It’s pouring again outside, after a brief letup following this evening’s big thunderstorm. Apparently a low-pressure system is moving through the area, stirring up all sorts of trouble. Here’s a photo gallery of Becky’s and my drive home… and here’s my lightning video:


Download lightning.mov (24 KB)

A couple of highlights from the photo gallery…


Where’s the funnel?

Butter hides under the bed after hearing thunder. Awww.

Introducing my first ever short film… the world premiere of:

Directed by Brendan Loy
A BrendanLoy.com Production

Starring:

Butter Zak as … Butter Baggins

Capone Zak as … the Fish of Doom

Cinematography by Brendan Loy
Editing by Brendan Loy
Music by Howard Shore
Inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien and Peter Jackson
Dedicated to Rebecca Zak

Download it now:

MOV (QuickTime) version (11.2 MB)

MP4 (MPEG-4) version (5.1 MB)

AVI version (6.4 MB)
(lowest quality, not recommended)

Well, the holiday season is officially underway, for Becky and me at least. My annual Christmas-lights ceremony was great! The music was a couple of seconds late, but the lights came on right on time, and everything looked lovely. Click below for a video of the countdown:

xmas2003.mov (343 KB)

(Click here for photos and videos of past ceremonies, from 1995 through 2001.)

Alas, the main webcam failed at the last moment because of a faulty wire, but the audio broadcast apparently worked like a charm, and so did the indoor webcam. At least three people — my dad, Toni, and somebody else (possibly Dane??) — watched the webcast live over the Internet, according to my logs.

Six people were there in person: me, Becky, Becky’s sister Jen, Jen’s husband Soren, and Dr. and Mrs. Zak. They all seemed to enjoy it very much; for everyone except Becky and me, it was their first Brendan Loy Christmas ceremony. In addition, there were perhaps two dozen stuffed animals in attendance, and the cats and fish watched from inside the house.

Special thanks to Becky for letting me decorate her house! I’ll post photos, and another video clip from a different angle, later tonight or tomorrow.

UPDATE: My camera has a really neat feature that allows me to “stitch” multiple photos together into a panoramic picture. Check it out:

Here are some other pictures of tonight’s ceremony and the lights decorating Becky’s house:

The audience for this year’s Christmas season kickoff ceremony.

Becky’s and my stuffed animals watch the ceremony from a step ladder.

That’s right, my Christmas lights display includes a USC section. :) Go Trojans!

People stand around and listen to music during the ceremony. Please note the lights on the transom window, above the porch roof — getting those up there was something of a triumph over adversity. :)

Our beautiful outdoor tree…

…and our equally beautiful indoor tree!

A wide shot of Becky’s decorated porch.

Here’s a QuickTime time-lapse video of the sun setting and the red, white, and blue lights coming on last night at the Empire State Building, from the Jobs & the City webcam.

We’ve had a great couple of days on the road. I’ll get to the statistics and other info in a moment, but first, check out these photos of some of the highlights:

The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO.

Toby in Kansas City, MO. :)

A year after seeing the World’s Largest Cow and the World’s Largest Buffalo in North Dakota, I pose with the World’s Largest Prairie Dog at Prairie Dog Town in Oakley, KS. Heh.

Another prairie dog, though not the world’s largest, at Prairie Dog Town. (We also saw a five-legged cow and a six-legged cow there.)

Also at Prairie Dog Town: pigs!!! (Click here for a video!!!)

Becky and I stand in front of one of the “Monument Rocks” near Oakley, KS, a remnant from the long-ago days when the Great Plains were underwater.

A wider view of the Monument Rocks.

Becky stands on the world’s highest suspension bridge, more than 1,000 feet over Royal Gorge in Cañon City, CO.

Here’s a look down into Royal Gorge. We were there in the middle of a thunderstorm, which was very cool (and a bit scary)… more on that below.

Becky also has a whole ton of photos over on the SHA-girl blog. Check ‘em out!

Yesterday (Saturday), we drove from Terre Haute, Indiana to Oakley, Kansas — 759 miles in 10 hours and 39 minutes of driving time, an average speed of 71.3 mph. If you include the mileage from later that evening, when we did a round-trip drive from our motel to Prairie Dog Town to the Monument Rocks and back, our total comes to 827 miles in exactly 12 hours, for a 68.9 mph average.

Today (Sunday), instead of driving on I-70 through Denver and Grand Junction and into Utah, as originally planned, we decided to take the scenic, slower Route 50. As a result, our speed was considerably less than previous days: an average of 56.5 mph. We also didn’t get very far (359 miles), nor did we drive for very long (6 hours, 21 minutes of driving time), partly because of our route and partly because, in mid-afternoon, we encountered this:

It was a big thunderstorm, dead ahead, and we decided to stop in Cañon City, CO — slightly less than halfway across the state — instead of trying to make it to Montrose through the rain and lightning. But before stopping, we went to the Royal Gorge in Cañon City, where we walked across a giant, 1,000-foot-plus-high suspension bridge, while lightning flashed a few miles away. Ah, yes, now that was an adventure… as was trying to keep the cameras dry. But at the same time, it was so cool. :) Here’s a sound clip of the thunder (which sounded awesome, echoing off the nearby mountains).

Lest you be misled into believing that we were standing out, all by ourselves, on a giant metal bridge in the middle of a huge thunderstorm, you should know that this Royal Gorge place is actually a big theme park / tourist trap (it charges admission and such), and it wasn’t closed or anything, and there tons of people there, so we figured it must be relatively safe… right? :)

Anyway, yeah, that’s the update. Tomorrow, we’ll keep crawling west toward Utah, possibly making a side trip to Telluride along the way. Again, don’t expect many updates; cell-phone signals are extremely rare out here.

Oh wait, before I forget, here’s a video of me feeding pigs at Prairie Dog Town, and here’s a video of the car kicking up dust as Becky drives down a dirt road toward the Monument Rocks.

Okay, that’s it for now, time for bed. :)

In the evening on Easter Sunday, as she rested comfortably on her chair, Toby was suddenly and unexpectedly surrounded by a small army of Peeps.

Naturally, given her exemplary military record, Toby fought the Peeps off bravely.

Click here for a movie! (268 KB)

The #12-seed Butler Bulldogs are headed to the Sweet Sixteen — just like I predicted!

Butler beat Louisville today, 79-71, in its second straight upset. The Horizon League champion Bulldogs are the lone mid-major representative in the Sweet Sixteen, having vanquished Mississippi State of the SEC on Friday, and now Louisville of Conference USA.

More importantly, they’ve validated my latest Sweet Sixteen Cinderella pick, placing them alongside the Valparaisos, Gonzagas, Kent States, and Southern Illinoises of previous years.

After yesterday’s Gonzaga-Arizona game produced a video of Becky and me experiencing the agony of defeat, today we got to feel the thrill of victory instead. Here’s a video (.mov, 180 KB) of us reacting to Butler’s game-clinching basket and foul.

By the way, I picked Butler to win once more — advancing all the way to the Elite Eight. Which means, next weekend, I’ll be rooting hard against Oklahoma!

Becky, her parents and I were all huddled around the TV Saturday afternoon for the incredible ending of the double-overtime Arizona-Gonzaga game. Becky and I were rooting for Gonzaga; her parents were pulling for Arizona. I have a great video (.mov, 256K) of the final seconds. Here are three screenshots from that video:

Willing Gonzaga’s shot to fall… Watching, waiting and hoping… The agony of defeat.

Click here to view the whole video.

Better luck tomorrow, I hope, for my big Cinderella pick, Butler.

Water erupts from the Spouting Horn, a sort of tidal geyser forged by volcanic rock, on Dec. 22. Here’s a video, with sound, of the Sprouting Horn (244 KB). At the same location, we saw another type of spout — from a whale. Two or more whales, actually — humpbacks, we believe.

I’ve got more videos and photos from Tuesday morning’s Leonid meteor shower!

At right is an animated GIF clip of a meteor that was sighted at 2:26 AM. Click here for the AVI version of the movie, which shows a much wider view than the narrow strip at right.

Below are two still images of meteors — the first at 2:19 AM, the second at 2:26 (the same meteor as the one shown in the movie at right).

And here’s another animated GIF, this one showing a meteor just to the right of Jupiter:

I hope to add still more meteor shots, plus a photo gallery from Becky’s and my drive to and from Joshua Tree National Park, in the coming days. Stay tuned!