What a geek believes

I believe that Han shot first. I believe that Ally Sheedy was hotter before Molly Ringwald cleaned her up. I believe in miniatures, models, claymation, and not revealing the shark until you absolutely have to. I believe that George Lucas, for better or for worse, change the way we see the world, each other, and ourselves. And I believe that we will someday reach those stars that he himself made visible. I believe that George Lucas is also a narrow-minded, money-grubbing pig-headed slave to the now, who ought to be locked away from his own creations, lest he do them further harm. I believe that Jean-Luc Picard is the better Starship Captain, but I also believe that James Tiberius Kirk is infinitely cooler. I believe that a child standing in line to buy a book at midnight is fantastic; I believe that reading makes you smart — it’s schools that make you dumb. I believe that any episode of Futurama is better than any program featuring a precocious teenager who’s wise beyond their years. I also believe Buffy the Vampire Slayer to be the sole exception that proves this rule. I believe that comic books are an art form, and will someday be recognized as such. I believe that good shows die too young; and crap shows last too long. I believe that Eddie Izzard is the funniest man alive, an dI don’t care whether you’ve ever heard of him or not — it’s still true. I believe that a girl who likes movies about zombies is hotter than whoever is on the cover of Maxim this month. I believe that Belloch ate that fly, I swear to God that I heard Luke call Leia “Carrie,” and I believe that Samwise Gamgee never quite got the credit he really deserved. I believe in magic, I believe in dreams, I believe in the power of music, movies, and the untold worlds inside an everyday library card. And I do not believe that geeks will inherit the earth; I believe that we already have. --Rick Emerson, AM970 Portland, OR.

Amen to that, my Geek brother.

756...

Well, he did it. Barry Bonds hit number 756 last night. I have to say, I was very happy. After he hit it, he showed the emotion, and respect of the game that I had been looking for, that I had been hoping for. The celebration with his family, the respect given by Willie Mays, and the fact that Barry actually got a little choked up when Hammerin' Hank's video tape congratulating him was shown. In all the interviews I have read and seen since he is showing his human side again. That is what I was looking for, and now I can cheer for Barry Bonds.

Birthday Festivities

I had a very nice Birthday, thanks for asking. I wasn't too crazy about turning 37. The Late 30's. I have no justifications for acting like I'm 24 anymore. The weekend was very relaxing and fun. Saturday was full of house work, so I wouldn't have to do any on my actual Birthday.

At 4pm, my 4 year old daughter and I headed to 1984. I found out my mad Video Game skills do not impress a 4 year old. She would watch for about 2 minutes before wondering off to an adjacent game. Thus taking some of my concentration away from the game. And while a couple of seconds can be taken on the Elevator level of Donkey Kong to regain the attention of a small child, you try to pull that crap on Wave 15 of Robotron, and you my friend have one less life than you did before. Granted the games are "free play" and it doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things, but when you have become obsessed with getting your name on the High Score Board every time you go, it seriously affects your ability to do so. Finally, she agreed to help me play pinball, she put her fingers on the flipper buttons, and I would push her fingers to activate the buttons. She liked that alot, and launching the ball into the play field was also one of her tasks. We did manage to soundly destroy the High Score on Grand Lizard by 1,200,000 points. We got our button, our free pass for next time, and a sweet new sticker. (Currently affixed to my work monitor).

Sunday, my birthday, I was gently coaxed out of my slumber at 7am by a 45 pound toddler jumping on my belly, and yelling "Happy Birthday, Daddy!". After catching the wind that was knocked out of me, I was met with a lovely assortment of donuts, and chocolate milk. I opened my present of tons of chocolate from Russel Stovers. Later that afternoon, my parents came up from Country Music Hell, and bought us all Ice cream. My beautiful, wonderful bride made me a fantastic dinner, and allowed me to play World of Warcraft from 7pm until Midnight.

***GEEK ALERT **** GEEK ALERT ****
During that 5 hours, my guild and I downed High King Maulgar, his 4 buddies, Gruul the Dragonkiller, Finished up 3 bosses in Karazhan (Attumen the Huntsman, Maiden of Virtue, and Prince Malchezaar) The Prince was kind enough to give me a Birthday present... The Helm of the Fallen Hero, which I quickly cashed in for my first piece of T4 armor Demon Stalker Greathelm So I was a very Happy Dwarf!
*** END GEEK ALERT ****

So, it was a very good day. Lots of relaxing, lots of candy and sweets, lots of love from my family. Maybe 37 isn't all that bad.

Baby Violet

Baby Update... 4 and a half month old drool machine.

Pimp My Video

Ladies and gentlemen... I give you the original video...



And the all NEW PIMPED OUT VERSION.


That is UNCANNY!!!!

Touch the Rainbow!

I am not an avid eater of Skittles candy. It stems from my already being sick the first time I tried them, and puked a rainbow. But when I was shown the following video, I couldn't help but laugh.

glumbert.com - The Modern Day King Midas

I guess thats pretty awesome.

Birthday Bash!

Well, my birthday is less than 2 weeks away. My beautiful bride asked me this morning what I would like to do to celebrate it. So I have been doing some thinking. I really enjoyed what we did last year, which was the subject of my first official post on this blog, going to 1984 arcade. A few years ago, I had a small get together, and had a poker tournament. I was pretty good friends with the "trophy and plaque" department then, and had some custom plaques made for 1st, 2nd and 3rd. They were a big hit, and more coveted than the prize money (in my mind, at least).

While I enjoyed both of those, I was trying to think of something new. But then the thought hit me to sort of combine the two. A Video Game Tournament. Everyone comes to the arcade with me, and we keep track of your best scores of the night, on about 10 games. Come up with some sort of ranking system to determine the winner. That way the wives and/or kids could be part of it too. The poker tournament somehow was a "guy only" thing. It wasn't designed that way, it just worked out that way. I would try to work out some "old school" design for plaques and see if my connections still work. OR..... set it up as a "Beat the Geek" style format. I would play the games and set a score that everyone would have to beat on each game, and then people would get prizes and rewards for "Beating me at my own Game". This would, of course, require me to go to the arcade a few days before hand and see where the bar should be set for each game (double arcade bonus!) You know.... for research purposes.

Been There, Done That

I have often daydreamed about making a list of all the roller coasters in the United States, and then seeing how many I could ride in a year, or if I could ride all of them during my life. I remember Jerry Jacob ( the news anchor that resigned and is becoming a Military Field Medic) taking a couple weeks vacation, and visiting all the Springfields he could. I want to say he made it to 14 of them. I thought that was pretty cool. A friend of mine sent me a link to this guy, and I thought it was worthy of sharing here. 171 Starbucks in 24 hours. Repeating only 6 stores is quite impressive, but damn that's a lot of caffeine.

The World Series of My Wife is Awesome!

My beautiful bride and I are addicted to VH1's World Series of Pop Culture. We are pretty good at it. Admittedly, my bride is better at it than I am. ( She got 9 of 11 on the original cast of Beverly Hills 90210, I got maybe 4) This season, after every new show, you can go online and compete against thousands of other trivia buffs, and try to win $2500. You get 25 questions, miss one and your out. Fastest to answer the 25 wins the dough. Last night, she was one of 11,000 competing. She answered #25 correctly in 4 minutes and change. Only 12 other people, TWELVE!, got all 25 right. So, now she had to wait to see if her time would hold up. Unfortunately, some trivia robot finished all 25 in just under 3 minutes. But my beautiful bride got 6th. 6th out of 11,000. She is wicked smart.

More News from Planet Obvious!

Study: Multiple Stab Wounds May Be Harmful To Monkey
Looks like my friends over at "The Onion" feel the same way I do, about stupid research.

And not quite along the same lines, but I can't Stop looking at this picture, even though it freaks me out. No so much planet Obvious, as Planet Moron!
Jumpin' Jesus on a pogo stick!!! You're going to want to put some peroxide on that.

Thanks Dr. Obvious!

Women drawn to men with muscles

No SH!T?!? Chicks dig good looking muscular men, over us butter trolls? Thanks for the NEWS!

Seriously, this is what Researchers are studying? Did we CURE CANCER?? WHO THE HELL IS GIVING THESE PEOPLE MONEY FOR THEIR WORK??!!??

Hey, I just did a study that shows plants grow faster during the DAY! Give me a GRANT!

BAHHH!!!!!!

And who is the lazy ass reporter that decided this was news???

754...755!...756?

I don't know why, but part of me hopes that when Barry Bonds gets to 754 home runs, that opposing pitchers either intentionally walk him for the rest of the season, or bean him. The man just doesn't seem to have the graciousness that I would like to have in a Major Baseball Record holder. Big Mark had respect for Maris' record, and Sammy seemed to as well. Hank Aaron went through some serious issues with other people not wanting him to break Ruth's 714, but at least that showed that he had a human side to him. I don't care about the "Steroid" allegations either, just show us some emotion over one of the greatest records in sports.

I LIKE what I like

I was recently told my taste in art is too "Kitschy". I wouldn't mind that, but it was the condescending tone that it was said in that bugged me. So what, if I like my Mass Media Andy Warhol art work, my Keith Haring non-controversial prints, my simple primary Mondrian paintings, and the wackyness of Miró. I also think velvet elvis paintings are kinda cool, and giant tapestries of "Dogs Playing Poker" should be publicly displayed in the best of homes. I love movies about Baseball, even though I hardly follow baseball at all (I blame that on being raised a Royals fan. Ah, 1985.) I eat my sandwiches plain, and my hot dogs cold. While I like all the ingredients in a KFC Mashed Potato Bowl, but I will never order one, because I don't like my food all mixed together. I don't mind if they touch, but that bowl has too much intermingling going on.( I don't like my corn getting to 3rd base with my potatoes, if you know what I mean) I don't drink beer, but can tell you blindly the difference between A&W, Barq's and Dad's Root Beers. (IBC is highly overrated, and priced BTW.) I also like my soda a bit flat. It is not uncommon for me to open a bottle, drink a bit, and then put the lid on it and shake it vigorously a few times. I have left entire 2-liter bottles of Root Beer open all night, just to lose most of the carbonation. A hamburger should NEVER cost more than $4, maybe $5 with bacon and cheese ( I am looking at you, Red Robin!) I have learned the ways of charcoal, and regret not learning them sooner. Mayonayse is the devils condiment, followed closely by mustard. and nothing make me happier than a nice bag of Red Hots. But thats just me. If you dont like what I like that is fine, just don't try and tell me in a way that makes it sound like your half-dead Beatles are better than my Still Rockin' Rolling Stones! (ya, I said it. Suck it, Trebeck)

3 words...

What. The. F@&%!!!

I am speechless... absolutely speechless.

Motivation...level... critical

The reason for my lack of posts lately has been my utter lack of motivation to do ANYTHING! I don't want to type, I don't want to do laundry, mow the yard, nothing! It's not that I don't WANT to, it just getting the momentum going to do it. I actually like mowing the yard, but its the weed whacking, and trimming, and all the extra stuff that puts me off about it. Even WoW can't hold my attention lately, unless I have something very specific in mind to do. ( Yeah, I am playing again, and forgot how much I love playing. Thankfully for me, my beautiful bride likes to play too.)

I could post about the wonderful get together my family went to this weekend to see my best friends from high school. But that post would be full of inside jokes, and lots of "I can't believe that was 20 years ago". It was a great time, and really nice to be able to reconnect with people who know all about me, and just laugh.

I could post about how this is one of the biggest movie summers of all time, and I haven't been to see any of the 3's (spiderman, pirates, shrek, oceans) Although, I have promised my beautiful bride I would take her to see 1408. Because we haven't seen a GOOD scary movie in a long time.

I could take the easy way out and post about some of the YouTube videos I have been watching lately. I frequent SomethingAwful quite regularly, and on their forums, someone created a thread for people to just post videos of other people doing AWESOME things. There are some incredible videos out there. Skateboarders, guitar players, video game players... everything! I stayed up until 2am on a couple of nights just watching these people and what they can do.

Since I don't feel like posting anything, I guess I won't.

The little things

I had a very good Father's Day, thanks for asking. My day began with big hugs and kisses from my beautiful bride, and my 4 year old. My 3-month old (ya, 3 month old! jeesh) tried to give me kisses, but more just drooled on my cheek, which still counts. We got up, and got ready for church. My beautiful bride tells me that she will drive today... but instead of driving to church, she surprises the girls and I by taking us to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Mmmmm.... ham and biscuits. Very yummy. My 4-year old hands me my father's day card. The card was very cute, and obviously picked out by her, as it was a purple "My Little Pony" card, with stickers for her inside. The stickers all said "I love Daddy", and "Daddy's little girl" on them, but as long as she was going to get them is what mattered to her. I think I could by a box of Avery Labels, and she would go nuts because "Stickers I can COLOR?!?". The girl loves her stickers. Anyway, the card was cute, and signed from all my girls, but that wasn't the real gift. The thing I enjoyed the most was the envelope the card came in. Plain and white with "D A D" written in little girl letters. I looked at that all day long, and just smiled. I really do love being a D A D.

More Nestle Love

I had a very interesting thing happen to me today. I was out taking pictures for work, and needed gas for my car, and gas for my belly. I stop at a gas station and fill up my gas tank and go inside. Remembering that I have one last free coupon for a Nestle crunch bar in my wallet ( Part one, Part two of how I got the coupons). Grab a soda, and cruise over to the candy aisle, find a Crunch bar and notice that they have some other contest going where you could win a share of 5 million dollars. Go to pay, wait for the guy to call his manager over, get my stuff and leave. Driving back to work, I down my delicious candy bar, and look in the specially marked wrapper... there, on the inside... "Congratulations... you have won a FREE Nestle Crunch Bar" (see details). I smile quietly to myself, again, and contemplate how the simple things in life make me happy.

Celebrity News

I don't like celebrity news. I don't care about it, don't need to know it, and try to avoid it. I don't really care who is dating who, who got drunk and flashed the cameras, or any of that. But I can't stop myself from posting this because it makes me giggle like Dakota Fanning.


(Oh, Nelson. How I love thee.)

MAME Plans

I have been wanting to build a MAME Cabinet for quite some time now. The biggest thing stopping me was the Size of some of the actual cabinets. I don't really want a huge monstrosity of a thing just sitting in the corner of the basement. I have been looking at plans after plans for them, and I think I may have found a nice compact design.

I like it for a few reasons. First, its not very big or intrusive. It could easily be disguised as an end table. Second, it wouldn't require mounting a huge TV or Monitor in the cabinet... the guy that build this one used a 17 monitor. You can get those anywhere, CHEAP!. Third, the realization that I don't need a control panel where 4 players can play at once. I will most likely be playing this by myself, and if friends come over, they will just have to share.

I will change the control panel a bit, I don't need the roller ball. There are only 2 games that I would want the roller ball for anyway, Centipede, and Missile Command. I was never really good enough at either of these games to justify dropping $160, just for the roller ball. I may invest some of that money saved into an extra 4 way stick. Just to get that authentic Pac-man stick feel.(The 8-way joystick gets hung on the diagonals, and screws with your game experience.) I will also increase the number of buttons to accommodate my Asteroids fix. Because playing Asteroids with a Joystick is Arcade Blasphemy.

Night at the Museum

Went to the museum with some friends this weekend... they didn't let us stay long. I don't know Y.