Five Hours Later

Here's another shot of the same area, five hours later, and as you can see, I've caught some of the snow in the pic. Nifty, eh?

So, my day has been pretty much stoking the fire and watching snow fall. How's your day been?

Seasons Bleed

The weather this past decade has been quite the topic of conversation, both locally and nationally. Alot of people want to pin it on Global Warming, and then when we have a bitter cold spell, do a 180. There are those who are simply ignorant of the change other than the inconveniences it causes. Then there are those of us, but only a few, who want to read more into what's going on.

Since I don't have any formal meteorological training, all I can do is guess with what layman's knowledge I do have. For the previous two years, snow has been a long time coming to our area, often waiting until December before we see any great amount. This year, however, snow decided to show up a little early, at the beginning of November.

Now, as I recall from my childhood, snow in early November is fairly normal. Quite a few of my birthdays (and even a Halloween or two) were celebrated with powder on the ground, and it was the time during high school that I'd be getting geared up for Ski Club trips to Tussey Mountain.

The above picture illustrates a sort of bleeding over of seasons, something I haven't seen in quite a few years: The colors of fall (seemingly skipped this year, or at least only two weeks long), tinged gray with a thin veil of falling slow. As I type this, the snow has lightened up even more, but it's still coming down. The roof of the pharmacy across the street has a frosty layer of white stuff capping it, but not the houses down the street.

Heh. People losing all kinds of heat over there.

Such is life in this nowhere void we call Houtzdale. Joy, eh?

Do The Mario

I think I posted something like this before, I'm not entirely sure. I know I have a similar video favorited on my YouTube Channel, but since this is a nerd's backyard, it's much more appealing. Amature electrical engineering often produces fun results, and the sound in this one is more well-defined.

Yep, you're seeing this correctly: Two Tesla Coils playing the theme to Super Mario Brothers. There are no speakers, just a fiber optic connection to a laptop running special software to have them emulate two different MIDI channels. Too much to wrap your brain around? Then just watch:

Captain Lou approves...

Quiet Passing

Well, I would have blogged about my birthday party yesterday, and I would have posted the video to YouTube, but Verizon made my decisions for me. For once, they decided that they were going to live up to their reputation and have a rather long outage. Thankfully, we have plenty to entertain ourselves without the Internet, but it does limit communications to local phone calls, which can be quite the pain in the ass.

At any rate, my birthday party was teh hawsome! Fred, Andy, Mikey, Angel, Dee, Matt, Scuba Steve, Joe and Justin were all that made it, but that's all I needed, really. We took over Karaoke for a bit after witnessing the Steelers trounce the crap out of the Baltimore Ravens in the first half of Monday Night's game, and then retired up to the office to watch the karaoke vids before we all left for the night. Quiet, fun, I couldn't ask for much of anything more. Once Windows decides that it likes the codecs needed to play and edit the vids (something GOMPlayer does enough to play on it's own, MUCH better than Media Player), I'll post the clips on YouTube for all 10 of you to enjoy.

Hey, 10! Up from 3! Rock on! LOL And thanks to my de facto twin sister Laura for actually posting a comment!

And yes, let it be known: I love Angel to death! I was right: She got me Happiest Days, and it is awesome! I'm still prepping my review of Just a Geek, but I couldn't resist the urge to crack open the new dead tree edition of Wil's stuff. And while we're talking about reviews of Wil's stuff, here are Two Reviews of Happiest. Listen well, for they are spot-on in their praise of our fearless leader's latest release. By the time I get around to writing my review, I'm going to look like I'm just jumping on the bandwagon, but I don't really much care. Yeah, the book is that good...

Koga is adjusting pretty well to his new home, and housebreaking him has been the worst part. Even then, in the two and a half days he's been here, he's learning quickly that sitting at the door expectantly is usually enough to tear Dad away from his Internet Box long enough to grab the leash and take him out into the backyard. In 40 degree weather. In a sweat suit. At 4am on my 30th fucking birthday.

Nah, I'm not that bitter. But it is that bitter cold, or at least the wind chill makes it feel that bitter cold...

Birthday LOL

Joy, I'm 30. Just kidding, it's not all that bad, and I didn't expect it to be. So, to celebrate and start the day right, here's some LOLCat goodness from our friends at I Can Has Cheezburger!

Adorable, aren't they? I think so...

Hello, Koga!

Everybody say hi to Koga.

I guess you could say he's an early birthday gift, since Angel went to get him around 8:30 or 9. I just got back from taking him for his first walk, and it was a pain in the butt just to get him to sit still long enough to take this picture.

Koga is named for a character on InuYasha, which is pretty much Angel's favorite Anime. It was, however, me that suggested the name, since I knew it would make her happy as hell.

So, why did we name him after a Wolf Demon? Well, he does have a little wolf in him (you can kind of see it), so I found it appropriate. He's the latest addition to our family, and I'm sure his hijinx will be the subject of many's the blog post in the future...

Archive

In the past 30 years, I have:

1. Obtained an Associates in Specialized Technology Degree (Multimedia)
2. Recorded a full-length album (Slip Into Never with Tempered Edge)
3. Been a Roadie (with Plan 9, Dick Dastardly, and Bad Idea)
4. Completed over 300 finishable games for the original NES
5. Maintained a half dozen personal websites, this being the 6th
6. Written a FanFiction Story read by people all over the world
7. Done time
8. Fathered zero kids
9. Written one original fiction novella (In Time, when I was 15)
10. Worked with Habitat for Humanity
11. Donated a gallon of blood to the Red Cross
12. Loved and lost, four times
13. Bred mice for science classes
14. Taught college-level Web Design and Multimedia, twice
    
15. Delivered pizza for five different shops
16. And much, much more, both good and bad.
    

So, what will I do in the next 30 years ? Guess I'll start to find that out at midnight, won't I...

All in all, the first 30 years were an interesting ride. It's had plenty of ups and downs (though it seems like more downs than ups), but for the most part, it's been fun. People say that if you're not living your life, you're missing out. They're right. Since I took my life by the reigns and done things my way, I've had more fun than I could have ever hoped for.

Granted, the rough patches were pretty damned rough, but one thing is still true: I'm here, I'm standing on my own two feet, and still playing by my own rules. Some think I'm a loser, some think I've wasted my life. Well, those different "some" camps have one thing in common: They're both wrong.

For the past 30 years, it's been my life, my choices, my own destiny. And it's been a fuckload of fun so far. And if me having a good time and enjoying life pisses you off, then I'm looking forward to 30 more years of exceeding your minute expectations.

And to all my friends (you know who you all are), you've made this half of my life a blast. Thanks to you all. Now, I'm off to enjoy my last four hours as a rowdy twentysomething...

Read Us Any Rule...

Today's Mother of the Year candidate comes to us from one of my favorite cities to visit: Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Now don't get me wrong: I don't intend this as a reflection of Milwaukee in general. I love that city, it treated me really good (except for the unbearable heat) for the week I was there. But come on, folks. This is something I'd expect from Florida...

Mom sells pot. Mom also has a curious four year old. Said curious four year old finds mom's stash and takes it to school, showing it to a teacher's aid. Mom gets busted with more pot at the house, telling the cops she sells it to support her own smoking habit. Kids are now in protective custody.

Oh yeah, you KNOW I found this one on Fark...

Look, people, it's real simple. If you're gonna smoke pot, don't keep it around the kids.

RIP Moolah

Wrestling has lost another Legend. Lillian Ellison, known to pretty much anyone who even knows what professional wrestling is as The Fabulous Moolah, passed away two days ago. She was 84. Fark thread Here.

When I first got into Wrestling, Hulkamania was just starting to run wild, and my Sunday Mornings would come to an end with a roast beef lunch on my plate and All-American Wrestling on my TV. At the time, Moolah was a heel, and I wasn't "in" on wrestling like I am now, so I didn't pay her much mind.

As I learned about the business, Moolah got more than just a passing glance. Her legendary status in the women's division was apparent, and her bits with Mae Young in her later years cemented her popularity for all time.

My thoughts are with the Ellison family. We'll miss you, Fabulous One!