Back in May 2008 I was the multimedia director for PokerNews.com. We needed some new talent for the upcoming World Series of Poker, so we set up some auditions, but we needed someone to be interviewed for practice. Shronk said he’d be happy to do it. He wrote a few paragraphs, so the talent would have some context, but a lot of the answers were improvised. He said he had a good time doing it, and he said his mom watched them over and over again.

I really miss Shronk as I’m wandering around the halls of the WSOP. I was very excited when I found this interviews. I had forgotten all about them. And now I’m excited to share them with you: Read More...

So I had been slacking off totally on updating my blog for all three of my readers, and I had been using my site to post videos for clients for review, but not linking to them through this site. That was a no-no with my webhost, so I got a new webhost instead. SurpassHosting is my new webhost, and I’m already very impressed. My plan is $6 per month, with 500 GB storage, unlimited bandwidth and the way I link to videos and send them to clients is no problem with their terms of service.

I’m back in the saddle and I will start posting more frequently now. Life seems to be settling down a bit, so I have time to reflect and write now.

Being on the road is tough. I’ve been away from home for four weeks now, and I miss being home with my family. However, I am grateful to have a job. So many people I know are out of work and scrambling, so I am glad I can work hard, work outside, work with my family (my dad, brother, uncle and aunt are all working on the same job with me) and pay my bills. I am planning to go to Disneyland later in March with the family, and that will be a welcome break.

I go to the gym in the morning before work (I’m way too tired after work, which makes it easy to talk myself out of going) and I think my body is finally getting used to the early start. I’ve woken up for three days now right before my 4 a.m. alarm goes off. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been awake to see 8 p.m. for the last three days.

I know, I know. You’ve all stopped reading by now. “Well, I guess Jeremy gave up on his blog.” No. See, back on December 16, 2008, I got laid off. “Your services are no longer needed.” It wasn’t a complete surprise, but regardless, it stung quite a bit. I spent six weeks feeling depressed about it, then I got back to work. I am currently working in Trinidad, Colorado as a welder’s helper with my dad. We’re building a natural gas compressor station here. I’m learning a lot about a completely different industry, and it’s refreshing to be outside every day. It’s difficult to be away from my family for so long, but I’m really grateful just to have a job in such shaky economic times.

I have been bringing my camera to work every day and shooting time-lapse shots. I put together the first week of shots into a video. Here it is:


Trinidad Compressor Station - 3rd week of Feb from Jeremy Firth on Vimeo.

Sapphira and I listening to animal sounds

Check it out! I’m writing a Links of the Week post two weeks in a row! Yea!

Try watching this without recognizing some aspects of it in your favorite church/self-improvement group:

How to Start Your Own Mind-Control Cult

Broil your own pizza. These guys did it with Domino's dough and it made for some damn fine pizza. For the more adventurous types, you could make your own dough and really have a great meal!

Pizza Hack: Broil Your Own Pies

A great website about the daily routines of famous people (mostly writers). Very interesting to see how different people approach their workday:

Daily Routines

A great ad for the auto bailout:

The Big Three

More on Christmas: the most extensive treatment of the origins of today's Christmas symbols:

Origins of Christmas Traditions

Low-fat diets: all hype and no results:

Low-fat diets: not fit for purpose

Richard Dawkins (author of The God Delusion) interviews prominent magician and hypnotist, Derren Brown (you can see some of his best tricks and stunts here. My favorite is the video where he plays and beats 9 world-class chess players), about psychics and cold-reading. Absolutely excellent interview:

Richard Dawkins Interviews Derren Brown

That’s all I have for this week, kids. Just finished my last-minute online Christmas shopping, so I’ll just be sitting at the old hacienda listening to Grandpa’s old Christmas records while I drink white russians and watch the snow fall. May your holidays be as serene.

I used to post my workouts in this blog, but I got a few complaints about it (Hey, Jeremy! Your training log is BORING!) so I decided to create a tab for it instead. I still wanted to keep track of my workouts, and this way they’ll be searchable, but you won’t have to be bored by them in case exercise isn’t your thing.

I haven’t done Links of the Week in like, forever, but I have some pretty good stuff lined up for you this week.

A great post from the Best of Craigslist series:

Tips for Clueless People Who Get Mugged - written by one of New York’s finest

And here’s a remarkable situation: the Wall Street Journal, the bastion for Conservatives and leading economic newspaper in America, posted this article calling for the U.S. to end drug prohibition. It’s not so crazy. Really. Read the article.

Let’s End Drug Prohibition - Wall Street Journal

Now on to the economic mess/disaster/collapse/Doomsday/insert other panic-inducing word here. Let’s face it, the mainstream media is doing a terrible job of reporting on the economic crisis because 1) its complex 2) there aren’t any good visual images of the crisis (yet) and 3) it’s boring compared to OJ finally going to prison and Christmas just around the corner.

That means there’s a dearth of information available for my discerning audience that just wants to understand what the hell is going on and how we got here. I have good news for you, loyal reader. NPR is doing a phenomenal series of videos that explain in very clear terms just how big and how bad this could get, and just how convoluted the path is that lead to where we are.

Marketplace Whiteboard - a collection of videos of a guy in front of a whiteboard explaining what the hell a credit default swap is and how it messes with everyone’s money, as well as many other videos trying to bring light to an otherwise very murky situation.

I read about diet and exercise a lot. I also look for ways to get stronger and add some muscle, as well as getting rid of the fat that lives around my midsection. I have tried a few diets and turned my nose up at about a million others. I finally found one that I can do forever (because diets shouldn’t be temporary. They should be a lifestyle change) and here’s the best part: it will actually SAVE you money.

Eat Stop Eat - I’ll save you the $29.95 and let the cat out of the bag: pick two days per week (not concurrent) and don’t eat from dinner to dinner. So for me, I chose Monday and Friday. I eat dinner Sunday night, then don’t eat again until Monday night. Drink water or any other zero-calorie drink during the day. No juice or pop. And the other important part of the diet: lift weights at least 3 times per week. That’s it. The man who created the diet has a Ph.D. in nutrition and has all the numbers (including a huge boost to HGH while fasting) to back up the idea. I’ve lost five pounds since starting two weeks ago, which is a great pace for sustainable weight loss. I’ll keep you posted on long-term results.

I recently got a couple of old vacuum-tube radios from the 40’s. They sound great and really look good in my office. I found a guy in Alabama who can fix them and here’s the best part: he can add a jack to the radio that will let you plug in your ipod (or any other music-generating device) and play your music through them. So now I can play all my records that I inherited from my grandfather through an old tube-based radio and hear them the way they sounded to my grandparents. They sound great! Here’s a link to the magic radio man in Alabama:

The Old Radio Shop

Here’s a little shout-out to our atheist friends in Seattle trying to keep religion in perspective next to a nativity scene:

Missing atheist sign found in Washington State

And here’s a related post about all those atheist hate-speak evildoers in Colorado that had the nerve to put up billboards that say “Don’t believe in God? You’re not alone.” The nerve!

Atheist billboards now up in Denver

Some pitiful footage of Bush getting snubbed by world leaders:

Bush at G20 economic summit meeting

And this is the result of that snubbing

And finally, the true meaning of Christmas and other Christmas info:

According to a Christian website called Christian Answers

According to a Jewish website called Simple to Remember

A reformed Christian lays out a long and well-written case for ignoring Christmas altogether

Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping and here’s a movie about his work called What Would Jesus Buy?

and HowStuffWorks lays out How Christmas Works

So, kids, here’s all I have to say about Christmas: spend time with your family. Don’t buy a bunch of gewgaws from China that will just end up in closets or drawers or landfills. Listen to some Christmas music. Look at the moon. Remember that on the darkest day of the year, December 21, that tomorrow, the darkness will fade a little sooner in the morning and that the daylight will come again. And try sipping on one of these. You won’t regret it.