Though The 200 may have fallen in the Dual Duel, our story will live on forever...
Going to Atlanta this weekend with Zach for the Black Box Improv Festival, story and pictures to come.
Longwinded musings about my efforts to get my shit together.
9.21.2007
Spartans! Ready your breakfast and eat hearty... For tonight, we dine in hell!
Though The 200 may have fallen in the Dual Duel, our story will live on forever...
Going to Atlanta this weekend with Zach for the Black Box Improv Festival, story and pictures to come.
9.19.2007
The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.
Controversy grew today about a new reality TV show that placed 40 children aged 8 to 15 in an abandoned New Mexico ghost town and left them to fend for themselves for 40 days.
Oh, you better believe it.
The premise of the show is to see if the children can build a working society without the help of adults, and required them to organise their own government and fend totally for themselves 24 hours a day.
Wait, it gets better.
Four children also received medical treatment for accidentally drinking bleach, one child was burned on her face with hot grease while cooking in an unsupervised kitchen, and most of the children were required to work 14 hours or longer per day.
Source:here.
Oh, and then there's this. Hell yes.
9.03.2007
I wasn't always cargo
Florida - Labor Day Weekend
Callie and I took a trip to Florida this weekend to visit my parents and have a well needed mini-vacation. It was an adventure, to say the least, but we had a terrific time. We left on Friday afternoon, with the intent of flying out of RDU to Atlanta at 7:15. Due to bad weather in Atlanta, we were delayed almost an hour and a half, fully missing our connecting flight. We were put on standby for another flight at 11pm, but of course, along with about 30 others hoping to catch the same flight, we were bumped until the next morning. We tried in vain to get reimbursed for our troubles, with only a voucher for a discounted hotel room as our consolation. Likely because of DragonCon or whatever else was going on in downtown Atlanta, and some misunderstandings of the protocol for catching a shuttle to the hotel, we were unable to secure a hotel for the night. We decided to rough it and stay at the airport in order that we were able to be right up front for the 8am "maybe" flight down to Ft. Lauderdale. We adopted the Atlanta airport as our home for the night.
We camped out on the 3rd floor mezzanine area, above the grand lobby. It turned out that we certainly were not the only people with the idea of staying at the airport.
Callie played Gameboy for a while, and the whole place was crowded with soldiers and noise.
I felt very safe, but physically uncomfortable. We tried to sleep, but unfortunately for us, one of the other Atlanta stowaways produced some of the most horrendous, inhuman snoring known to man or beast. It was aggravating as hell, but all in all, quite amusing. This is him:
Callie devised a temporary solution, but it was too much for me.
I went off to scout a better spot to sleep, and found an interesting sign in the bathroom which Callie had noticed earlier. It was too funny not to get a picture.
The next morning, after shivering and uneasy all night, we managed to catch a flight to West Palm Beach, where my parents arrived to pick us up. We went to breakfast, then their new house, which was quite lovely, and just the type of place I pictured. We relaxed for a bit, before heading out to the Everglades for an airboat ride. I was very tired, but excited, despite the pensive look.
The everglades were quite a treat. The airboat was bigger than what I had imagined, and the tour was conducted by a guy named Dick. There were a lot of other tourists there, most of them yankees and foreigners. Check out how cool my family is, though.
There was one bird, whose name escapes me, but looked a bit like a snake/bird hybrid, who Dick explained lacked the proper oils to dry its feathers, so instead had to sun dry his wings.
Also, we saw a bunch of buzzard, some great flora, and a couple of baby alligators.
Back at the very backwoods souvenir shop, we saw some creepy taxidermy from yesteryear, but Callie got a high five nonetheless.
We then caught an alligator show, which was conducted by a very interesting fellow who had about the same number of teeth as fingers (8). The show was impressive and incredibly uncomfortable to watch at times, knowing full well that this guy had screwed up before. The gators were fucking huge.
I tipped the dude a dollar, which was all the cash I happened to have at the time. We left the everglades to go to a casino, which was actually quite sad, and I am glad I didn't spend/throw away more than $20 there. Nothing but blue hairs and thick smoke, broken machines and broken dreams. We were pretty tuckered out, and headed home for a swim in my parents pool. I could hardly stay awake on the way home, but once I had a bloody mary and some chips and hummus in me, I felt much better. We had shrimp and crab for dinner, and it was great to have a family dinner for the first time since Xmas. My mom's cooking will never disappoint. We crashed early, and slept for about 12 hours.
The next morning, we went to a ridiculous flea market thing, and walked around for a bit, not really shopping, but sort of shopping. My parents took us to a park/beach/reef so we could hang out and do some snorkeling. The reef was artificial, but we saw some really great fish, including a few Barracudas as well as a couple of Spanish Moon Fish. (Ask me about these.) Callie and I took a walk, and she found a blowfish. It had unfortunately shuffled from this mortal coil, but was still happy to bring the attention of some youngsters and posed for some photos.
The water was incredibly warm and crystal clear. We really enjoyed being there with the company of my folks. 
We went to dinner at some beachy place, where we saw a woman wearing a godawful dress thing that would make a stripper say gag. To boot, she was a leathery 50+, and had a face that looked like someone had hit her with a baseball bat, and then tried to fix it with another baseball bat. I guess she got the attention she was looking for. Our waitress was a bitch, but when the food came, I was able to see how she got away with it. The portions were huge, fresh, and deeeelicious. Callie and I both had some local Mahi that was absolutely a-mazing. We went back to relax a bit more, and hit the hay relatively early again.
This morning, my mom treated us to another great breakfast, and we watched the cats get interested in a squirrel who was teasing them from the other side of the screened in porch. I snapped a picture of them intrigued by the squirrel, but they of course wanted to pose for a shot as well.
The trip home went much more smoothly and without turmoil, and Callie's dad picked us up at the airport. We visited the Peck residence for an awesome cookout with her family and some tasty bison burgers. A couple of Miller Chills later and I was ready to get back to Shadowood.
Our weekend was exciting and long and wonderful. I really enjoy traveling, I've decided, and it's trips like this one that remind me why I do so much.
Callie and I took a trip to Florida this weekend to visit my parents and have a well needed mini-vacation. It was an adventure, to say the least, but we had a terrific time. We left on Friday afternoon, with the intent of flying out of RDU to Atlanta at 7:15. Due to bad weather in Atlanta, we were delayed almost an hour and a half, fully missing our connecting flight. We were put on standby for another flight at 11pm, but of course, along with about 30 others hoping to catch the same flight, we were bumped until the next morning. We tried in vain to get reimbursed for our troubles, with only a voucher for a discounted hotel room as our consolation. Likely because of DragonCon or whatever else was going on in downtown Atlanta, and some misunderstandings of the protocol for catching a shuttle to the hotel, we were unable to secure a hotel for the night. We decided to rough it and stay at the airport in order that we were able to be right up front for the 8am "maybe" flight down to Ft. Lauderdale. We adopted the Atlanta airport as our home for the night.
We camped out on the 3rd floor mezzanine area, above the grand lobby. It turned out that we certainly were not the only people with the idea of staying at the airport.
Callie played Gameboy for a while, and the whole place was crowded with soldiers and noise.
I felt very safe, but physically uncomfortable. We tried to sleep, but unfortunately for us, one of the other Atlanta stowaways produced some of the most horrendous, inhuman snoring known to man or beast. It was aggravating as hell, but all in all, quite amusing. This is him:
Callie devised a temporary solution, but it was too much for me.
I went off to scout a better spot to sleep, and found an interesting sign in the bathroom which Callie had noticed earlier. It was too funny not to get a picture.
The next morning, after shivering and uneasy all night, we managed to catch a flight to West Palm Beach, where my parents arrived to pick us up. We went to breakfast, then their new house, which was quite lovely, and just the type of place I pictured. We relaxed for a bit, before heading out to the Everglades for an airboat ride. I was very tired, but excited, despite the pensive look.
The everglades were quite a treat. The airboat was bigger than what I had imagined, and the tour was conducted by a guy named Dick. There were a lot of other tourists there, most of them yankees and foreigners. Check out how cool my family is, though.
There was one bird, whose name escapes me, but looked a bit like a snake/bird hybrid, who Dick explained lacked the proper oils to dry its feathers, so instead had to sun dry his wings.
Also, we saw a bunch of buzzard, some great flora, and a couple of baby alligators.
Back at the very backwoods souvenir shop, we saw some creepy taxidermy from yesteryear, but Callie got a high five nonetheless.
We then caught an alligator show, which was conducted by a very interesting fellow who had about the same number of teeth as fingers (8). The show was impressive and incredibly uncomfortable to watch at times, knowing full well that this guy had screwed up before. The gators were fucking huge.
I tipped the dude a dollar, which was all the cash I happened to have at the time. We left the everglades to go to a casino, which was actually quite sad, and I am glad I didn't spend/throw away more than $20 there. Nothing but blue hairs and thick smoke, broken machines and broken dreams. We were pretty tuckered out, and headed home for a swim in my parents pool. I could hardly stay awake on the way home, but once I had a bloody mary and some chips and hummus in me, I felt much better. We had shrimp and crab for dinner, and it was great to have a family dinner for the first time since Xmas. My mom's cooking will never disappoint. We crashed early, and slept for about 12 hours.
The next morning, we went to a ridiculous flea market thing, and walked around for a bit, not really shopping, but sort of shopping. My parents took us to a park/beach/reef so we could hang out and do some snorkeling. The reef was artificial, but we saw some really great fish, including a few Barracudas as well as a couple of Spanish Moon Fish. (Ask me about these.) Callie and I took a walk, and she found a blowfish. It had unfortunately shuffled from this mortal coil, but was still happy to bring the attention of some youngsters and posed for some photos.
The water was incredibly warm and crystal clear. We really enjoyed being there with the company of my folks. We went to dinner at some beachy place, where we saw a woman wearing a godawful dress thing that would make a stripper say gag. To boot, she was a leathery 50+, and had a face that looked like someone had hit her with a baseball bat, and then tried to fix it with another baseball bat. I guess she got the attention she was looking for. Our waitress was a bitch, but when the food came, I was able to see how she got away with it. The portions were huge, fresh, and deeeelicious. Callie and I both had some local Mahi that was absolutely a-mazing. We went back to relax a bit more, and hit the hay relatively early again.
This morning, my mom treated us to another great breakfast, and we watched the cats get interested in a squirrel who was teasing them from the other side of the screened in porch. I snapped a picture of them intrigued by the squirrel, but they of course wanted to pose for a shot as well.
The trip home went much more smoothly and without turmoil, and Callie's dad picked us up at the airport. We visited the Peck residence for an awesome cookout with her family and some tasty bison burgers. A couple of Miller Chills later and I was ready to get back to Shadowood.
Our weekend was exciting and long and wonderful. I really enjoy traveling, I've decided, and it's trips like this one that remind me why I do so much.
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