Episode VI – Return of the Jedi

Once more with feeling…

Thanks to @loripop326, @Chrissarella, @MadMan459, @xwidep, and @Shultzyness for their likenesses…

 

Episode IV – A New Hope?

Somebody stop me!!!

 

The Empire Strikes Back - Redux

Just playing around this morning.

 

 

Starring: Me, @MadMan459, @Chrissarella, and @loripop326

It’s Canada day so I just had to share…

This is what I got to read on my daily calendar today. I just had to share it with you.

Actual conversation between a driver and a California Highway Patrol Officer:

CHP (after pulling over a speeding car near Fresno): License, registration, and proof of insurance.

Driver: Here you go, officer.

CHP: Your license says you’re from Vermont. That’s in Canada, right? Well, I know that cars go faster there because of the metric system or whatever, but while you’re in the US of A you have to slow down a little bit, okay?

Driver: Yes, officer. I will.

CHP: Since you’re not from here I’m gonna let  you off with a warning, but slow down okay? This ain’t Canada.

 

Happy Canada Day!

Finally popped my cherry…

I have finally attended my first Con. Why? What were you thinking?

This is probably going to be longer than average post, but keep reading, you may find a link to something you like…

Attended Penguicon 2010 this past weekend and discovered a whole new world. The sights, the sounds, the smells…

Actually I went for two specific reasons. One, to meet all the people I have friended over the past year in the Dementia Radio chat room, on the FuMP, and through Facebook and Twitter.  And two, to hear some great music from above mentioned friends and artists.

I am sort of aware that there was also a LOT more going on there, but a person only has so much time, priorities and all that… Next year I will plan a little better and take a little more time to explore the things I missed this year such as room parties.

I was introduced to traditions such as ribbons. And I immediately discovered one that I HAD to have, the “Not Wil Wheaton” ribbon. Many, many thanks to Zillafan for obtaining it in my behalf. I have an idea for next year for my own ribbons, the Dr must represent!

Many thanks must go out to Jaye Kitty for putting together such an awesome music track, and to the performers for being there. I got to see and meet such artists as (in no particular order): Devo Spice, ShoEboX of Worm Quartet, the great Luke Ski, Carrie Dahlby, Max DeGroot, Power Salad, Insane Ian, Soggy Potato Chips, Positive Attitude, Eric Coleman, Cirque du So What?, and ‘the world’s fastest filker’ Tom Smith. Finally putting real faces to the voices, pics, and posts of all my online friends was also VERY cool. (Too many to list here, but you know who you are)

Technology is wonderful. Thanks to my new cell phone and a UStream app, I was able to actually live stream some of the events online. Archived footage can be viewed here (and also where to find future broadcasts): http://www.ustream.tv/channel/drdon911 (please view/comment/rate as you see fit).

All-in-all, a great weekend. Wish it had been longer, and that I had time to explore more of what was there. And this was the first hint of a ‘real life’ that I’ve had in a while… hated to see it end.

 

Next year…

Greatest Commercial EVER!

Okay. Just a quick entry to share this very, very funny commercial (at least I think it is).  Could something like this actually air in the U.S.? I think probably not….

Redneck SkyDiver

Ok, I don’t know whether to cringe in fear, or say “Wow! I want to try that!”

 

Thanks to @Danny6114 for originally posting this to LiveJournal.

Kids today have it easy….?

I got this in an e-mail today, and I thought I had to share it with you all.  Got to admit, when dealing with my young nephew, I find myself falling into the “when I was your age” trap.

How many of these things can you actually relate to?

-------------------------------------------------------

If you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning....Uphill... Barefoot...BOTH ways… yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.  You've got it so easy!  I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!

And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet.  If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!!  We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen!  Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there!  Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us.  As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes!  If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!  There were no CD players!  We had tape decks in our car.  We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless.  Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby!  Dig?

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting!  If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOD !!!  Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!!  And then there's TEXTING.  Yeah, right.  Please!  You kids have no idea how annoying you are. *Don’t forget about “pay phones” and “phone booths”. Now, Superman has no place to change…*

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was!  It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!!  You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics!  We had the Atari 2600!  With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'.  Your screen guy was a little square!  You actually had to use your imagination!!!  And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... Forever!  And you could never win.  The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died!  Just like LIFE! *ok, on this one, I have to go back even further. I didn’t even know what a video game was! To us, Pong was awesome when it finally arrived.*

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing!  You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!!  NO REMOTES!!!  Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?! *and if the President was on, your night was shot!*

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning.  Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!

And we didn't have microwaves.  If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove!  Imagine that!

And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long.  Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort.  And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!

And car seats - oh, please!  Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on.  If you were luckily, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!

See!  That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten!  You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!

Regards,

The Over 30 Crowd

-------------------------------------------------

Monday rant is over, thanks for tuning in.

Son, Brother, Husband, Father – RIP Brian Pfeiffer

This weekend, I had to say goodbye to one of my little brothers, again.  Brian was taken from us very unexpectedly from a heart attack.  Odd thing is, he was in the hospital getting checked out, when he coded during his stress test. Despite their best efforts, he could not be brought back.

Like a lot of us, he had a troubled youth, but turned out to be a hard-working, hard-loving husband and father. He found the love of his life in Vickie Randazzo. They married, he raised her 2 boys as his own, and they had a daughter together. And for the last 21 years have been together happily. He made his family his life, and worked very hard to make sure they wanted for nothing. My heart goes out to my ‘sister’ and her kids. This is more pain than one should have to endure.

As the oldest in the ‘gang’, all of my brothers and sisters are ‘baby brothers and baby sisters’. This is the second time that we have had to say goodbye to one of our own, both way too soon. I also lost my brother Roy long ago to illness. Of course, my mother is not handling this well, and I am doing my best to help get her through this. A mother should not have to bury her sons, and there is no cure for that kind of hurt.

We had the viewing, and a very nice memorial service for Brian this weekend. It was good to see all the people who also loved and cared for Brian and his family. And, even though to the outside world our family may not seem ‘close’, there is an unspoken love that exists between siblings/family, that knows no bounds. In time, the hurt will subside, and life will go on, but Brian will never be forgotten.

If what is said and imagined is true, and the internet preserves things ‘forever’, I post this as an everlasting tribute to one of my own. Below is a video slide show I created for his memorial service. Pictures provided by myself, my sister Dawn, and my mom. The music is his favorite song, and as a hockey fan, the Red Wings songs.

Goodbye my brother…

Brian Lee Pfeiffer

Nov. 2, 1964 – Mar. 10, 2010

Super Bowl Sunday

Well, it’s finally here. Super Bowl Sunday. The one day a year most of the country goes stupid.

Big screen TV’s are purchased. Beer sales at all-time highs. Chips, pretzels, dips, and varied and sundried other items are consumed en masse.

All because of a little game called ‘football’. This year it appears it’s The Saints vs. The Colts. Confession time. I don’t even know what cities these teams are from. I don’t have bets riding on either side, and actually don’t care which one wins. The outcome of this game will have absolutely NO effect on my life whatsoever, so why should I? “We won!” – what we? Did you play? Did you call the plays? Are you getting WAY too much money to chase a little ball around and get your body banged up?

It’s called ‘entertainment’. That’s all it really is. Keep it in perspective. Enjoy the game for what it really is, a program to fill time between commercials! Usually the ‘best’ commercials of the year and certainly the most expensive. This year is not without controversy either. It should be interesting.

Enjoy the game, have a great day! For those like me, who only watch for the commercials (the rest of you too), enjoy this little clip featuring Greg Benson, Jonathan Coulton and Paul & Storm.

Celebrity Homes

I find it kind of amazing what a few million, or even a billion will get you.  Be sure to look at them all.

Enjoy, and don’t necessarily be jealous.

 

John Travolta

 

Halle Berry

 

Oprah

 

J-Lo and Mark Anthony

 

Eddie Murphy

 

Billy Joel

 

Hugh Hefner

 

Sylvester Stallone

 

Tiger Woods

Haiti….

Ok, I may lose some followers because of what I am about to post. So be it. Just be sure to say goodbye before you go…

It is very sad what happened in Haiti yesterday. Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands dead, and millions displaced. Now the social web is going nuts to “help Haiti”..

What about us? What about the country you live in and “love”? We have MILLIONS of kids going homeless and hungry EVERY DAMN DAY! We have people losing their homes to fires, floods, repos, and other disasters on a daily basis.

The pictures you see are horrendous, yes. But, have you seen pictures of Detroit? Why not donate $10 to the Salvation Army, The Red Cross, your local church or homeless shelter? As they say, charity begins AT HOME…

No, I am not a cold-hearted bastard by any means, and if you still want to donate to help Haiti, go for it. I just wanted you to think of the good old U.S.of A. also..

I know I am only one check away from homelessnes myself. I am underinsured. And, I know many, many people in the same or worse condition. My friends are losing their houses left and right. Losing their jobs, losing their very lives as we speak.

Take a minute. Think of your fellow countrymen. Do what you can to help everywhere you can.

Now, if you think I’m wrong, feel free to unfollow me. I don’t really care. There are more important things to worry about.

Thank you for your time.

Sort of a re-run…

I know I’ve shared this song before, but a friend found it with a better video. It should be good for a laugh, or at least a smile. Makes for a good first post in MMX.