Personal

The stuff about me and my life. The “diary” side of blogging.

My family, circa 1977 or so

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This is one of my favorite old family photos. Probably just a proof that was passed on during the selection process, it always makes me laugh when I see it.

Our family around 1977

Mom’s yawning, I’m looking off to the side and could drool any moment, Kevin just looks confused, and dad’s the only one to be paying any attention to the photographer.

I’m guessing at the date of the photo (Kev looks around one-ish, I could be around four-ish), but I think I’m close.

iTunes “Time” by Pink Floyd from the album Dark Side of the Moon, The (1973, 7:05).

I so need this toy!

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Plush Facehugger

I came so close to blowing some money just a few minutes ago — if this wasn’t rent week, I probably would have.

There’s a plush Alien Facehugger available now (I saw it at Suncoast).

Plush.

Facehugger.

It even has wires run through the fingers and tail to make it posable (huggable?). Cuddle up to it, or wrap it around your skull.

Creepy. Eerie. Deadly. Cute. Cuddly.

I want!

Update: Hey, mom, dad — babies like plush animals, right? Think this would make a good first Christmas present for Noah? ;)

iTunes “Mantrap: The Seduction” by Beborn Beton from the album Tales From Another World (1996, 5:00).

The DJ tried to kill me

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Last night at The Vogue was really good — Ogre was DJing, standing in for Evan, and he kept making it damn near impossible for me to get off the dance floor. Always a good thing, of course, since it means that the music is consistently good — but then he topped it all off by playing Pop Will Eat Itself‘s “Can U Dig It?“, off of This is the Day…This is the Hour…This is This! I’m a big PWEI fan, and would never have expected to hear that at a club. Too cool.

iTunes “Def.Con.One” by Pop Will Eat Itself from the album This is the Day…This is the Hour…This is This! (1989, 3:59).

Where it all began…

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In case there was any curiosity where my tendency for innuendo-laced humor, flirting, and the occasional blatantly sexual comment come from, I present you with the following evidence…

Me, mom...and Playboy

Me at age two or three, in mom’s lap…looking at a Playboy.

Doomed from birth, I tell you. I couldn’t have been “normal” if I tried. ;)

iTunes “Rhapsody” by Siouxsie and the Banshees from the album Peepshow (1988, 6:22).

Rules for the Kerry/Bush debates

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Courtesy of Bob Harris:

The candidates are forbidden from asking each other any direct questions of any kind, nor can they challenge each other with proposed pledges. Thus, much of the skill used in actual debating is explicitly forbidden. Point for Monkey.

No pre-written notes of any kind will be allowed, nor can candidates use any props or have anyone in the audience to point to (like, say, Allawi) to examplify their rhetoric. Point for Kerry.

In the “Town Hall” debate, audience members will ask their moderator-screened questions, but they won’t be allowed any follow-up, and if they deviate from approved levels of free speech, they will be silenced. Candidates will therefore be able to a) change the subject entirely, b) misleadingly paraphrase the question (one of Monkey’s best tactics), or c) stall by following-up an earlier point, especially since their opponent is forbidden from asking any direct questions in response. Huge point for Monkey.

Remaining-time lights will be mounted directly onto the cameras, so the candidates don’t have to break fake eye contact with TV viewers.

In the “Town Hall” debate, the candidates will have small, predesignated areas in which they can “move about” in their attempts to simulate the body language of actual human connection. The candidates’ “move about” areas will not overlap in any way.

The shaking of hands is contractually mandatory.

Not far removed from a total farce, unfortunately — still, I’d like to be able to see them. Unfortunately, as I don’t bother with television, I’m not sure what options I have. Does anyone happen to know if there are any plans to webcast any or all of the debates? Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Zero!

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More than a week after returning from my vacation, I’ve finally reduced the number of unread items in NetNewsWire to zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. I’m caught up!

Until the next refresh, of course.

Hey, I think these things are exciting.

iTunes “Prince Mega Medley (Hot Tracks)” by Prince from the album Hot Tracks 15th Anniversary Collectors Edition (1997, 12:50).

Muldoon Road, Anchorage, Alaska

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Another 360° panoramic photograph from my recent vacation. This time, I’m standing on one end of a pedestrian overpass on Muldoon road, just beyond the curve where Muldoon becomes Tudor (the curve can be seen on the extreme left and right of the image).

Muldoon Road, Anchorage, Alaska

My parents’ house, where I lived from mid-3^rd^ grade until I moved out when I was 18, is hidden beyond the trees just to the left of the tree in the foreground towards the right side of the image. The Chugach mountains rise just beyond our housing area, giving it its name of Chugach Foothills. The houses in the mid-ground in front of the mountains went up during one of the housing development booms while I was in high school. Mostly obscured by the tree on the right of the image is a large park, often used for summertime soccer games.

Were you to follow Muldoon Road to the far northern end (a few miles beyond where it disappears in this photo), you’d end up at my alma matter, Bartlett High School. While I moved to Seattle just a few months before my 10-year reunion and didn’t go, my friend Royce was there (while he graduated in ’90, his girlfriend Stephanie was in my graduating class) and snagged me a Class of 1991 10-year reunion T-shirt which he gave me while I was visiting.

As with the Lake Spenard photo, there is a QTVR photo in the extended entry for this post (I do it this way so that modem users like my parents don’t have to download the 2 MB QTVR movie when they load the main page).

Spenard Lake, Anchorage, Alaska

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One of the panoramic shots I took while on vacation in Anchorage &dmash; Spenard Lake, which together with Lake Hood makes up the single busiest seaplane airport in the world (over 90,000 operations in 1994).

Spenard Lake, Anchorage, AK

Since this is a full 360° panorama, you can see the same seaplane at the far left and right of the image. The mountain range in the background is the Chugach Mountains, which had just been hit with termination dust earlier in the week (for you lower-48’ers, ‘termination dust’ is the snowfall on the peaks of the mountains — its appearance marks the end of summertime in Anchorage). Towards the right of the picture are three cars: my mom’s van, which I was driving that day; James’ Geo something-or-other (which will soon have the custom license plate “NUPRIN” — “Little, yellow, different”), and Mercedes’ car. Just behind the workshack is a yellow apartment building, you can just see the balcony of Marc and Laura’s apartment.

For a more “like you’re really there” experience, click on through to the extended entry, where I’ve posted a Quicktime VR version of this image (assuming this works, I’ve not yet tried uploading Quicktime files via ecto).