[prototype]

for gamers.....enjoy! this is coming later in the year and looks devastating!

A HARLEY RIDER TALKS TO GOD

A man riding his Harley along a California beach when suddenly the sky clouded above his head and, in a booming voice, the Lord said, 'Because you have tried to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant you one wish.'

The biker pulled over and said, 'Build a bridge to Hawaii so I can ride over anytime I want.'

The Lord said, 'Your request is materialistic; think of the enormous challenges for that kind of undertaking; the supports required to reach the bottom of the Pacific and the concrete and steel it would take! It will nearly exhaust several natural resources. I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for worldly things. Take a little more time and think of something that could possibly help mankind.'

The biker thought about it for a long time. Finally, he said, 'Lord, I
wish that I and all men could understand our wives; I want to know how she feels inside, what she's thinking when she gives me the silent treatment, why she cries, what she means when she says nothing's wrong, and how I can make her truly happy.'

The Lord replied, 'You want two lanes or four on that bridge?'

 

(thanks rp44mag for this funny)

the view from outside the berm

ok, time to continue our trip to Disneyland. as you approach the entry after purchasing your ticket, you see the famous floral mickey and train station. as you leave the real world behind, you get excited and are ready to travel to a land of magic and fun at the happiest place on earth.

postmarked 1975

 

undated and un-used:

disneyland collection

i have decided to start posting some of my disneyland postcard collection. no, not all at once but every now and then i will share postcards and some other things from the park collected over years.

first up we have a character welcome to this series. tinker bell over the castle letting everyone know your in for a magical journey. with mickey and gang; it should be fun!!

next up for our welcoming party is a welcome to the park; our gang at the main street station making sure all are smiling as they enter the ‘happiest place on earth’.

 

i hope everyone enjoys my love of the park and will indulge the adventures to come.

Grieg 'Peer Gynt' Suite No. 1, Op. 46 - 'Morning'

take 4 mins and 18 secs to just sit, relax and enjoy that you have ears and can hear. be thankful. it’s ok, just listen, and drift away to where you need to be.

a study in nothing

attack of the cat with no name, hard at work this morning doing absolutely NOTHING!

wish i had her life and concerns.

the new unreal engine 3

The famed Unreal Engine sees to continue it's industry dominance with a load of brand new... The famed Unreal Engine sees to continue it's industry dominance with a load of brand new features just announced at GDC 2009. More »

 

this weeks pull ~ the reviews

reviews for the week of march 25, 2009

trinity # 43 busiek/bagley DC

ok, here we are in week 43 of this haul from metropolis. The east coast has been saved, now it's off to europe. as the trinity heads away, hawk man reassures them to not worry about the demons. with that, they just leave! morgaine le fey is waiting very snugly. but; is that a wise decision on her part?

back/secondary story: superman has returned. but,but, why are they acting that way? lois gets petulant and starts throwing a frenzy. off the top of the building she throws herself calling for superman....

the war that time forgot #11 jones/nolan/green DC

'..we have five boxes of ammo left, one box of grenades, plus assorted knives,pikes and swords...

… against approximately five hundred mutant grasshoppers, an eighty-plus dinosaur air force and an active volcano.

and your conclusion?

i've seen worst.

yes, building to the climax in this second to last issue of this surprisingly good adventure.

battlefields dear billy #3 of 3 ennis/snejbjerg DYNAMITE

ennis delivers another hard hitting tour de female force with this title. don't let the title

fool you. yes, it's a dear billy letter but not what you think. strong female lead, well developed and in the end, doing what she had too. an amazing read.

guardians of the galaxy #12 abnett/lanning/craig/quintana MARVEL

this title gets better each issue. there be a hungry moon dragon (well drawn) and a subversive way out of the oblivion. Good book; just short.

indiana jones and the tomb of the gods #4 of 4 williams/sears DARK HOURSE

every time i see this character i just have to get it. nothing new here. jones being jones and getting the girl in the end. marcus is getting senile by the way. don't worry dark horse, i'm sure i'll get the next adventure as well.

resistance costa/perez/chamberlain WILDSTORM

good video game does not mean good comic. i will learn....someday.

crossed #4 ennis/burrows AVATAR

big time fun watching people getting hit in the face with horse c*%k. come on, whats not to like. filth and deviled life are a specialty of ennis. he never disappoints. not a lot of plot here; just getting shot in the face.

squadron supreme #9 chaykin/checchetto/milla MARVEL

oh, the tie ins just do not stop. if I were nick fury, i'd dump on everyone and just say screw it. he sometimes seems so over whelmed. best of all, arcanna jones seems to end up doing the right thing and looking damn good while doing it. Say goodbye washington d.c.; as you are no more. well written battle scenes with edgy feel through out the story. this is becoming a good read.

top ten cannon/daxiong AMERICA'S BEST COMICS

this is a world of interesting characters doing interesting things in strange ways. counselor sung has a tough job defending tougher defendants who really don't want her help and a boyfriend who doesn't want her. good stuff. thick and tasty comes to mind.

yet another ~ just say NO

yet more gulf coast pictures ~ last set

hello there yet again from the mississippi gulf coast yet again and alas for the last time.

first up we have the white house, yes the white house. i remember passing this land mark all the time but to be honest, i am not sure we ever stopped at or went to this beautiful building. dad must have not liked the shrimp here as much.

 

i thought i had posted pictures of us at beauvior before, but appears that i have not. i know i have some and i will post as soon as i run across them. here are two postcards of the beautiful home of jefferson davis. this is where he came to live out his days after the civil war.

i remember the old furniture, the kitchen implements, even the bedrooms. just really a wonderful place and the view was amazing. the beach would have been just off to the left in these views. remembering the ‘times’; there was no divider or anything to separate you from any of the items. just simple signs which reminded you not to touch. the sad part of this, the home was damaged by hurricane camille in in 1969 and hurricane katrina in 2005. this is truly a wonderful piece of history and is currently being rebuilt/repaired.

 

when i was in the 8th grade, i had a letterman’s sweater with my basketball letter’s etc. on it. yes, from pascagoula jr. high school. one weekend we were passing through biloxi for some unremembered reason. on this trip, we stopped at the ‘shoo fly’. it is cool to walk around this thing with the really exciting part being when large trucks would pass and you would get blasted by the passing wind. you can see from the photo, how close the highway is. always trying to get the truck driver to blow his horn. any way. for some reason i took off my sweater. i was so proud of that thing. you got it. i placed my sweater on the railing probably trying to get the attention of a passing truck.

fast forward to the point i remembered and dad could get us back; sad to say, my sweater was gone. hope they choke on it to this day! here is that damn ‘shoo fly’.

 

last today and for this series is the old sea wall. short story for these things. spend time in the water and playing on the beach. sun is in the sky beaming down on the beach. sea wall on the beach and under the sun. you go back to the car with out shoes. OUCH! my memory of these steps is that they got very, very hot. again, i know i have pictures of the sea wall and i’ll look for them.

this post card shows when the wall was new. sandy beach was added by the time i was there. item of note, the sand beach along this part of the coast is the longest man made sand beach in the world. this fact is dated to the 60’s when we lived there. not sure if this is still true.

just say no, to dirty toilets

interesting.

if you know!

good luck. it is Xi!

more postcards from the past

continuing my early life on the sand series for my grandkids, i have two offerings of a past in the little town we live in. pascagoula, holds a distinction, which i may have shared before, it’s town name is misspelled on the downtown firehouse. seems the stone mason who cut the building ‘capitol’ with the name couldn’t spell. made for interesting viewing if you knew about it. most people , who seldom notice anything, were totally oblivious and passed the building ~sign~ everyday. oh well, just a little know fact interesting only to me. wish i had a picture but, not.

 

first up is the old spanish fort, which appears to still survive. it’s funny, there is a charge now to go, see and generally be a tourist. when i was a kid, we just went and saw and generally were obnoxious, at no charge. it was interesting enough the first and maybe the second time you went, after that *yawn* .

 

next is an interesting view of the old, old bridge. this is now the rail road bridge and was replaced by the old bridge which was the one i grew up with. now there is yet the new bridge which i have never seen or drove over as i have not been back to ‘goula’ since it was built. the old bridge was a ‘lift’ bridge which was interesting in that i remember it was often getting stuck in the ‘up’ position. this would last for a long period of time which allowed

“youts” such as myself to pass the time wondering around under the bridge and at the waters side. it was a wonder i was never hurt or drowned.

i know i have some pictures around showing the bridge and me junking around when it was stuck. if and when i find them, i will post.

now comes ~ 'Bananas in Pyjamas'

seeings as the hamster video when away, i give for your consideration: 'Bananas in Pyjamas'
i hope you enjoy as it tends to make me want to do vile things to all living things.

nostalgia, for my grand kids

the whole reason i started this was for my grandkids, so it’s time i got back to it. i have dug out some old post cards i have collected over the years of the mississippi gulf coast mostly (where i grew up) and i am sharing my memories of some.

this first card is somewhat interesting in that we came through this intersection every time we went to jackson to visit my uncle.what was cool; was during season, you would find young kids along side the road selling ‘boiled peanuts’. you would get a bag full for a dime. ummm good stuff, hot and fresh.

 

 

next up is  marine land on the beach in gulfport. what was cool, was i would often spend the day (well, a few hours alone) when we came over, while my mom and dad went shopping.  gulfport had something new called a mall that they went to. this park was a big influence on me wanting to become a marine biologist. i would spend hours watching the fish in the large tanks. the shows were fairly good but after so many times seeing them, became old stuff. remember, being alone was no big deal in the 60’s and admission was something like 75 cents.

 

final picture today is of the edgewater gulf hotel in its hay-day. would later be re-named the broadwater, which i posted a picture of a few days ago i found of what it looks like currently, which is sad. a victim of time and hurricanes. this was a big big landmark when traveling along the coast and offered several good restaurants as well. we would sometimes stop for fresh seafood and the view was just amazing. can you believe the price of $2.50 per person. i think it may have been like $7.50 per person at the time we were there. to be honest, we never spent the night there, just ate there as my dad liked their shrimp.

(more memories of a life growing up on the sand next time)

For Plastik Warp

For Plastik Warp
Originally uploaded by zoetica

and this from the talented and beautiful zoetica, a fellow member of whitechapel and cosmonomad at coilhouse

Dracula

Dracula
Originally uploaded by ben_templesmith

from ben templesmith

yes dear, you use to have to have a ticket to ride

i have been collecting disney(land) swag and stuff for years. i found some tickets on e-bay the other day and could not resist.

back in the old days, you purchased a ticket to enter the park and a ticket to ride any  given attraction. of interest, on opening day and for a long time, entrance to the park was $1.00. attractions ranged from .10 to .85 cents each. then in 1959 we got the ground breaking “E” ticket attraction which was $1.00; and damn well worth it.

you could purchase individual tickets through out the park and there are several surviving ticket booths in the park to this day. or, you could purchase from a choice of ticket books which had various denominations and amounts. ( A-B-C-D and E)

 

this is an individual attraction ticket with a value of up to .85 cents for an adult.

 

 

 

this is a child’s attraction/ride ticket valued up to 75 cents.

 

the above are examples of individual tickets; below is a “C” ticket for an adult from a ticket book purchased usually at the entrance booth but could be picked up inside the park as well.

note that these ticket book tickets list the ride or attraction that is available.

for any of you interested in DL tickets, i would suggest a stop at VINTAGE DISNEYLAND TICKETS for a complete history of these wonderful little trinkets which drives collectors like me both crazy and into the poor house.

finish to the sketch book posts

no, i have not got lazy; just busy and ok, i want to move on to some other things that i need to post. today finishes up the sketch book offerings from my daughter from several years ago that i ran across.







above was done by my daughter's friend, good work


i really wanted to add stories and words to all of these and i still may do that at some point.






































know these were rather light, but was the best my scanner could do. hope you enjoyed then and i will at some point revisit her sketching and my reflections in words upon them.

pull list for this week ~ the reviews

 

trinity # 42 busiek/bagley dc

still clogging away at the week 42 point. the east coast has been saved and the trinity is in new york? well, maybe. lois is looking, but intel says they have left and are headed too....

back or side story...hawkman is questioning himself as the league reassemble in washington d.c. flash is grumbling about the 800-pound gorilla in the room and jose finds his role to play.

i have to be honest, after 42 weeks, the best part of this book is the full two page ad for the flash rebirth johns/van sciver coming in april.

 

bomb queen #6 of 6 robinson image

yet again j. robinson continues to entertain and poke a sly finger at the normal world. brother, a brother! robinson was wise to hide him from me. from the opening slanderous language, to the wonderful cameo prez O being called a 'bitch' to a shout out to john chihak who is a local talent and i just happened to bump into this morning at charlie's. (see panel 2 on the third to last page). was this the best arc  for bomb queen? no, maybe not. did she kick ass? of course. excellent work yet again mr. robinson.

 

hot wire requiem for the dead #2 pugh/ellis radical

and we continue with a really good book with excellent characters and a mind blowing script. just plain damn good. i had forgotten (from last month) just how much i enjoy darrow. she is just a pleasure to read. with lines like: ...that gives me the power to put a ring through your nose and pull you around on a chain if i decide.... she is a pleasure.

 

star trek countdown #3 orci/kurtzman/johnson/jones/messina idw

this folded in time and lets use every character from the trek universe we can is surprisingly good. i find it well written and has a really exciting pace. it unfolds like, well, like a star trek movie...doh. it may be my love of this story line but i do like it. romulus is dead and revenge is on the mind of nero. we also get introduced to a really cool new prototype star ship know as the jellyfish.

 

air # 7 wilson/perker vertigo

ahh, the unsettling pure torture of growing up. much less growing up in a strange land. seems the disadvantage of youth applies to about everyone from any culture. this book continues to be worth reading although at times i'm not sure why. it just is, i guess! flashback ending and life continues.

 

scourge of the gods #3 of 3 valerie/gajic marvel

this sword and sandal epic set on a remote planetary system based on the roman civilization comes to an end. this one would have been better as a novel. it feels like michael a. stackpole's a secret atlas meets frank herbert's dune. both books and this comic can go on for pages describing someone scratching a pimple on the ass. fun to read but my god, it's a comic book. at the conclusion, well done and the story was satisfying. the armor is just wonderful looking, would be cool to see in an rpg video game.

 

lillim #1  lapacek/keiser/matrix/jnm  image

another loki gets mad at odin and takes it out on thor, wait, that's a marvel title. humm, wonder where this will go? #1 was standard fare and not exceptional by any account. now to the art of matrix - just wonderful landscapes. rich, full, warm, amazing texture and colored just right. i will get #2 if for no other reason than the artwork. the 'thor' fan in me will hold opinion for now.

 

rawbone  delano/fiumara avatar

wow, avatar scores yet again. pirates run amok in this brutal tale. hard men, hard women, down right scary nuns; and a monkey. a monkey who commits rape no less. this went straight to my subscription list. my head still hurts and i love it. this is a winner!

 

mysterius the unfathomable #2 parker/fowler  wildstorm

once again off at breakneck speed my favorite sorcerer is on the case. be it stealing books from kids at bedtime or facing down a horrible monster from hell, our hero has his mind set on the prize. right up to the point that the draugar is summoned. oh my, what laughs are in the next installment.

 

secret warriors nick fury: agent of nothing #2 bendis/hickman/caselli/rudoni  marvel

OK, this month the dark reign side of the universe is set. one of the better bad guys in a while; supreme hydra, baron wolfgang von stucker is the puppet master if you will. seems ol' nick has been on the wrong side for years. patience has its rewards and they are about to be unleashed. pretty good stuff from bendis.

World Builder

Bruce Branit now based in Kansas City and running his own VFX co. You can also find him and “World Builder” on FaceBook at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/World-Builder/73936485659

This is 9 mins. and 15 seconds in both fantasy and in love. I found this very engrossing and full of hope, beauty and most of all, life. I wish Mr. Branit a world of success.

what to do with $116,530.00

there are many ways to spend your money. this would be one i could get behind. building a library of first edition Hugo Awards and the Nebula Awards winners. i am proud to say that i have read and owned several off these list. it is sad to say not enough of them.   article and list here enjoy! JUMP

 

and for those of you where money is no object; build your collection @:

Buy all the Nebula and Hugo Award Winners!

a morning update

here is a few of the boys goofing off:

 

 

 

and; here is one of mom having some breakfast: