To begin: Why is this quote listed as 20 February 2004? Did Eve post it exactly a year after she heard it?

I tried to go on spring break. To Florida. To visit my grandparents. No one wanted to go with me, and I hate air travel by myself, especially in this country, so I didn't go. Stayed home and, quite frankly, freaked out. I think I must have that seasonal affective thing, because there is NOT ENOUGH SUNSHINE in this state. At least, not the kind of sunshine that actually warms things up. There are still snowpiles in large parking lots. Snow! In March!

I realize that some of you live in colder climates than Indiana's. I don't know how you do it. Perhaps you hibernate through the winter months. I would like to hibernate, but my company would probably like to fire me if I start showing up any less than I already do. Yes, that sentence is grammatically tortured. If anyone around here is an expert on the subjunctive mood, please feel free to step in and correct me.

Okay. That's enough whining and complaining. I should probably be filling out timesheets or something "productive" like that.


Never apologize. Never explain.

I'm also too old for Spring Break, but I'm taking one anyhow in the form of a slightly impromptu road trip to Death Valley, the Mojave National Preserve, Joshua Tree, and Anza-Borrego. I've never been to Death Valley or the MNP, and I'm so excited I can hardly think clearly enough to come up with a coherent plan or pack. I'm heading out around 3AM tomorrow morning, just me and my dawgs. Let the good times roll....

Cheers!

*********
"Life is too short for grief. Or regret. Or bullshit." -- Edward Abbey, Vox Clamantis in Deserto

I remember it well. Lots of freezing nights and hot days, backpacking with my Boy Scout troop. We were a bunch of suburban kids, so we didn't know how to pick up our feet when we walked, especially while wearing boots. You guessed it; dust clouds everywhere. Five minutes in, I started wearing a bandana-thing over my nose and mouth which, with my sunglasses and hat, made me look like some kind of Darth Vader-esque character in shorts. Very odd.

I learned three important things. 1) A gallon of water weighs 8 pounds. 2) You'll drink that entire gallon the first day. 3) Dress in layers and bring more layers than you think you'll need.


There's some great feeclimbing rocks in Joshua Tree, if the idea of being 50 off the ground on a near-vertical face without a rope doesn't bother you.

I did a small amount of freeclimbing in Joshua Tree back when I was younger and more immortal. Cool when you get to the top of something and get the great view, but I'm not really into adrenaline rushes, especially when they last that long. In fact, my husband and I actually got together at the top of a rock formation at Hidden Valley campground in Joshua Tree. Strange Me Fact #548347.

Cheers

*********
"Life is too short for grief. Or regret. Or bullshit." -- Edward Abbey, Vox Clamantis in Deserto

Well, your Boy Scout troop was very much in the desert fashion.

It was a good trip, although I didn't quite make it to Anza-Borrego. I came home a little earlier than I expected because I was feeling extreme guilt about having layers and layers of warm clothing and a good sleeping bag while my poor dogs were freezing their fuzzy butts off.

Now I just need to deal with the 350 photos I took. If any of you are in Southern California and even vaguely interested in wildflowers, you seriously need to get out to the desert in the next few weeks if at all possible. You won't even believe it's the desert.

Cheers

*********
"Life is too short for grief. Or regret. Or bullshit." -- Edward Abbey, Vox Clamantis in Deserto

Feeclimbing? Do you mean there's a fee to get into the area and climb, or did you skip a letter?

So the not-self-proclaimed leader of the MGs forgets to move his left index finger up one spot.

Yeah; I meant freeclimbing.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

It's Spring Break for most people. So lots of people are out away from their computers, communicating with IRL people.

I finally started playing Knights of the Old Republic, and it's pretty well swallowed up my free time. Also my sleep time. So I guess that means I'm communicating with URL people.

I wish I had a spring break. Then I could spend a whole week playing KotOR.

Excellent.

I did the good guy thing, I did the bad guy thing, I did the "I'm gonna complete every possible thing in this game" thing. The last time through I named the main character Darth Revan. It cracked my son up when late in the game he said "I'm not Darth Revan anymore, now I'm Darth Revan!"

KotORII has much better gameplay, but I just can't get into the story.

I finished KotOR good, bad, male, female, rushing-through, finishing-everything...thanks to cheat codes, I even watched Malak turn into a Twi'lek girl and dance. So then I moved on to KotOR II.

You're right, it's hard to get into the story. Maybe it's because the entire existence of the game negates any feeling of accomplishment you get out of the first one. Woo-hoo, I saved the galaxy from the Sith...only it turns out, I didn't, cuz things are just as bad now. Or, alternately: Cool, I'm going to take down the Republic...only I guess I don't, cuz here it still is. *shrug* I do enjoy dragging my companions down into the depths of evil with me, but it's not enough to feed the gottas. So I'm taking a break from Star Wars and playing Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.

A tangent off a tangent: Anybody else remember the short-lived Aaron Spelling series based off the Vampire roleplaying game, Kindred: the Embraced? It started the same year as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but didn't...quite...do as well. You can get the whole run of it on DVD now. Why can I get that, but not American Gothic or even Daria?

-Can't stop, the weasels are closing in!

I miss Daria so very, very much. I used to watch it all the time at my friend's house when we were in high school. We did most of our projects together, and we'd take a break each day to watch the show. I keep hoping it will all be out on DVD in seasons, but no such luck. I'm stuck with the video tapes I recorded years ago. I got a few marathons, the musical and some regular episodes, but not nearly enough Trent. Sigh.

Gosh yes, I loved the Kindred show... it had soap opera-level drama, and it was starting to get in some good characters before it was canned.

One of the character actresses in that show, a redhead, has shown up on a bunch of other genre productions. I'll have to check IMDB, but I've always liked her work.
Off the top of my head, I believe she was on both the fantasy show Roar, and an early episode of Enterprise.
Thank you for letting me indulge my inner geek, Saint! Now, if only the copy of Kotor I bought would work on my laptop PC. :(

- My mind is in the gutter, but it keeps out the bad weather.

Hey, Roar! Add that to my list of things I want on DVD. I thought Kindred was pretty bad when it started, but it was starting to pick up at the end. Anyway, you might want to check it out on Amazon, it's pretty affordable. Of course, it should be, there are only two discs.

My wife is a major Daria fan. I was more of a Beavis and Butthead sort myself (maybe that was just the influence of my friend Brian, who could do dead-on mimicry of them), but my wife's been converting me. She signed an on-line petition to bring Daria's full (and unedited) run to DVD--it's nice that Noggin shows them, but they would be better left in their original state. Alas, it doesn't seem to be getting anywhere.

I did find out that American Gothic can be pre-ordered from Amazon, although there's no release date; basically at this point, it's making a list to show the guys who hold the rights how many people want it and are willing to pay for it.

-Can't stop, the weasels are closing in!

That's a good game! I played that through twice and am contemplating it again but not using any weps except for darkside death powers.

My Spring Break was last week, and I spent the majority of my time either driving or playing with my brother's X-box. Morrowind. I can attest to being "away from their computers," however, as mine is on the fritz. We have AOL, which drives me insane. I think my dad switched to it just to annoy me and my sister. It makes my heart hurt to go home and be on the computer, when I come from labs full of much better computers with high-speed connections. Sigh.

I'm too old for Spring break, just don't have much to add. I just got an old Super Nintendo with a few games, though. My (grown) daughter and I agree it still rules. And I just got a couple of CDs for my birthday -- music by guys so long ago nobody here would know them, except maybe ParU. (Bobby Darin and Neil Sedaka) A nice break from Modest Mouse, or The Presidents. Ah, variety!

Like I always say, I'm not living in the past, but I like to visit it once in a while.

Super NES is the best. I like playing Super Mario Bros, but my brother, in his infinite wisdom, scattered the pieces for it throughout the house. I'm really not much of a game person, but I like Morrowind, and it doesn't take me as long as AoEII or the Conquerors Expansion on the computer. I'm methodical by nature, so when I play a game it ends up being a marathon.

And I recognize Neil Sedaka.

old? you think you two are old? I have never even seen an X-box or Super NES and haven't played a video game in years.

So.....it goes under the bay???

busy playing with a different joystick?

i went to war for my country and all i got was this lousy stump.

At my level - it's no longer 'playing'.

:)

So.....it goes under the bay???

Sorry, but I really have to ask. Ah, would you please define your 'level'? Or perhaps you could shed light on what you call 'playing'? I don't think our vocabularies are spelled out quite the same.

At this point I'd just assume it's somehow uncouth in nature and move on. It's really not worth an explanation, I'd wager. ;)

There's probably some bad wiring in my brain, but I can't help thinking of: Samuel L. Bronkowitz presents "Catholic Highschool Girls in Trouble".
A cool point for naming the source of the quote.

You mean where that movie appears? As in, the first part of "Kentucky Fried Movie"? I assume that's what you're looking for.

Correct (and hence a cool point to) both of you.

I thought there was just one of me. I mean, the one you know.

My other personality is kept hidden, deep deep inside, where no one ever goes: a Minotaur at the center of the labrynth.

I think I may have said too much.

I'm sorry to have lured deep secrets out of you. But both hypoxic and you got it within minutes of each other. Since I can only reply to one post at a time I had to reply to someone and randomly chose you. And checking imdb I may just add another appropriate KFM jewel (also from the aforementioned "trailer" for the Bronkowitz movie): Never before has the sexual act been so crassly exploited.

I beat Matt by about 3 minutes.

Big Jim Slade!

Classic!

I can't believe you asked that! *eg*

- My mind is in the gutter, but it keeps out the bad weather.

Yeah, but notice he isn't answering? :) I'm safe.

You're never safe from Monk.

Muhahahahahahahahahahahahaha

So.....it goes under the bay???

You've got to admit--I'm a lot safer [from you] here in TX than I would be living next door to you, right? And at this point, next door is as close as I care to think about.

I can show you mine.

No, wait. Sorry, what I meant to say was that it would be my pleasure to...um, send you a picture of an X-box. If I could find the Super NES, I would be delighted to mail it to you. My brother gave most of the games away after he lost the controls.

So, what kind of video games did you play years ago? I prefer card and board games, generally.

So you're going to take a picture and show me yours, plus a picture of the game box?

wow - i love spring!

and the games....lol. Even back then i was still 'monk'. Leisure Suit Larry ring a bell? The early strip poker games (anyone remember those breasts made up of 1/4 inch squares?) Some of the RPG - but unlike the ones everyone else here talks about - there was a whole Quest series and this space one with your character, Roger Wilko.

Heh, i even remember playing a Quest-like game that was pre-GUI. Completely textual.

And before that, we were all thrilled to ditch our Commodore 64 for this new thing called Atari. Pac man, Asteroids and Missile Command were the standards....but then they were able to magically take Donkey Kong from the pizza joint arcade and put it into an arcade game.

Which of course started one of the great debates of the 80's - which Kong is better - arcade version or home version.


So.....it goes under the bay???

I remember Pong. What I don't remember is why everyone wanted to play it. I used to play it now and then in a local bar, which might explain something...

are you sure you didn't mishear? Doesn't it make more sense for them to be excited about a bong?


So.....it goes under the bay???

Maybe they got excited about Pong after they got excited about a bong...

it's such a fun word to say.....pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong pong

So.....it goes under the bay???

You have waaaaaaaay too much time on your hands, Monk.

I really loved the Space Quest series, even more than King's Quest (one of which I tried playing on the PC Jr - remember that machine?).

Of course, being of juvenile mindset - an item which has not changed - I named my Space Quest character Sani Fresh. After a sanitizing product.

Great line from the first Space Quest game: "Let's blow this hot taco stand!" Good times.

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- My mind is in the gutter, but it keeps out the bad weather.

I played Castle Wolfenstein on my friend's Commodore 64. And Space Invaders and Donkey Kong on my neighbor's Atari 2600.

The last game I played was Serious Sam, and that came out in '01.

I might get a copy of Doom 3, but other than that, I just can't be bothered.

I would be too old for spring break, but alas, there is no such thing as spring break in Europe. I'm at a mathematics/logic conference in the Black Forest (in Germany). I'll give a talk tomorrow on a paper I learned tonight got accepted to a math journal. Yay. As for video games I remember too many of them, of the old ones. Due to my erratic nature, I still now and then waste days on such pleasures. But at least there's IP-weirdness to keep me sane...

It shouldn't... unless you are a strawberry blonde with a light dusting of freckles.
If that's the case, then maybe you should skip the semicolon chapter.

I haven't gotten your e-mail. Did you send it to the Yahoo! one?


I'm Apple, and I approve this message.