Good clean fun

I know its a bit late, but I just found this. As a prop whore I occasionally visit Kropserkel, a very clever set of monkey who make some of the best movie reproductions around. About two years ago he built a kick ass Ring Wraith costume. Absolutely amazing. So what do you do when you've got such a cool costume? You hang around the lobby of a multiplex that's showing LOTR and scare the crap out of people.

Joy.

Turn about is fair play

Over at my friend Cat's Live journal is a sort of questionnaire:

1. What song/movie/icon reminds me of you.
2. I will try to name a single word that best describes you.
3. I'll tell you the most memorable moment I've had with you.
4. I will tell you what animal you remind me of.
5. I'll then tell you something that I've always wondered about you.

She posted her impressions about me so it's only fair that I do the same for her seeing as she's been a longtime friend and confidant.

1. In addition to the soundtrack from Chess, which stands as a strong reminder of my early friendship, Don Henley's 'Boys of Summer' has always struck me as the single song that puts me in mind of her. Not all the lyrics really work but its not really about the lyrics so much as the style of the sing (and video) and the fact that it marks a very specific time.

2. Using a single word to describe a good friend is like trying to select one favorite food. It is an insult to food. If I were to have a gun put to my head I suppose I would be forced to use 'Talented' but its such a weak word to describe the multitude of skills she possesses.

3. Most memorable moment. As I get older I tend to loose details from my past. It is at times alarming to hear some of the things I have said and done. But some moments are still clear, and a particular Halloween outing to Lewis Woods still strikes me as very magical. A group of geeks in garb in the woods wondering what we would do if we were in 'The Lord of the Rings' story.

4. Cat has often reminded me of a cat. Enigmatic, frustrating, wide-eyed and inquisitive. Slightly mischievous.

5. Something I have always wondered... Hmmm There's a couple of questions lurking there. Why Evergreen? A school so damn far away? Why haven't you finished the comic? Really. Why does your heart seem like such an elusive target? Why don't you call more often? Too many questions...

At last... It's over...

I'm, still exhausted but I had a great time hosting our second housewarming party at Bag End. I was overjoyed to see so many friends come out to see the place. Freidns drove from Columbus and Michigan and 2 flew in from Baltimore.

The weather was good and almost all the house projects got done. We set up an archery range and I actually got to fire my longbow, which I haven't done in two years. We pulled out the swords and played frisbee hack which is always a blast. Couples took our rowboat, the Vengence, our for romantic rides and the fountain Grim built worked great.

We topped the night off with a fireworks display that was better than I hoped for. One set of fireworks misfired causing some brief concern (panic) but no one was hurt.

There was a mountain of cake and pie and my minion Lindsey brought us an honest to goodness Frozen Custard machine that dispences creamy joy.

I just can;t tell you what a good time I had. I hope those who got to come out did too. If you missed it, well, you suck quite frankly. You missed a good party. But there's always next year! I'm thinking of also doing a bit of a cookout for the Scottish games next weekend. If anyone is interrested, drop me an email.

I am weak willed.

I'll admit it. I do not have the iron will that I wish I had. I love food, I have a hard time going to the gym. I never met a form of chocolate I didn;t get along with.

So walking into a fireworks store unsupervised was likely not the best idea. It sounded like a good idea. Fireworks to celebrate our first full year in Bag End. A little something extra to liven up the party. It was, as the saying goes, a simple plan. But the sales help at Fireworks World in Sandusky Ohio were helpful. Very helpful. They taught me more about fireworks than I ever dreamt of learning. I learned about mortars, repeaters, showers, spinners. At one point I felt dizzy and had to sit down. I was in a room with enough explosive power to blow up the entire building and leave a good sized crater. Kid, meet candy store.

I eventually selected several items. I stayed away from the mortars. These require you to shove an ball composed of unstable chemicals down a tube, light a fuse and then run away. After three or four rounds these things (according to Bill, the helpful sales guy)'sometimes just explode'. Adding alcohol to this mixture most likely won't improve the safety factor by much. No mortars. But I did pick up a repeater called the phantom 1600 that the guy claimed looked just like anti-aircraft fire. "It's just like you're in Iraq". I debated whether to question him about the state of the Iraqi Insurgent airforces and the effectiveness of Allied anti-aircraft against them but decided against it.

In the end I paid a lot of money. Too much money. I blame my wife. She knew where I was going and could have drugged my food.

Wonderful

Tonight as we arrived home with some new lawnchairs I stepped into the back yard and found myself surrounded by a sea of flickering lights. Thousands of fireflies were out and it was simply magical. Rossana and I just sat down and watched for a good 10 minutes. There's no way to photograph or video tape such a thing. You merely enjoy the moment.

Wow

I'm feeling better thanks to the generous application of antibiotics and other drugs. The stifling hot weather hasn't helped things much. Am I feverish or just cooking in my own juices?

My Father and brother have both departed for home. There was talk of doing this again next year (only with their significant others and me being less dead) and I think that might be cool.

On a completely unrelated note. I found the website for a monkey so clever you could put a tail on him and call him a weasel. He has carved a house out of wood so that it and everything in it looks like its make from books. So cool it hurts...

Update! If you've been to Las Vegas you may have seen this artists work already. In the form of a wooden Ferrari.

So not cool...

It started out five days ago with a cough that wouldn't go away. I figured it was just a reaction to a lot of dust from sanding. The cough got worse. Rossana bugs me to go see the doctor but the last time I visited his he made me feel oogy. I pretend that I am not sick but the cough isn't buying it. Today the doctor confirms that I have strep throat and as an added bonus, walking pneumonia. Joy. I need to rest. I need to take powerful pills and swig syrums from dark phials. I need to rest. But my dad and my brother are visiting me. I don't see enough of them as it is. I hate being a shitty host. I'm so tired. I break out in a sweat at the drop of a hat. Luckily my Dad enjoys reading and Goodman seems to be enjoying the tranquility that Bag End has to offer.

There also the matter of all the shit that has to get done. Today we discovered the cause to our lack of power in the barn. One of the previous contractors ran over the line that leads from my work shop to the barn. It was only buried about three inches underground. This required digging a trench to bury new conduit and line properly. I tried to help but everyone just yelled at me to go take a nap. I feel useless. I hired my minion Lindsey to do yard stuff.

The day ended with a grand feast of beef and fowl topped of by pie. A good time was had by all. Horay! Maybe tomorrow I will less like poo.

More Akira coolness.

Remember that post about some clever Japanese monkeys ricing out a scooter to look like the Keneda bike from Akira? The post is back a few weeks, go check it out. If you have no idea what any of the words aboce meant, just move along, nothing to see here.

Suzuki has created a very cool looking concept bike called the G-Strider. It is both alomost as cool and at the same time FAR cooler than pimping a scooter. Go check it out. I got ta gets me some crazy money to get me one of these.

Lindburgh sure got around

According to CNN the famous aviator fathered seven, count 'em seven kids over in Germany (in addition to the six kids he had with his wife. In the words of Groucho Marx "I like my cigar too, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while"

Memorial Day

I am a bit conflicted these days. My feeling about this war are no secret. This Op-Ed piece pretty much says it all in a nutshell.

We are in a War based on a seriese of bad calls. I don't believe that this or any administration would go to war solely for profits or because they are 'evil'. That is an oversimplification. But I do believe in the falability of man. Thousands are dead because Bush thought Iraq was a threat when it wasn't. Despite intelligence that showed it was no threat, we went to war. No country goes to war just because there might be profit in it later, or because their daddy didn't 'finish the job'. You go to war to destroy an enemy before they destroy you. For some reason, Bush was absolutely convinced that Iraq was a threat and gambled that once we were in, the evidence would bare out his hunches. Many leaders have made such gambles. But in this case there was no need to guess. The intel was there. More time was needed, but for some reason Bush felt he had to act quickly. In his rush to prove that he was a good President and was protecting America he had people skew the intel. He ignored contrary evidence. He stepped up bombing raids to provoke Iraq. He sent Colin Powel (a man I used to respect) to the UN to give the bluff more legitimacy. And it was all wrong.

I thought once Americans knew the truth that the political system would correct itself. It didn't and I have NO explanation for this.

Now we are in Iraq. The Downing Street memo states that America had no long term plans in place for what happen after the war and that has proven trajically true. In the run up to the War when did anyone have time to draw up plans on rebuilding a nation? Planning a war is hard enough. Rebuilding a county is an order of magnitude more difficult and is something the military isn't built for. Thank goodness we have Halliburton (the Vice Presidents old company) to help us out.

But we're there now. And most of the soldiers there are doing the best they can to get by. They are trying to help Iraq, which isn't too keen to shake the hand of the people who now fight on their streets, bomb their homes and torture and humiliate their people. Did we liberate Iraq? Yes. Are they better off now? Good question. Saddam was a power mad dictator, but there are plenty of them out there that we don't seem too concerned about.

If we stay, we're a target. We're a symbol that can unite fundementalists against us and the US backed govenment. If we leave the country will fall apart and we will have shown ourselves and our 'pure' intent to have been a lie. It is a no win situation.

Into this mess steps our all volunteer military. They are the ones who have been shafted the worst. They are learning the bitter fact that no conquering army is welcome in a conquered country for very long. They are trying to fight a conventional war against guerrilla forces, which never works. The British learned that in America, the Russians learned that in Afghanistan and we learned it in Vietnam. They were ill equipped and are being kept in beyond completion of their tour of duty because despite all those people with 'I support our troops' magnets on their cars and all the chickenhawks in DC and religious leaders who support this war our military is struggling to maintin its fighting strength. All they can do is keep taking hits. They can beat any force in a stand up fight, but there aren't many of those fights left. We're down to street fighting where tanks are planes are almost useless. When we do use them, we find out that we've wiped out a wedding party, destroyed a Mosque, killed an innocent family. And that endeers us to no one.

I am very glad most of my friends who served are now out. But a few days ago I learned that a friend of mines son will be heading out for service in the National Guard. I had to force myself not to pick up the phone, call them and scream 'What the fuck are you doing?'.

There are many benefits to serving in the military. Job training, learning self reliance and teamwork. Developing character and a hard work ethic. Money for college, medical care and VA loans to help buy a house. But the job of the military is to first and foremost, fight in wars. They are put into harms way. And Iraq has a lot of harm to give.

I don't want to see this kids face flashed on the 10 o'clock news for five seconds while sappy music plays in the background because he got fragged by an IED. I don't want to hear that his unit accidentally killed a family of five at a checkpoint because the car wouldn't stop. I don't want him to loose a leg to a landmine. I don't want him to suffer Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for the rest of his life. I don't want him to see his buddy from basic get killed by a car bomb.

There is no draft (yet), no compulsory military service in this country. So despite the failure of the political system, the fact that we volunteer for service might be the thing that stops this war. No Army, no war.

Ok, I've calmed down and am feeling better now...

Go take a look at this over at Something Aweful. Worst superhero costumes ever with somew veruy funny commentary. I actually remember some of the 'superheroes' that they are showing here and indeed, it proves that there was a huge creative void in comics for years.

I am vibrating with anger

Go here and read this.

It is rare to find a judge who so has gone so fucking far off his rocker. A lot of Left Wing blogs are using the term 'American Taliban' to describe the current right wing agenda. That term usually strikes me as being a bit over the top. But not in this case. This judge crossed a line.

Public Service Announcement

All right gents. When was the last time you actually went and got a physical? I mean it. We're not teenagers anymore are we? Do you know what your cholesterol level is? How about your blood pressure? How's your heart?

I urge you to go and get a complete physical. Yes, it costs money. But an ounce of prevention vs a pound of cure and all that. Don't put it off, I urge you. Not because I am particulary concerned about how healthy YOU are. Rather, I shouldn't be the only one to have to suffer through a @#$%! prostate exam. That shit just ain't right. We live in the 21st fucking century people. We have sent men to the moon and can split the atom but we can't test the health of the prostate without cramming a finger where the sun don't shine.

So please, go get a checkup. Because I feel oogey and you should too.

Thank You.

An internet stream of consciousness..

There are many keen things I can now do with my high speed access to the internets. It has nothing to do with downloading pRon or warez. Let me 'splain...

With broadband I can now engage in a kind of internet stream of consciousness. Beginning in one place with one goal and ending up somewhere completely unexpected. Last night I was over at Slashdot.org where I learned about a Firefox browser extension called Greasemonkey. I installed it and then perused the many scripts that do cool things. One of the things it can do is make ifilm.com movies open up in media player rather than an ad riddled browser popup. I suddenly realize that I can now view streaming movies again and proceed over to ifilm where I see that fanboys are still producing Star Wars fan films. Sweet. I check out 'The art of the saber'. Holy crap this is cool! These two guys should be doing fight choreography for big budget movies. In the film, there is a haunting tune. The credits list it as J'attends by Gartoz A Ran (with the accompaniment of Lisa Gerard of Dead Can Dance). The song is from the soundtrack to Black Hawk Down. A hop over to amazon.com shows that I can buy the soundtrack used for $12 bucks, but I am an impatient mas. itunes only has the audio book. A final search of Kazaa gives me nothing. Finally a google search leads me to allofmp3.com a Semi-legal Russian mp3 site that the US record companies has been desperately trying to shut down with little success. I said a short prayer and charged $10 to my visa. Their selection is good but by no means exhaustive. But here's the kicker. I downloaded (at great speed) the entire soundtrack for about $1.50 in unrestricted mp3 format. (The site also does wma, mpeg4 and oog).

I have truly missed this kind of web journey. And while it can waste a massive amount of time it can also be quite rewarding. Anyone else do this? Leave a post.

So funny on SO many levels.

Remember, this is the morals party.
Welcome to MichaelMoore.com!