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G-Man's Boring Lawyer Blog
May 24th 2007, 05:31 CEST by Gabe I'm kind of curious. |
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Part V, where some poor sod gets their 4x4 stuck in the mud Our wakeup call came bearing coffee, just like the day before. He also persisted in calling my wife “Mama” and telling her to wake up. Again, I escorted him from the room where I got my wife up. We had coffee and packed up our bags for the move to our third stop of the trip, the Serengeti Sopa Lodge. We took our bags outside and found a couple of porters waiting for us. It was good to have them take the bags on the long haul uphill to the lobby where our guide was waiting for us. On the path to the lobby there was a large piece of ‘fertilizer’ that wasn’t there the night before. I’m glad we did not run into whatever deposited that there. My wife didn’t feel like eating, but the manager persisted in us having something to eat (and I really wanted to eat), so we had breakfast sitting on the veranda overlooking the hotel grounds. There was a selection of breads, pastries, fruit, juice and yogurt at the buffet. The hot portion was made to order and you could have eggs, sausage, bacon, and all the usual breakfast foods. I ordered some eggs and sausage. The eggs in Africa taste the same as here, but the yolks are a lot lighter in color. It was a bit odd compared to the bright yellow we have here, but I suspect their eggs might be ‘organic.’ The sausage was fantastic. We finished breakfast and met our guide back at the lobby. For our morning drive we were going back to the area we were at yesterday looking for a leopard. We would continue on to the Sopa lodge and planned to arrive there at around 1:00. We left the Migration camp around 7:45 and drove past the familiar herds of wildebeest and zebra and past the rows of acacia trees. We did not stop to look at much game for the first hour or so of our drive. We were on the look out for lions in the kopje but did not see any. We eventually took a turn and were on a new road. We were still going in the same direction as yesterday, but were taking a different path. The first game of the day that we stopped our jeep for were some giraffes. There was a family of them browsing very close to the road. In addition to being very close we were able to see some juvenile giraffes. I do not know if they were still nursing babies, but they were young. Three of them were clustered together with one elder nearby to keep an eye out. There were off to the front left of our jeep when I was filming them. Something spooked the young, I think my wife turned the camera on, and they ran off. It was a cool sight to see the three youngsters run off like that. Giraffes has a weird gait when the run. They didn’t run very far before they slowed down and stopped. It was some good video. We watched them a little bit more before we continued on our way. We crossed the same rivers that we did the day before, but being at different crossing points it afforded us a new view on nature. At one crossing the water was spilling over the road fast enough to turn it into a small waterfall. It was quite noisy too. To our left was the calm part of the river that was higher than the road; to the right the river was lower and had a lot more rocks exposed. The water spilled around the rocks until it settled down a little downstream. On our left, the calm side, were some hippos lazing about in the water. There were 5 that we could see from the herd. To our right, about 80 yards away, on some exposed rocks in the river were a couple of adult crocodiles sunning themselves. Closer to us on another rock was a stork hanging out. In front of use to the right were a couple of monitor lizards slowly moving to the left. One was about 4 feet long while the other was much smaller, about 2 feet. We took our pictures and went on our way. Our driver was moving at a good clip, so it was good we did not see anything noteworthy as we were driving. He said to us he was on a mission, but wouldn’t tell us what it was (for fear of disappointing us). We knew that something was up. It was another 30 to 40 minutes driving before we got to our destination. There were already 8 other safari vehicles staked out next a tree by the road, and more were arriving. Our driver maneuvered next to the grass on the road and he told us that a leopard had been spotted nearby. It had been seen at a tree about 40 yards away from us, a little to the left. As it was no one had seen if for some time. We waited for 15 minutes or so and no one had seen anything. By this point the area more resembled a traffic jam in midtown Manhattan than the Serengeti. Given that leopards are notoriously shy, we figured that with all this attention it had gone away into the bush for some peace and quiet. I was a bit bored and figured we were wasting our time and it was decided that we should move along. We had not moved more than three car lengths when our driver pulled up next to a safari vehicle that was parked next to the tree closes to the road. Someone had spotted the leopard; it did not leave the area like we thought. Unfortunately we were now parked behind someone else and had to look over/through them to see anything. Excitement was building as you could hear “ooh’s” and “ahs” from the others jeeps, but we were frustrated as we could not see anything. Finally the elusive leopard walked out of the bush and into full view, well, partial view for us as we had to deal with the jeep in front of us. We saw the forth, and by far the most difficult to see, of our big 5 (only the rhino remained, and that could only be seen in the Ngorongoro crater). Regardless of the circumstance, it was an awesome experience. The leopard sat down to the left side of the tree. To see over the jeep my wife had to go to the back of our truck and stand on the seat to get some shots, and we still had some girls arm stuck in the frame. I was taller and had longer arms so I could raise the video camera higher, but I still had to deal with this girl’s head in the way. The leopard got up and gingerly walked around behind the tree to the other side. It was in no rush. She ate some grass, which the guide told us was to induce vomiting since something must have been irritating her. She lay down on the grass in front of our obstacle. Our guide had tried to climb on top of our jeep to get a decent picture for us, but was unable. Instead he asked the guide in the jeep blocking our view to take some pictures for us. The scene around this one animal was complete madness. The number of safari vehicles angling for a view had grown while we were watching the animal. We were surrounded by them and more still were coming. The animal, probably having enough of this, decided that it was time to move on, got up and went into the bush. No one saw it and we thought it was gone. All at once the safari vehicles tried to fan out but the gridlock was nuts. Given that we were in 4x4 off-road vehicles, however, a few rules were broken and people started to make their own path out of there. Our guide, much to his credit, saw how it was going and got behind someone to go off-road and ending up cutting off about 6 or 7 vehicles. It was not an easy drive, however, as the rain from the past 3 nights made the ground a muddy mess to maneuver around. Trying to get back on road, which involved getting over a small hill the lined the road, I thought we were going to get stuck, but he put it into low and the Landcruiser didn’t have a problem. Some other poor soul, thought that they could try a K-turn on the road. As soon as they got their jeep sideways in the road none of their wheels could get any traction on the ruts and they were stuck. They tried rocking it and gunning the engine, neither of which worked. Their poor clients were missing/missed the leopard We were back on the road and sitting pretty. While we were watching the pandemonium of everyone trying to leave, out of the bush the leopard appeared again and got on to the road behind us. All the other guides saw it walking down the road and were jockeying for position (but thankfully to the park rules they couldn’t really go past it) to get a better shot. We got some awesome pictures and video as it walked up next to our jeep. My wife got a little overexcited in the commotion and was leaning her head out the window to look at it and take some pictures. However, it was right next to our jeep and staring her in the eyes. Realizing the situation she dove back into the jeep as it walked past her door. I was holding the video camera over the side of the roof hoping that I was lucky to get all of this in the frame (not very lucky there). The animal walked alongside the jeep stopping by our front left tire to mark it. Yes, the hardest animal of the big 5 to see took a piss on our jeep. We weren’t done yet with the leopard. My wife was in a frenzy about the leopard now and started barking orders at our guide. She wanted him to go down the road so that we could get a picture of its face. The animal sauntered into the bush giving us the opportunity to pass it on the road. We got ahead of it and for a second time watched it walk by us. All the other vehicles were shadowing us and the animal. We had gotten some great video and pictures, so we decided to take our leave of the animal and let some other people get their pictures of the shy leopard. It was an awesome experience and one of our highlights of the trip. We got off of that road and left the leopard behind to return to some sense of normalcy. We had driven about 15 minutes away from the leopard when we found a gaggle of vultures around a carcass. By my count at least 11 birds were eating what looked like a wildebeest. Unlike the first one we saw that was just a head and bones, this one was fresh. I zoomed in on the carcass and could see the birds duck their heads underneath the skin. You could see their heads darting back and forth under the skin as they fed. It was a bit gross, but cool to watch. We had to get moving to the Sopa lodge so we left the wooded areas to go across a big plain area of the Serengeti. Not much wildlife to see while we crossed except for a few ungulates and mongooses that commandeered a termite mound. Getting closer to the Sopa lodge the trees returned to the landscape. As if the morning drive couldn’t be anymore awesome we came across our second herd of elephants. There were browsing near a river that isn’t far from the hotel. It was another large herd and they had babies too. The herd was moving from right to left with a number that had already crossed the road. In front of use we saw a mother and her baby. We got some pictures and video as the baby nursed from its mother. Behind us on the road I saw a very large elephant walking towards us. Some of the females in the herd were in estrus and the elephant walking behind us was male that sense that. He was taking his time walking to the herd. At first I paid him no mind but it wasn’t long before he was very, very close. The guide told us not to make any sudden moves and to quiet and still. He would walk past us and continue on to mingling with the herd. I turned off the video camera, but my wife continued taking pictures. The elephant came to within a few yards of the jeep when it went to off the road to the right to pass us. It did notice us and gave us a small berth. We watched him go meet up with the rest of the herd that had crossed to our right. By this time it was 1:00 and we left the herd to go to the Sopa lodge. The entrance to the Sopa lodge wasn’t far from where we watched the elephants, about a 5 minute drive. Off the main road you enter into complex by taking a steep and bumpy ride up a hill. For some reason, comedy I think, they decided to put a speed bump near the top of the driveway where it was the bumpiest. We pulled up to see ported dressed up in some faux native dress. It looked very costume-ish, especially when compared to the other places we stayed at where they wore khakis and polo shirts. We went to the lobby to check in and were greeted with cool fruit juice and a wet facecloth to freshen up. They also took our lunch order for the next day as we were getting a box lunch. We both ended up ordering chicken and mustard. The hotel immediately lacked the intimate feel of the other two places we stayed at. We checked in and were shown to our room. Outside we saw some wildlife, there was a baboon and some lizards, but we weren’t warned about walking out at night time. All of the rooms have outside doors. Inside the room there was a bench to the right and a fridge to the left, but nothing was inside it. To the right were the two double beds, each with their own mosquito netting, and a desk on the opposite side. The bathroom was large, but the door didn’t stay open if you wanted it to. There was some weird day-glo painted art object in the room that was ceiling high. The rooms were recently renovated and they looked OK. I think the paint was new and they recently installed safes in the room. It felt like an OK Holiday Inn, but nothing special. Certainly not as luxurious as the previous places we stayed. The view from the room was great as the hotel was on a hill. We plugged our camera to recharge (only one object at a time since they didn’t have a universal plug like the other place) and went to lunch. The dining room was a lot bigger than any of the other ones we ate at. For our lunch it was very empty as the other guests were out on safari with a box lunch or already ate. We were surprised that it was a four course lunch. We had expected to be able to order a hamburger or something. There were a couple of choices for the starter, a soup, 3 choices for lunch and two for dessert. I ended up getting the tuna for lunch. I didn’t expect much, but it wasn’t very good. It had a crumbly crust like it was fried and tasted way too fishy to be good tuna. I forget what my wife ordered, but it was better. For dessert I ordered a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting that had coconut on the outside. It was great (I forget what they called, I think of langoleer, but I know that’s not right). We finished up and decided to check out the gift shop. Being that it was a larger hotel they had that extra amenity. When we flew to the Serengeti we saw a couple pull out a road map and decided that we wanted one too. We picked one up for $10 and as luck would have it, it sucked. That’s OK, because I also bought a mini-DV tape for $20 since I thought we were going to run out. There were a few sundries in the shop, but as expected they were all over priced. There was a TV room next to the bar and we checked that out, but they had a soccer game on so we left (didn’t actually get in, just enough to peek at the screen). That was the only TV that we would see while in Africa. We went back to our room and hung out until it was time for our 4:00 game drive. We met our guide out front at 4:00 and left on our game drive. We went out the way we came in and passed by where we saw the elephants earlier. We were not far away from that spot where we found a single male eating. The acacia tree he was at didn’t have any low branches to strip so he was reaching up high as possible with his trunk to reach them. I thought he would go back on his two legs, but he never did. We watched him eat for several minutes when he got tired of reaching for the branches and walked to an acacia tree near by. The tree was right in front of us and wasn’t particularly large in the base. The tree trunk was crooked and the elephant must have noticed this. What happened next I never expected to see. The elephant put its trunk and head on the tree and started pushing it. The guide had told us that elephants are destructive to the environment and would knock tree downs, and here one was doing it right in front of us. We saw the elephant tense up and push. You could hear the trunk creaking. The elephant tensed back for another thrust and with all its might pushed at the tree. We heard more creaking and cracking and could see the tree listing. Three more pushes and the tree was lying on the ground. The elephant felled it (and I got it all on tape). He proceeded to walk around the tree to where the tops of the branches were and eat the leaves. The tree top fell right next to the road and the elephant was eating right next to us. We could watch how he used his trunk and tusk to strip the thorns off the acacia branch before eating the leaves. We watched as he would twist and turn his trunk around the branch to rip it off the tree. We watched the elephant eat for 10 more minutes when we left him in peace. Another couple had joined us watching him eat, but they missed the best part of him knocking down the tree. We drove around the Serengeti seeing various gazelles, zebras and wildebeest. We had see much of the big game that there was to see, now it was about observing it for all those little details, like a zebra mother and its calf. In this afternoon we didn’t see a lot noteworthy in the afternoon. Our guide took us to a lake where we were able to see some flamingos and other waterfowl. Like all the other days in the Serengeti it got overcast and grey. We got back to the hotel at around 6:45 and went to the bar to wait for dinner. The bar had the same great view of the Serengeti as the rooms. We had a few drinks and watched the rain fall on the plain. It didn’t rain as bad and previous days and was more of a drizzle than a downpour. At 7:30 we made our way dinner with everyone else. We were shown to our table and given the menus. For the dinner main course they had an African dish available, but we weren’t brave enough to try it. However, the waiter offered to bring it to us to put in the middle to try it, so we agreed. It was a beef stew with coconut rice. It had a curry flavor in it, but not too strong. The kitchen operation here seemed to be run like a banquet hall. All of the food came out swiftly, and given the number of people that sit down at once we were sure they had it all prepared in the back for plating and serving. The food was OK, but not as nice as the other camp. We finished up and went back to our room dead tired. The staff had turned the room down for us and setup the mosquito netting around the beds. It was a bit warm however as there wasn’t a lot of ventilation in the room. A ceiling fan would have worked wonders as well as some screened windows. We went to sleep with an amazing day behind us having seen and experienced things in one day that people spend many days on safari and never see. It was an amazing day. Tomorrow would bring a new adventure as we were going to a Masaai village and the Ngorongoro crater where we hoped we would be able to complete our big 5. Part VI to be continued... <Hugin_len> Basically, cheesy doesn't have awful taste in music, he's simply very white.
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(I'll read Cheesy's ramblings later) Web browser: K-Meleon. Still the best browser bar none. IRC client: mIRC. Been using it since the dark ages and IRC just doesn't look right in any other program even if mIRC itself is actually pretty dated now. Lightweight database: Don't do any lightweight database stuff, it's all web dev so mySQL. IM client: Miranda IM. Like Trillian except not bloated and ugly. Although I've found that people only message me when I'm not at the computer. Photo editor: Photoshop, even if every version since about 5 has added more bad than good. Video/audio player: Media Player Classic for video and radio, Winamp Lite for mp3s and the like. RSS reader: don't use. Newsgroup reader: use Google Groups to search them once in a blue moon, that's all. Hex editor: don't use. Compression utility: 7-Zip. Not as pretty as others but it's simple and opens a lot of formats. Bittorrent client: uTorrent. Azureus was bloatsville last I checked. I also run PeerGuardian2 at the same time. In your face, MAFIAA! Lightweight web server: Have Apache running on my home server so don't need a lightweight one. CD/DVD burning: Nero, even though I hates it, hates it. Registry backup: why would I do that? If my computer dies then I'm fucked, like God intended. Comics reader: See "Web Browser" above. Although I do keep a text file with how far through various comic's archives I've read. Mail client: Thunderbird. Eudora was nice but it fell to the bloat monster and with the last couple of versions Thunderbird does everything I want now anyway. Special mention to Gmail for letting me pipe all my mail through their spam filter. Video converter: DVD Shrink is about the only converting I do. Windows Update alternative: didn't know there were any, but I'm lucky if I update once every 6 months so that's not surprising. Music organizer/converter: Windows Explorer. Fuck iTunes. FTP client: SmartFTP. Not enthralled with it but it's the best of a bad bunch. Always open to suggestions on this one. Photo album software: I keep them in directories, the directories are in YYYY-MM-DD format, does that count? File manager/renamer: Windows Explorer. I occasionally wish I had a nice simple renamer but not enough to hunt one down. Text editor: Notepad. Homesite for coding. Hardware monitoring/logging: Once my computer is up and running I don't bother with it. Who cares how hot the CPU is as long as it's running safely? I'll second LP's mention of O&O Defrag though, only downloaded it the other day because the Windows one doesn't actually seem to defrag shit, a slight failing for defrag software one might say, but O&O did me right. Its interface is a bit over-designed, but you can forgive that because it comes with little boxes jumping about. Image viewer: Acdsee Classic v2.44. Video editing suite: none yet. Audio editing suite: I download Goldwave on the very rare occasions I need one. MP3 Of The Week: Hello? Hello? Is this thing even on?
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Holy shit, there's more! Very cool stuff. I want to see a bull elephant up close like that. Awesome. My intelligence, then, is not absolute but is a function of the society I live in
"I'm not sure it's possible to make a "subtle" jab at Matt's writing ability." - Ergo |
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Well, each post is working out to a day and I have 4 more days left, so there's about 4 more posts till pictures. I think the last three will be shorter as there's less super unique stuff that happened. <Hugin_len> Basically, cheesy doesn't have awful taste in music, he's simply very white.
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the no pictures thing is killing me. My intelligence, then, is not absolute but is a function of the society I live in
"I'm not sure it's possible to make a "subtle" jab at Matt's writing ability." - Ergo |
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He also persisted in calling my wife “Mama” and telling her to wake up. Again, I escorted him from the room where I got my wife up. This sounds strange and annoying. Great post. Actually, the liberalism of the media - as a general thing - IS a major fallacy. What the media is, is a whore. -LP Johnsen Family
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G-Man sure made an efficient troll huh? (going by the m0ntyanian Troll Rating System) It was kind of an interesting list for me to compile, 'cuz I take my programs seriously man. In the sense that I want as few of them installed/in use as possible. So my list reflects a constant unification process, the less the better. Part of my attraction to Macs is their promise of coherent, pre-installed programs covering most (all?) of my needs (besides, some of the 3rd party programs I've seen are fantastically polished to stay coherent with the OS UI) Web browser: Firefox. Because IE is such terrible shit. RSS reader: Firefox Mail client: Firefox FTP client: Firefox plugin IM client: Trillian IRC client: Trillian CD/DVD burning: Windows Explorer Comics reader: Windows Explorer (rename to .zip, unpack) Image viewer: Windows Explorer Photo album software: Windows Explorer File manager/renamer: Windows Explorer Music organizer/converter: WMP Audio Player: WMP Text editor: Notepad Photo editor: Photoshop Compression utility: WinRAR. Because Windows Explorer fails to support .rar Video player: Media Player Classic. Probably the only program I'll actively recommend someone should use. Web server & Bittorrent client: Offloaded to a dedicated Linux box I'll occasionally use VirtualDub to do some video/audio editing, but I culled programs I don't use more than a few times a year. Hardware monitoring/logging, Registry backup, Hex editor, Screencapture, Newsgroup reader: None "…a four-dimensional real vector space equipped with a nondegenerate, symmetric bilinear form."
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One piece of software I would like to find is a good MP3 normaliser, something that will even out the volume on all my mp3's on my ipod. Even better would be something to just make them all super loud, because my FM transmitter doesn't broadcast them as loudly as I'd like, I have to turn the car stereo up so much it starts to buzz. Any suggestions? Xnews for newsreading. It was good enough for Bailey. |
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lower the volume on the ipod as you raise the volume on the car stereo. The buzz is usually because theiPod is jacked up all the way, not because you have to turn up the radio loud enough to rock out. Usually. "Testiculos habet et bene pendentes" — "He has testicles, and they dangle nicely."
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When I use my FM transmitter, changing the iPod volume doesn't do anything. It transmits at just one volume. Have you tried using he Sound Check option on your ipod? Also try adjusting the volume individually on each song. My crummy little life
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mp3gain is a good free normalizer. Make sure you use album-based normalizing instead of track-based, though, or you'll screw up some song transitions, e.g. the start of the first Enigma album. "Games are not novels, and the ways in which they harbor novelistic aspirations are invariably the least interesting thing about them." - Steven Johnson
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The iPod volume doesn't affect the FM transmitter at all, because it's hooked up thought the dongle and not the headphone jack? Thanks Bob. I'll have to look into iPod sound check, never heard of it. |
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Web browser: Firefox 2 (3 is stil too buggy). IRC client: On the three occasions that I logged into IRC, I used mIRC. Lightweight database: The only database I have is of my (stolen) movies and TV, and I use Ant Movie Catalog for that. IM client: I have 1 contact in Google Talk. Photo editor: I may have Gimp installed, but I can't say I use it. Video/audio player: Media Player Classic, Winamp, VLC. RSS reader: Nothing fancier than Live Bookmarks in Firefox. Newsgroup reader: Pan. Many people swear by 40tude Dialog. Hex editor: None. Compression utility: WinRAR, 7-zip. Bittorrent client: uTorrent. Lightweight web server: None. CD/DVD burning: Nero/Alcohol. I tried out free alternatives, still too shitty. Registry backup: None. Comics reader: None. Mail client: Thunderbird. Video converter: VirtualDub/AviSynth. Windows Update alternative: None. Music organizer/converter: None. FTP client: SmartFTP. Windows command line ftp client doesn't do passive connections. Photo album software: None. File manager/renamer: None. Text editor: UltraEdit32. Hardware monitoring/logging: None. Image viewer: IrfanView. Video editing suite: None. Audio editing suite: Audacity. |
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Mac fag alert! Web browser: Flock IRC client: N/A Lightweight database: N/A IM client: N/A Photo editor: Photoshop CS Video/audio player: VLC RSS reader: Flock Newsgroup reader: N/A Hex editor: N/A Compression utility: OSX Zip and/or DMG support Bittorrent client: Transmission Lightweight web server: N/A CD/DVD burning: OSX Registry backup: N/A Comics reader: N/A Mail client: Mostly webmail/squirrelmail Video converter: MPEG Streamclip Windows Update alternative: N/A Music organizer/converter: iTunes FTP client: Fetch Photo album software: N/A File manager/renamer: Finder Text editor: TextMate Hardware monitoring/logging: N/A Image viewer: iPhoto Video editing suite: N/A Audio editing suite: Audacity |
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Web browser: firefox 2 IRC client: mIRC, I guess... IM client: miranda - just too slick, and works with the g15 lcd Photo editor: irfanview does everything I need Video/audio player: winamp2.95 for video and foobar2k for audio RSS reader: live bookmarks in firefox Compression utility: wincmd with 7zip plugin Bittorrent client: uTorrent. CD/DVD burning: nero Mail client: Thunderbird. Video converter: virtualdub... and gordianknot, every once in a blue moon Music organizer/converter: tabs in foobar2k FTP client: wincmd File manager/renamer: wincmd Text editor: Notepad Hardware monitoring/logging: speedfan, rivatuner... probably a bunch of others I don't remember Image viewer: acdsee & irfanview Audio editing suite: does wavepad count as such? I use that sometimes "If I have seen further than others it is by judicious use of teh driver hacks"
Sir Isaac Newton, February 1675 |
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I need to try Flock again Warren. It was pretty buggy when I first downloaded it, but it's probably been over a year now. I liked the idea. Actually, the liberalism of the media - as a general thing - IS a major fallacy. What the media is, is a whore. -LP Johnsen Family
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As m0nty has pointed out, it's basically just FireFox with some extras but ... I like the extras, so it works for me. |
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How leaky is it now, Warren? |
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Was it leaky? I dunno, seems to run OK for me. |
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#903 by Ergo 2007-07-06 18:40:34 Speaking of which, I should probably look at selling my old comics. They're just taking up space at this point. What do you have and how much? |
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Read my blog posts! They're fun! <Hugin_len> Basically, cheesy doesn't have awful taste in music, he's simply very white.
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Web browser: Camino or Firefox. If it ever catches up to the Firefox release schedule, Flock. RSS reader: Netvibes Mail client: Gmail FTP client: Transmit IM client: Adium IRC client: Xchat for Camino CD/DVD burning: Toast Titanium Comics reader: Comic Book Lover (iTunes for comics, rocks!) Image viewer: Preview/Photoshop CS3 Photo album software: iPhoto File manager/renamer: Finder (It sucks.) Music organizer/converter: iTunes (Fully organized, rated, and with album art. Every track. It rocks.) Audio Player: iTunes Text editor: TextEdit/MarsEdit (The latter for posting to multiple blogs at once.) Photo editor: Photoshop CS3 (Manga Studio for illustration.) Compression utility: Some freeware 7zip variant for Mac. Video player: VLC. Lord of media players. Web server & Bittorrent client: Transmission, Mac. Hardware monitoring/logging: Do I have thick framed glasses with tape in the middle? Registry backup: Regi-what? Mac, baby. Hex editor: Some obscure, freeware Mac Hex app. Screencapture: OSX's built in capability to take screengrabs and save them out as PNGs. Newsgroup reader: None. |
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#935 by Ray What do you have and how much? Well, shit, now I'll have to look. Mostly mid-80s stuff. I bought extensively for a while when I was in college, but finally realized how stupid they were and stopped buying them. You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religions. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, intelligent enough. --Aldous Huxley
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Mostly mid-80s stuff. I bought extensively for a while when I was in college, but finally realized how stupid they were and stopped buying them. A ringing endorsement from a great sales-man. fuck your song
and fuck your dance fuck your keeping me down and under |
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I want old comics, cheesy ones, for research purposes! I aim for Golden Age, if possible, but am certainly willing to hear about what ya got. |
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#939 by mgns Mostly mid-80s stuff. I bought extensively for a while when I was in college, but finally realized how stupid they were and stopped buying them. A ringing endorsement from a great sales-man. I aim to please. You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religions. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, intelligent enough. --Aldous Huxley
DVDs |
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I have tons of comics sitting in my parent's closets. World of Warcraft is a pie eating contest where the reward is more pie.
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Me = old comics whore. |
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Blog time. So this past weekend was the big family wedding for Jen and I. It went really well. My parents worked very hard to throw a groom's dinner on Saturday night. We arrived in Minneapolis on Thursday, and I helped my mother groom the back yard. We cleaned the pool, chopped up some old fallen tree branches, cleaned the pavement, had the old lumber hauled away, etc... My brother and his girlfriend helped. Overall, we got the place looking pretty spiffy. Remember, this is the house my brother calls "the center of entropy in the universe". A lot of work was done on the house that needed doing, so I was happy that it got done. The back yard fence largely needed replacing, the front walkway was replaced with fresh concrete. They also had the house painted as it hadn't been done since I painted it myself five years ago. My Dad was pretty well behaved through all this, little did I know that this would be the theme for the whole weekend. Jen and I constructed a propane grill, as the Saturday night dinner would be an outdoor BBQ. We rented some tables, chairs and a couple tents, as the sun was pretty intense in Minneapolis for the last week. There was a lot of anticipation about this dinner as it would be the second time we would be having a big meeting of the too families over dinner. The first time was five years previous when we announced that 1.) we were getting married and 2.) we were moving to Boston together. There is always the potential for these things to go very badly, especially in my family. Saturday, Jen and I went to her aunt and uncle's place for lunch. They live just outside Minneapolis in Eagan. Jen showed her mother and aunts her dress, which I hadn't seen yet, and they helped her prepare an aisle for her to walk down. The plan was to be married here and so they took some metal stands and threaded white veil lace and ribbons through them to make an aisle. It was quite pretty and I started to think this wedding might actually come together. A big part of my anxiety about this was also that Jen get the wedding that she wanted, etc... I played Wii with her cousins and we had lunch. It was a pretty good time. After lunch, I set out to find a new shirt for my tuxedo. Rental tuxes almost always come with shirts that are mostly polyester because it is easy to keep them clean and looking nice. The problem with that is they feel like a dutch oven when you wear them on a hot summer day for an outdoor wedding. The tuxedo was a classic tuxedo except I went with a long more traditional tieI found a 100% cotton shirt as a replacement then made my way to my parents house. It was a brutally hot day. Everyone showed up to my parent's house and we had dinner. My best man barbecued and cooked for us so the family could mingle. He was immensely helpful and really contributed to making the whole weekend go well. We cooked brats, burgers and sausages for dinner. My brother made fresh guacamole. My sister made some beautiful fruit plates and salads. My father surprised us by having many bottles of champagne for an after dinner toast. My mother made pecan pies and a fruit cobbler and it was all delicious. After dinner, everyone sat around with their feet in the pool. My brother's girlfriend and I decided to jump in the pool and swim. Then other people followed and many of us went swimming. Everything had gone well, nothing embarrassing happened, my father was on his best behavior. I went to the end of the pool and kind of hung from the diving board. The water had cooled me off nicely and I sat there thinking that I can't remember the last time I'd felt this happy about anything. My Dad gave us a bottle of Cristal for our wedding night. Sunday was the big day. I slept late as the previous day was exhausting from the prep work and the heat and swimming. I ate lunch and started to get ready for the wedding around 2 pm. We were scheduled to start at 4:30pm. There was a slight mix up with the string quartet we'd hired for the ceremony, for some reason they had thought we wanted them from 4:00pm to 5:30pm. I'm not sure who's fault it was but they were being kind of dicks about everything, but it was a minor annoyance. I got my tux on, which was just a very traditional black tuxedo that looked pretty much like a black suit. I had vest and long tie, no bow tie. My dad helped me adjust it and by 3:15 I was ready to go and started to head out to the site. I'd rented a Mitsubishi Eclipse convertible rather than deal with a limousine, mostly because I just think limos look kind of silly and I didn't want to deal with a driver and paying him to mostly stand around. Jen has a thing for convertibles and has always said she's dreamed of owning one, so I figured this was the way to go. I got in the car and started driving. It was about 3:30 pm. Then the rain started. It started with a few drops. This went on for a few minutes. Then the downpour came. Huge fat chubby rain. Torrential downpour. Traffic on the highway came to a stop. Visibility got low. Time ticked by. From looking at the clock, just about every one attending was fighting this monsoon to get to the sculpture garden. Sad panda. The back up site for rain was this conservatory located right in the garden. It looked like plan B was in full effect. I arrived at the parking lot and saw people running from their cars to the conservatory entrance. I realized that my umbrellas were in the trunk, so I popped the trunk and hurriedly got an umbrella out trying not to get too wet. A man called out to me, "Are you Al?", I turned around and saw a man standing next to a car with a woman sitting in it. They were the photographers. I greeted them and they tried to reassure me that the rain was no big deal and that everything will go well. I was not really concerned about the rain, I was actually kind of hoping for some light rain so that we wouldn't have to stand in the punishing sun. I got inside and the humidity of the greenhouse hit me like a sauna. I was sweating already. Its okay though. I could hear the string quartet playing as soon as I got inside. The mix up was actually okay, because they started playing right at 4:00pm and people were arriving now so the background music is good. Jen's dress looked great. We took some photos before the ceremony. I met the minister, he was a nice chipper fellow and I was really pleased that I went with him. He really took charge of organizing the chaos at this point, and I'm glad I paid for him because he did charge a bit more than other people. He was really helpful with planning the vows and started herding the cats that were our guests as everyone kind of arrived out of the rain with looks of "what next?" on their faces. The minister organized us into a procession. The music started and we went. Jen looked great. I was still sweating. The minister read our vows and I really liked the way he did it. Again, I was glad that I chose him. I only flubbed my lines a little bit. Shortly after I said "I do" there was a loud crash of thunder and lightning. God was angry. The ending of our vows was reading from the Apache wedding blessing, the first line of which is: "Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be the shelter for each other." That sparked a lot of laughter. I kissed her and it was finally done! The Real Fake Wedding was a smashing success! We got into a receiving line. Most of Jen's family were people I'd never met before. I saw some members of my family I hadn't seen in many many years. I met a first cousin for the first time. It was at this point the string quartet pissed us off. They stopped playing at five, I thought we'd had them until 5:30. They wanted their money and they wanted to leave. I had Jen's mom pay them and they left. Whatever, no big deal, everything else was going so well I wasn't going to let it bother me. Then the pictures started. This was the most painful part. Posing in all those cheesy pictures. Trying to organize everyone to get in and out of the picture. Trying to make sure people didn't wander too far away as they might be needed for a picture. Trying to keep a fake smile on your face for 90 minutes is surprisingly hard. My Dad was great about this. He kept trying to tell jokes are make faces or do anything to make people smile and laugh during the photos. I was trying to do the same. At one point when the photographer was having us pose in an especially cheesy kissing shot, I whispered to Jen "Please kill me" and she burst out laughing. I'm interested in how that photo turned out. Also, I took my glasses off for the photos, so I had a hard time focusing my eyes on anything and my eyes kept wandering away from the camera. It actually made me realize that models actually have to do some work and acting, because that 90 minute photo shoot was tiring. When we finally finished, I pulled the convertible up and got Jen in. We drove to the zoo. We had arrived last because of photos. The DJ announced us as we came into the Discovery Bay area. This was the best decision we made. The Zoo as our location for the reception was a big, big hit, so I'd like to thank Ergo for giving me the idea. There were about 35 kids under 12 and they were running around every where looking at what the zoo had to offer. The shark tank and dolphin tank were big hits, as well as the aquatic petting zoo where the kids could reach into a tank and actually pet the fish. One of Jen's aunts had made an activity kit for every child. It consisted of a bag with toys and candy in it, along with crayons and a coloring book. The coloring book had things like "connect the dots" pictures of a bride and groom and a maze entitled "Help Al find his way to the wedding on time!". The parents loved this. Between that and the fish tanks, the parents could pretty much ignore their kids all night. We had an open bar, but it was a Sunday so people kept the drinking way below what I had budgeted. This was good. Jen and I got drinks and sat down. I felt much better after the first drink. We took pictures of us cutting the cake so that the catering people could start cutting it in the back. We made the mistake of not announcing this on the speaker system so a bunch of people missed it. My best man made the first toast, recounting how we had become friends playing Warcraft 2 against each other 11 years ago. He was really a great help all weekend. Jen's matron of honor gave a nice toast as well. My Dad's toast was the read "From a Father to His Son On The Day of His Wedding" by Rudyard Kipling, which he had framed in a picture frame. My father pretty much blew me away this weekend. I don't remember the last time I had such good feelings toward him. I was proud to be his son. I weakly thanked everyone, not having prepared to speak, and worried I might start crying or something. Jen thanked everyone, and was clearly getting a little tipsy, which was pretty funny. Dinner came out. First the salad, it was just a simple Mixed Greens with Creamy Herb Dressing. It was quite good, I liked the dressing a lot. The main course was marinated top sirloin steak, herb crusted sauteed breast of chicken, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, green beans and carrots with thyme butter, bread and butter. We went with a duet so that we wouldn't have to count up the number of people who want chicken, the number of people that want steak, etc... It was a little bit more expensive but I think it worked out well. Everyone had plenty to eat with two pieces of meat. The green beans were cooked just right. The potatoes were delicious, my favorite part of the meal. Whole big chunks of garlic in them. So tasty. The kids got chicken tenders, criss-cut fries, fresh fruit, applesauce. We let people mill around and drink a bit. Then my Dad pointed out that many people had missed the cutting of the cake. We debated it a bit but ultimately decided to announce a cutting of the cake over the microphone and then cut the top layer piece of the cake for everyone to see. Normally people freeze this part of the cake and eat it on their one year anniversary, but that sounds kind of gross to me and besides I'll just buy Jen a new cake. Also, people were telling us that butter cream cake frosting doesn't keep well anyway. So we cut the top part of the cake for all to see and take pictures and then took it home with us and ate parts of it in the hotel room the next day. After everyone had cake, Jen and had our first dance. We danced to "our song" which is Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight". Its cheesy and I'm sure it is "the song" of many couples but you don't really get to choose these things. One night in the first year of our relationship I had sung it to Jen one night while she was falling asleep and it just kind of stuck as our song. We had later traveled together to see a Clapton concert and that just kind of reinforced it, because we'd had such a great weekend together on that trip. Jen and her father danced to "Daddy's Hands" by Holly Dunn as she is a country girl. My mom and I danced to "The Long and Winding Road" by The Beatles. Everyone had a great time dancing, my dad danced up a storm and was enthusiastic about everything. I danced with the little girls who enjoyed having me toss them up in the air since I'm so tall. We had a Dollar Dance, which is cheesy too, but turned out to be a good idea because it gave many relatives a chance to talk to us one on one. There was that one relative who had too much to drink and was dancing a little to close to me, but every family has one... Since it was Sunday, I'd expected the whole event to stop earlier than midnight, but people were having a good time and we went right up to midnight. I took Jen away in the convertible and that was it... The next day we opened gifts. They were mostly checks, which was a relief. We got some of the china and flatware we registered for and will be buying the rest. One gift was hilariously awful, lets just say that someone decided to craft/sew a monstrosity of a gift that is indescribable. Maybe I'll put a picture of it at one point. We said our goodbyes to Jen's family and then went to lunch at our favorite restaurant in Minneapolis. Jen and I both rode this wave of happiness and relief for the next two days. It was pretty awesome. Our families came through for us big. Bigger than I thought possible. It's got me a little verklempt thinking about it. I feel pretty lucky. Lucky to have such great family old and new; and lucky that I found this incredible person to marry me. World of Warcraft is a pie eating contest where the reward is more pie.
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TLDR! World of Warcraft is a pie eating contest where the reward is more pie.
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Congrats, Al. I watched Aliens, and I didn't even get a lousy t-shirt.
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GIFs! Game Developers: Don't forget the zombie monkeys.
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Hooray! Sounds like fun. My wedding day it rained, and rained, and rained so more. We heard about freezing the top layer too, but didn't do that. Took it home and put it in the fridge and had it when we got back from the honeymoon. <Hugin_len> Basically, cheesy doesn't have awful taste in music, he's simply very white.
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Grats, McBain. Also, GIFs! |
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I have no photos yet from the photographer. World of Warcraft is a pie eating contest where the reward is more pie.
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Woohoo! I'm glad everything went so well for you. Actually, the liberalism of the media - as a general thing - IS a major fallacy. What the media is, is a whore. -LP Johnsen Family
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We didn't freeze the top layer of your cake, the baker actually made a mini layer especially for us to freeze. It wasn't bad, but nothing special either. People have to understand that stuff with fat gets stinky pretty quick in a freezer. Actually, the liberalism of the media - as a general thing - IS a major fallacy. What the media is, is a whore. -LP Johnsen Family
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Congrats on the marriage and the lack of father-ruining! |
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Nice story, McBain. Good for you. Now goddammit, something unfortunate has to happen to you, your life can't be so perfect. Break a fingernail or something for heaven's sake, you're making us all look bad. |
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Glad everything worked out, Mcbain! Sounds like it was a smashing hit the whole way through... so now, when do you tell them it was a fake? :D My intelligence, then, is not absolute but is a function of the society I live in
"I'm not sure it's possible to make a "subtle" jab at Matt's writing ability." - Ergo |
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Nice story, McBain. Good for you. Now goddammit, something unfortunate has to happen to you, your life can't be so perfect. Break a fingernail or something for heaven's sake, you're making us all look bad. Uh... he got married. The bad is already built in. |
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Nice one, McB! I wonder what your family did to bribe your Dad into good behaviour! - words and stuff -
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Maybe he was just being magnanimous. <Hugin_len> Basically, cheesy doesn't have awful taste in music, he's simply very white.
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He was already married. This was just a party. Nice try there, lonely boy. Congrats, McBain! Glad to hear everything went so well. We didn't freeze our top layer either because our baker (we still go to her bakery often) tosses in a free mini-cake on your anniversary that's designed like your top layer (though we requested she change it to chocolate...sweet, sweet chocolate). Lady, people aren't chocolates. But you know what they are, mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.
Blog. 203 lbs. 23 to go. |
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Yeah, this was the fake wedding. They've been married a while, and amazingly they still like each other. Shock! Actually, the liberalism of the media - as a general thing - IS a major fallacy. What the media is, is a whore. -LP Johnsen Family
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#959 by Jibble We didn't freeze our top layer either because our baker (we still go to her bakery often) tosses in a free mini-cake on your anniversary that's designed like your top layer (though we requested she change it to chocolate...sweet, sweet chocolate). Hmm, I don't even remember what my cake tasted like. I only remember one of the desserts at the reception were the best éclairs I've ever had. One of the flower girls was running back and forth from the kitchen bringing me a steady supply. Actually, the liberalism of the media - as a general thing - IS a major fallacy. What the media is, is a whore. -LP Johnsen Family
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I think we enjoyed all of our food (that which we got to eat, at least). We got some containers to take away that were supposed to have food in them. When we found ourselves starving in the hotel room late that night we opened them up. All of them were filled with cake. Lady, people aren't chocolates. But you know what they are, mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.
Blog. 203 lbs. 23 to go. |
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those are awesome locations you had McB. That rain was pretty torrential, but it just adds to the memories. And everyones song is cheesy. Ours was/is My Best Friend by Queen. "Testiculos habet et bene pendentes" — "He has testicles, and they dangle nicely."
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I don't think we have a "song". If we got married and had to have a first dance, we'd probably play Lee by Moxy Fruvous, the song about making a suicide pact with your dying wife. |
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I think our song was I Wanna (Sex You up) by Color Me Badd. Actually, the liberalism of the media - as a general thing - IS a major fallacy. What the media is, is a whore. -LP Johnsen Family
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