Dawn | Masuoka.com

It was twittered to me this phenomenal link where I was envious of the people who wrote the story… Apparently mere days later it was opened up for others to tour. Thankfully they have these initial memories of exploration.

Battleship Island Japan

This was so cute I had to share.  Amanda is Joe’s friend. Joe is Amanda’s friend and she has only seen “bits and pieces” of Star Wars. Joe, in an attempt to entertain- asked Amanda to describe the original Star Wars Trilogy to the best of her recollection…  From Fishrockit.com

Here is Amanda’s recollection. 

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn’t seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

Current Mood: Amused

I’m not sure what I’m trying to do with that title, but once you read on you’ll understand… I hope.

First of all I’m giving myself a couple pats on the back.

1. It’s officially the fifth month milestone for smoking cessation. Yes I quit cold turkey and strictly by will power and not once did I ever take even a drag. I’ve completely quit… finis! Moving on…

2. My last paycheck I had my US Bank loan not renewed which was a huge sting in my $$ HOWEVER, since my student loan was finished, thankfully the ouch wasn’t as bad as it would have been had the garnishment continued. THIS paycheck I was slightly concerned because I missed a few hours due to the dreadful weather and running out of sick time. I was and *am* actually shocked to see that I was able to pay my bills, my extra bills AND buy holiday gifts for the family when they did a last minute get together (the first time I’ve been able to do that in years!). So this is what happens when I get my fully earned paycheck? I can afford to LIVE????

Oh what a difference a day makes. It started to snow about 11 this morning and now all the ground is filled with the white fluffy flakes of DEATH! 

It’s hard to believe these days that I’m from Alaska because of how giddy I feel when the snow begins to fall and how panicked I am when I feel a little stranded at the same time.

I’m about to pop in my second movie of the night… the first one, “Fred Claus” wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be, probably because I spent most of it staring at the snow with Jonathon and ignoring the film.

I have popcorn, Merlot and a long night of movie watching ahead of me as I remain snowed in. The only thing that could make this more perfect would have been someone to snuggle up with on the sofa to keep me warm after the boy went to bed. 

What’s falling from the sky this evening is a nice change from earlier in the week when it was more icy than snowy.

I love it, but it can go away now.

Current Mood: BRRRR

I admit that I never made it to the game play circle. I had a free trial offer that expired on me before I could use it (thanks to that brief moment of having a life right when the trial activated until it ran out) and then upon just going for the paid account sight/site unseen… there were issues with their payment page and I never got activated. I figured it was a sign from the cool Gods not willing to fully let me go to do the dork side. Ha ha ha get it, dork side? Yeah, I think it’s too late for me also.

Anyway, I was surfing around on my laptop that is fixed, INCLUDING the keyboard, and I saw on an RSS page that someone in Beijing has opened a WoW restaurant. Huh? I haven’t played the game but …really? There’s a need for it? People will eat there? There’s nothing in the game that might put off someone’s appetite say like… carnage and poor hygienic habits that I picture most players to… Oh come on, the South Park homage to the game is still playing fresh in my mind:

Life after work had me driving to the local Target and Party Depot to check out Darth Vader costumes with the boy and purchasing a few odds and ends (toothpaste, wine, chocolate, kettle corn popcorn, a dozen doughnuts, three boxes of Triscuits, a bottle of diet pills… putting back the Triscuits and the doughnuts…)I decided to go ahead and purchase the Vader costume at party depot this year as opposed to trying to find his costume the day before Halloween at K-Mart and then taking home a costume and convincing my son it’s WAY better than what he originally wanted to be (he wanted a black Spider-Man costume and I came home with Robin from Teen Titans which I personally feel is WAY cooler). I’ll shut about that and get back to my story destination:

$100.00 later I get us back into the car and it’s doing the same thing that has me cursing in my head a lot. Theft System starts to blink on the dashboard in the most mocking way, disables the fuel injection and prevents me from starting the car for 10 minutes. After the ten minutes are up, you get another chance to turn over the engine or turning on the Theft System for another 10 minute lock out.

A little under a week old Isla already is getting sick of Daddy’s loud video game playing. Ashley looked over and saw baby Isla gathering the blanket around her ears to muffle the noise. SO CUTE!!!

I have no idea what I was googling that took me to the site I wound up at. AH… never mind, I recall what it was. I was trying to find what the safest country from natural disasters was. I *think* it was Finland… and then I saw the Snow Castle aka Lumilinna. My jaw dropped, my eyes opened really wide and I oohed the word, “Neeeeeeeeeeat…”

The more I looked at it and thought about it realistically, the more I questioned how spoiled I was because the thought of spending a weekend in a -5 degree room where you couldn’t get nekkid, the bathroom wasn’t in the hotel room… and you had to sleep in a sleeping bag… I saw no easy in and out of the situation (say a three hour tour and then back into humane climate).  Perhaps one day (if it’s still around, apparently it’s rather new) I’ll warm up to the idea. Get it? “Warm up…”

The next opening will be January 30th 2009 and it runs about around $285 – $350 a night per person.

Check this out though:
Snow Hotel

Kemi , Finland

I was reading the latest issue of Popular Science and came across their ‘Extra Credit’ article: Engineering the Ultimate Prank. If you have lived in this society, then you’ve heard about the Caltech/MIT prank wars or similar campus pranks at least a dozen times. For the most part it’s background noise if you don’t belong to any institution, but I highly suggest that you take the time to read a little about the spice of life pranks for an appreciation of knowledge and skill put to clever use.

Reading about the Rose Bowl scoreboard hack for a UCLA/Illinois game “Caltech 38 / MIT 9″ it brought tears to my eyes *sniff* That’s just awesome times ten.

(the following found on the Popular Science website, MIT site, and Wiki)
MIT
Photo by Michael Bauer; Eri Izawa
While Caltech students would argue otherwise, MIT has become to nerdy pranks what USC is to football. Befitting such a science and technology oriented school, MIT calls its pranks “hacks”, and many of them focus on the school’s great dome. Throughout the years students have wrapped the great dome in a replica of the one ring from Lord of the Rings, converted the dome to look like R2-D2 and even landed a replica of the Wright brother’s flier on the top of the dome. Much like Caltech’s pranks at the Rose Bowl, MIT likes to prank the annual Harvard-Yale football game, launching pro-MIT banners attached to a weather balloon that rose from the field in 1982 and attached to a model rocket launched from the end zone in 1990.

I saw a thumb drive that had some of the NYC pieces on it (Joe Simon and Stan Lee) and then I noticed an entire folder I some how missed! Jenn’s NYC footage of parts of the trip. I’m going to *try* to upload it and share what I can It waas soooooooooo nice going down memory lane.

Here are the first two I’m sharing to test while I see how well I can upload videos on WP from my domain.

Empire State Building Elevator Ride and Wednesday Night Fights (when we just sat down)

More to come… if I can get this to work