on NPR happens. I think the last time it was in any sort of national spotlight was in the early 1980′s during the farmer’s strike. My dad was actually interviewed then for the CBS Morning News.

Anyhow, the first story was on NPR Morning Edition on September 5, 2008 about Robert Morrow, the country coroner, dentist, and volunteer fireman.

The second story which was on the NPR Morning Edition on November 3, 2008 were various viewpoints about how people there were voting, and included interviews of a couple of friends of mine. Cool stuff!

Be sure to check out the photo galleries in both stories– great photos!

Filed under Check It, Cognizance, Experiences, Incredible, Just FYI, Listen, Personal, Politics and The Daily Grind. |1 Comment

Review of Blue Sage Realty in Westminster, CO — It Sucks!

03Jul08

My buddy Rod recently had a really bizarre and unprofessional experience with Kathryn MacGeraghty and her team at Blue Sage Realty. It sounds like a good place to avoid at all costs. You can read more about his experience here.

Blue Sage Realty in Westminster Sucks!

I also posted a review of Blue Sage Realty, Westminster CO at Yelp.

There are a few other listings for Blue Sage on the interwebs, so this is the one that he had this bad experience at:

Blue Sage Realty, Inc
8471 Turnpike Dr, Suite 220
Westminster, CO 80031
(303) 432-9898 Office

http://www.bluesagerealtyinc.com

Filed under Advocate, Check It, Cognizance, Denver, Dude, WTF?, Experiences, Just FYI, Personal and Reviews. |1 Comment

Nightclubs Are Hell

15Aug07

I just ran across a brilliant article titled “Nightclubs are hell. What’s cool or fun about a thumping, sweaty dungeon full of posing idiots?” in the Guardian Unlimited. There are many statements in there that hold true for me, but I think this is my favorite:

I used to feel intimidated by people like this; now I see them as walking insecurity beacons, slaves to the perceived judgment of others, trapped within a self- perpetuating circle of crushing status anxiety.

Well said.

Filed under Check It, Cognizance, Incredible, Personal, Read and Reading. |0 Comments

The Housing Bubble Crisis Becomes a World Economy Crisis

12Aug07

I really wish I’d taken my own advice a couple of years ago and tried to sell my place to instead rent for awhile. The bubble has burst, and it’s not pretty.

Stocks take a turn for the worse as investors scoff at the Fed’s decision to step in yet again, this time adding $3 bln in temporary reserves. At $35 bln (the sum of the first two repos), the Fed had already stepped in more aggressively than its actions following the 9/11 attacks to calm a nervous market.

Since a third injection is unprecedented, as such infusions typically only occur during a crisis, investors are again left wondering just how bad the subprime situation is and questioning whether or not an emergency rate cut would even be enough to avert a possible true credit crunch.

I’ve seen Jim Cramer go asplodey before, and mostly I just generally find him entertaining rather than taking his advice seriously at all, but he really went AWOL on CNBC about this same issue recently.

My assessors evaluation this year showed that my place has lost value, homes in the area are now selling for about 10-15% less than I paid four years ago, and many houses have gone to into foreclosure in this area. I’m still waiting to see what prices the homes that recently sold in a foreclosure auction went for wondering how much they will bring the value of my place down. I do somewhat regret buying a place when I was so young, but maybe it’s better in the long run to learn this lesson on a relatively inexpensive piece of property with a standard 30 year loan.

Filed under Check It, Cognizance, Just FYI, Musings, Personal, Read, The Daily Grind, Uncategorized and Watch. |5 Comments

Shake Your Bacon

19Jul07

I think I just came across one of the most important inventions since the beginning of mankind. What is it? Something which I should order immediately; Bacon Salt!

Filed under Check It, Humor, Incredible and Ingenious. |1 Comment

An Unexpected Wii

07May07

I’ve been interested in owning a Nintendo Wii for quite awhile, especially now that we have one at work and I get a chance every so often to play it. Since the weather was crappy this weekend, about the only thing Lindsey and I did on Saturday was do a little shopping, grabbed some dinner, and rented a few Playstation 2 games to play. One of the games, Rayman Raving Rabbids, was one that I’ve played at work before so naturally it reminded me of the Wii.

Early Sunday afternoon I started looking around on the interwebs about buying a Wii just for the hell of it. I found a couple of sites which tracked where you could by them online via RSS but I didn’t bookmark them. I’d read somewhere that you can sometimes come across them on Sunday’s because for whatever reason that’s when retailers have been putting them out lately, so I started calling around to see if they had any:

Super Target: “We won’t have a shipment of them for at least a couple of weeks. Even then it’s only a few”
Game Crazy: “No idea when we’ll get another shipment. Just try calling every few days, but it might be a few weeks.”
WalMart: “We had 5 in stock this morning, and I don’t think anyone has bought any yet.”

Wait. Woah, wtf, they have them in stock? I’d just got done selling a bunch of stuff on Craigslist and decided it would be my only chance in quite awhile to get one, so Linz and I hurried down there.

Me: “Hey, I called earlier and someone said you have Wii’s in stock?”
Walmart Lady: (lights up) “Yep, we do. Would you like me to go to the back and get you one?”
Me: “Yep!”

It was kind of crazy– since they weren’t out on the floor no one would have even known they were there. As it turns-out, I just got randomly lucky. Apparently they have been getting about 5 per week, which they usually put up for sale at midnight on Saturday. This past Saturday someone new was working and had no idea about this, so a bunch people came to buy them around that time and he told everyone that they didn’t have any.

As I was buying mine someone else was getting one as well, and you could tell a couple of other people were thinking about it too just because they had them in stock. The WalMart employee (an older woman) was actually all excited about it and it was because she had a Wii as well and got a kick out of someone finally discovering they had them in stock. She gave me a couple of good pointers on games to pick and what accessories I needed (this was definitely an unexpected purchase so I didn’t already know that stuff).

You can read all about how cool it is in other places, and yeah, it’s totally a blast. Lindsey and I played Wii Sports and Wii Play the rest of the afternoon until she needed to go home. So far I’ve mostly been playing Wii Sports– I also have Trauma Center but am waiting until Wii Sports starts getting a bit boring before playing it. Not sure what games I’ll buy next, but I have my eye on several.

Filed under A Day In The Life Of, Check It, Experiences, Geekery, Just FYI, Musings, Personal and The Daily Grind. |5 Comments

A Soldier Speaks Out On Craigslist

23Apr07

About all that I can do here is provide a link, perhaps an excerpt, and say “wow”.

How do I dare say this to you moronic war supporters who are “Supporting our Troops” and waving the flag and all that happy horse shit? I’ll tell you why. I’m a Marine and I served my tour in Iraq. My husband, also a Marine, served several. I left the service six months ago because I got pregnant while he was home on leave and three days ago I get a visit from two men in uniform who hand me a letter and tell me my husband died in that fucking festering sand-pit. He should have been home a month ago but they extended his tour and now he’s coming home in a box.

You fuckers and that god-damn lying sack of shit they call a president are the reason my husband will never see his baby and my kid will never meet his dad.

Wow.

Filed under Advocate, Check It, Cognizance, Incredible, Just FYI, Politics and Read. |1 Comment

It’s A Small World

15Apr07

I’m headed back from a long weekend in Las Vegas, currently utilizing free Wifi at the McCarran Airport. Somehow I ended-up sitting directly across from someone I went to College with who I seem to always bump into in the strangest places, and someone across from me also asked if I was a Me.dium employee because of the Me.dium sticker on my MacBook Pro (which I am of course).

I guess if I actually used the Twitter account I signed-up for a couple of months ago, this would be a good entry for that.

Filed under Experiences, Personal and The Daily Grind. |0 Comments

Shaving Like Grandpa

29Mar07

I’ve been fed-up with the prices of razors and how awful my face feels after a shave for quite awhile now. I first tried to ween myself off of them a few years ago by switching to an electric razor. Wetshaving Kit I’ve tried several brands of electric razors over the years including Braun, Panasonic, Norelco, Remington, etc, but none of them were really all that great. My favorite of the bunch was a Panasonic, but it still didn’t do a very good job. I finally got to the point of having a beard for awhile but recently shaved it off just because I felt it was time I guess. Once I shaved it off, I had to go back to normal blades and shaving cream which really sucked.

Something that has been in the back of my mind for quite awhile was to try out wet shaving using an old school safety razor and associated supplies. I finally got around to putting together a very basic wet shaving kit and I’m very glad I did. My kit looks something like this:

As far as creams and blades go, you’re supposed to try some different things to see what you like best which is why I have various blades and shaving cream. All of this ran me around $100 or so– the upfront cost is a bit steep, but in the long run I only pay around 50 cents per blade for the ones I’m currently using, and have samples of some that are as low as 25 cents a piece which are also supposed to be decent. The Proraso shaving soap is available at Target in the Spa section, so I really only ever need to mail order blades.

I first started wet shaving for a couple of weeks using my normal mach 3 razor just to get used to the process, and finally moved to the safety razor this week. I’m happy to report that I’ve shaved successfully without any nicks with the safety razor, and my skin seems to generally be much happier with the wet shaving. Even the fun “neck bumps” (ingrown hairs I assume?) are starting to go away. It does take a lot more time for me to shave this way, but I limit it to a few times a week in the evening. I’m also getting a much closer and longer lasting shave, and my face doesn’t feel like it’s on fire after shaving. Actually with the Proraso shaving soap it’s quite the opposite– it has ~~glycerin~~ menthol in it which feels nice and cool.

I’m definitely glad I made the switch, and highly recommend checking into it! I have a few links here if you’d like to research it yourself. I think the two most helpful links to pass on is this very detailed overview on how to get started with wet shaving, as well as this video series which shows you how to actually wet shave.