It's time to play some Halo

To celebrate the end of finals and a challenging semester, I will be hosting an online Halo multi-player game and am inviting anyone and everyone to come and play. You don't even have to own the game. The Halo demo version has a multi-player game that can connect people online. Just download the demo here (it's about 130 MB so be prepared) and install it. Once you have the game open go into the multi-player menu and choose "Internet" under the "Join a Game" category. From there a list of games will appear. My game will appropriately be named "manblog" and the password to join will be "jason." Right now I'm planning on hosting the game at 7:30pm on Wednesday, but if a better time works for those who want to play, we can change it. Post a comment here if you plan on playing and if a better time would work and I'll coordinate it.

Get used to the controls by playing the demo level and then jump into a multi-player game and have some fun. Then come on Wednesday and see if you can beat me! You probably can but I'm sure there will be a couple of challenging people. Happy end of the semester!!

What's a ligre?

I'm sure that all of you Napoleon Dynamite fans remember this conversation between Napoleon and Deb.

Deb: What are you drawing?
Napoleon: A ligre.
Deb: What's a ligre?
Napoleon: It's pretty much my favorite animal. It's like a lion and a tiger mixed... bred for its skills in magic.

Today we are here to find out if Napoleon really knows his hybrids. A ligre is in fact a combination of a lion and a tiger and it does in fact exist (see picture below), although for those of you seeking to improve you capacity for magic, I would not recommend buying one. A ligre is when a female lion mates with a male tiger (the female is always first).


Hybrids are formed when two species that are reproductively seperated pre-zygotically (geographic or behavioral isolation) but that , under the right circumstances, and form offspring. When the mood is right, you can end up with a Tigon, Yalkalo, Wolphin, Geep, Beefalo, or Zonkey, to name a few. When this occurs, some pretty interesting outcomes can occur. For some great hybrid pictures follow this link.


So the next time you are watching Napoleon Dynamite, remember hybrids and the amazing things that nature can produce when the circumstances are right.

The Colbert Report

One of the funniest political shows I've seen in years is The Colbert Report. It airs on Comedy Central Monday through Thursday. You can also view episodes on comedycentral.com. I've put on a couple of videos to give you an idea of what the show is like. Enjoy!