What we paid to see at the Tulsa Zoo.

A link for Mike and the other gamers (video games). It's like the author stole Mike's voice as I could see him writing something similar...

And a link for Kat. (Germans and sex and morality.)

Enjoy...

Thankfully there was very little poo-flinging...

Exhibit Temporarily Closed

Spend Saturday in Tulsa with Collin, Kat, Nich, Sarah and (of course) Jessica. We went to the zoo. It was a great day, as we were footloose and fancy-free. No cares or concerns. Just captured animals to view.

Problem though....see the Tulsa Zoo actually sucks pretty hard. Especially if you've ever been to good zoos. So many of the exhibits had nice little signs indicating they were were temproarily closed. So many in fact that we soon got bored with our makeshift photo record of the missing animals. Over the next few weeks I'll pepper the blog with the better photos from the trip.

To top it off...Jess' left shoe essentially melted and came unglued late in the day leaving her to shuffle around like the Mummy in order to keep her shoe together and on her foot.

After the zoo...we headed to Utica Square for some shopping and dinner at P.F. Changs. Dinner certainly made up for the very average zoo. We all enjoyed or meals and cannot wait for the one to open nearby in Rogers. I had wok-seared lamb that was so good...and while it was delicious I think I enjoyed the shrimp that Nick ordered even more.

Special thanks to Peter and Beth for stopping by and checking in on Vagabond. I now know how inconvenient that actually was...so again...Thank you.

There was one other big thing this weekend and I do not have a lot of details at this point....Wade and J are officially parents of a little boy. J gave birth to Jack on Saturday. I'll post a photo as soon as I have one and have permission from the parents. I know that Wade and J will be excellent parents. Jess and I now have an additional excuse to make trips to Little Rock.

Today...looking forward to some traditional grilling with friends...some drinking and general relaxing. Jess and I just finished our major weekend project, which was to make a gate for our fence that could accomodate a larger mower or tractor.

Mission accomplished. Let the laziness begin!!!

Windy flowers from a walk a few weeks ago.

I'm back.

Spent the weekend in Little Rock. Main reason was to visit the Greek Food Fest.

There, Jessica and I met up with Peter and Beth, Martin and Virginia (Bet's parents), Bryan, and Jess' mother Alese. Quite a crowd. Jessica and I only spent around 1 hour at the event. Long enough to get some food, talk with our friends, and watch some Russian dancing. (I know...you're saying..."But he just said it was a Greek Food Fest." That's right...but they feature other nationalities.) We might have stayed longer but Jess was a bit warm and it was going to be an hour before the next set of dancers performed.

The we went and saw The Interpreter. If you like political thrillers with an overt political message...then this movie is for you. Not for the Conservatives out there as it barely masks it's pro-UN bias. Though, as the first movie to actually film inside the UN it was rather cool the see the interiors of the General Assembly room from different perspectives. Also, the acting was universally sound but Sean Penn always looks a bit too weary in almost everything he's in.

Soccer was a bust yet again. First half we held them scoreless and had a 1-0 lead. We ended up losing 5-1 in another second half blowout. Another member of the team got a red card and was actually kicked off the field due to his constant yelling. The refs did get the call wrong but screaming obscenities at them wasn't going to convince them to change their minds.

Mountain Inn is still standing...no real change. I'll get a new photo when something interesting happens. Right now they appear to still be in prep mode. We'll see if I can snap some photos and not get flagged by Homeland Security.

Some of the visible work on the Mountain Inn thus far.

So as I was taking this picture I happened onto the Federal Building property...let me tell you...not the thing to do with a camera. I was told to not take photos of the building and to stay on the sidewalk. Both reasonable requests. And the security guy was friendly, though rather serious. In the current climate though I kept wondering if my photo was being taken or if I was going to be followed home. I don't like being paranoid about my own government when I'm not doing anything wrong.

All that to say that I will still try and get phots of the destruction of the Mountain Inn...it just may be a bit more difficult to accomplish as the best views of the inn are from the side with the Federal Building.

So I took yesterday off and spent the better part of it attempting to register for events at this summer's GenCon. What a hassle. I'm rather lucky. There was only one event that I wanted that I failed to get. My days are stacked full of activity. Looks like I'll be living on Red Bull and Power Bars. In truth, I'll probably crash at some point and end up skipping an event or two. At least it's nice to have options.

I'll be taking my camera so expect a lot of photos in late August.

In other news. The Mountain Inn is coming down. Workers are beginning to tear it down. I'm thinking about taking some photos of the place periodically to record its demise. I figure Mike would like that.

Crazy Wal-Martians

So it seems tha Wal-Mart doesn't recognize hypocrisy...or good taste. Though anyone who has shopped there knows they don't make their money on good taste.

I'll let the article speak for itself.

Couple of things...

1. Wal-Mart and Naziism. Not a good combination.

2. Wal-Mart commenting about censorship. Laughable. Isn't this the company that censors magazines, music, art, films, and books that it feels it's consumers should not have the right to purchase in their fine stores? Little bit of irony here...?

Another separate question...is there an instance where disasteful imagry, symbolism, or even photos of book burnings can be used in a positive context or to send a message? Is it always distasteful?

I think that yes it is distasteful, but the larger comment is that as a society perhaps we allow symbols to take on more meaning and power than they should.

A recent example in Northwest Arkansas...a new Razorback football coach was forcing underperforming players to wear pink jerseys as a form of hazing and playing off the perception of pink as a girl's color. This was ended after the press got wind of it and some complaints were levied against the team. Some of the complaints allegedly centered on the poor taste in using thec color pink and it's symbolic lockstep with breast cancer.

So essentially the color pink is off-limits because it might offend someone who has cancer? Does that mean red (aids) is off-limits as well? Or yellow (missing people/war)?

Are we moing toward an entirely beige society?

Cookies

Special thanks to Kathleen for the tasty cookies she provided the men for game-night. They didn't last too long at all.

Fayetteville will be busy this weekend. The University has graduation and the Joe Martin Stage Race is also this weekend. Check it out if you have the time. This is an event that gets bigger each year.

Cannon from Fort Smith at the historical site.

Victory for Zim...no, wait...Syracuse!!!

This just in...

My beloved Syracuse has won the coveted Golden Snowball yet again. Sure the economy may stink but the folks in Onondaga county can always rest on their laurels...well they could if they had any control over the freakishly cold and snowy winters. Suffice to say they need something to be proud of (Grace Jones isn't doing it for them).

Now back to your regularly scheduled surfing...

This is for Kat. Though I imagine there are others who would find it interesting.

Hitler's nurse from his final bunker in Berlin is still alive and speaks. Here is her debrief with American forces back in 1945 (via The Smoking Gun).

Soccer Hell

So we played today. It was by far the worst game I have ever been assiciated with.

First the weather. I loved it. The one nice spot in this sea of negativism. It was cold, wet, and rainy. I love soccer in that kind of weather.

Also, we tied. It's not a win...but at least we didn't lose.

Now the negatives. My team managed to blow a 4-1 lead (yes, I know I was in goal...but I'm not accepting blame) in the second half. See, by the end of the game we had 4(!) people kicked out of the game via red cards and penalties. We deserved to lose the game. Certain members of my team just played dumb. Directly attacking people and making no effort to go after the ball. I'm ashamed to be a part of this team right now. Some on our team would point to the officiating as the problem. They think there is a cultural bias against our team as we're mostly caucasian and the other teams and ref's are not (again for the most part - there are exceptions).

I like soccer. It's fun. And at our level...it should be fun. We're not playing for national pride or money. My team is taking the fun out of the game and making assumptions about other teams and rulings on the field. I'm all for a competitive game, and that means physical contact and an intent to win. However, we've moved beyond incidental contact and into targeting players on other teams with blatent slide tackles. I just don't know if I can keep it up if this is the kind of team I'm saddled with.

Additionally, I didn't play too good. I failed to defent two penalty kicks and I was slow moving today for some reason. The other two goals came when we were down 4 men, so I can't blame myself for a collapsed defense.

That's my news...I'm going to relax tonight. I'll make a decision on how I feel about my future with the team after I rest and can reflect on what transpired.

Interesting article on the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII. From the NT Times and written by Gunter Grass.

Also...an interesting article on what's wrong with Liberals.

Not my rose...but I did take the photo. I'll write a longer post sometime this weekend. In the interim...enjoy your weekend.

80's Ladies...Feb. 2003...previewing costumes for an 80's party.

So I have some comments on last week's episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. There may be spoilers ...you've been warned...

It was part two of their Mirror Universe gag. The first part was something special...fun, dark, watchable, and tied into Trek history very well. The revised credit sequence was was so good that all episodes need to have that music added instead of the dreadful song that's one of the major misteps in Trek history.

This week's episode was essentially useless. No real plot aside from an excuse to have the actors play darker versions of their characters. Oh...and let's throw in a Gorn for good measure. I guess my point is that making two episodes of the Mirror Universe took away from stories in the central Trek Universe. The second episode was superfluous...nothing happened in that episode that really couldn't be resolved in the first part. Surely when the decision came down to make a two-parter it was already known that the series was canceled. It just seems like a waste of an episode.

There are only three left...and while I certainly can't defend this show as being very good overall...it certainly seemed to find its footing this year and the writers learned how to flesh out the Trek mythos without rewriting or tearing asunder the continuity.

I will be sad to see it go but I know that Trek will return. A few year off may be a good thing. Perhaps a change in leadership as well. Berman and Braga did good for a while but their leadership has come into question. Fresh ideas need to be considered...thing JMS (B5) or bring back Ron Moore (DS9 / BSG) or even someone from outside of sci-fi.

Anyway...that's all I have on this right now. I'm sure I'll comment again after the final episode.

Bella (RIP) and Basil being cute....probably three years ago.

Happy Birthday Frank

Everyone be sure to wish Frank a very happy birthday. He's a great guy and an excellent friend. Hopefully we'll be able tip back a few brews before the end of the week.

Alles Gut zum Geburtstag.

Everyone be sure to wish Dr. Condray a great day. I hear that she actually got a whole house for her birthday. Wow!

Happy May-Day Birthday Wishes to Kat!!

I thought Kat would find this, and this, interesting (via Metafilter).

Also...I finished watching Judgement at Nuremberg last night. Good movie. Interesting to see if so many years after it came out and after watching so many different films about the Holocaust. Still, I recommend it to everyone.

Lost another soccer game. I didn't play though...so I still think I have a job as goalie. The game was called based on the "mercy" rule. We lost 8-0. Games are called if one team gets an 8 goal advantage. The game stopped about 5-minutes into the second half. Could I have done better? I can't (won't) say. The team we played was VERY good. They were a finesse team that had tons of skills. I can't wait to play them again whe I'm back in the goal. One of these weeks I hope to have Jessica take some photos of the games that we can post here.

And Happy Birthday to Kat!!!