Archived News starting from 01-17-2004 and earlier
BlogTonight, despite the snow, five friends of mine came over for a
LAN gaming party. Our game choices progressed from Counter Strike to NFS Underground to Postal2 and finally back to Counter Strike after a failed GTA Vice City multi player attempt. The body gas expulsion level was high, signalling a successful meeting of geeks. Part 2 begins in one week.
One of the few redeeming qualities of life in Michigan is when it snows, and yesterday it snowed six inches. As
stated previously I love driving in deep snow. There is no greater joy in a vehicle than taking a turn sideways. The challenge presented by snow driving is a welcome change I embrace with many unnecessary trips before the plows go through and end my fun. Last year my dad bought me a
Craftsman Snowblower that I use whenever I get the chance. Not only did I clear off my own driveway, but I also cleared off both my neighbors and
Steve's driveway as well. The machine is unstoppable and I have hence decided to name it
Big Mama. Even while walking at a brisk pace it shows no sign of stalling. I took a
lot of photos before calling it a night.
Today, President Bush made his
long awaited speech about our return to the moon. His father made a similar speech during his years in office with no real results. The difference is this speech outlined specific goals and time lines to meet them. It also includes a reasonable estimate of the cost, whereas the former President Bush presented an astronomical amount of funding that was required. I'm genuinely excited about this return to the moon, and have no choice but to vote for whoever promotes space exploration. However I do find it difficult to believe everything outlined in the speech will actually come to pass. A significant contingent of critics are out to squash this plan claiming the money can be better spent on domestic programs. I say we've been doing exactly that for 30 years and nobody is any happier for it. A bold new plan for human space exploration will not only become a source of national pride, but a source of pride for humanity. Humanity is at it's best when it is facing a challenge, and lately we have become lazy and lost our focus. Entertainment is our primary occupation, not exploration. It's time to get off our couch and explore the universe. Imagine a world where humanity covers not only the earth, but the moon and mars as well. Science fiction suddenly becomes science fact and a new era begins. I desperately hope the agenda outlined in the speech comes to fruition. Regular human space exploration is long overdue, and to have it happen in my lifetime is a dream come true.
Another year, another NAIAS. This year I went with my dad and
Steve and continued the tradition of taking off work to go during a weekday to avoid the mass amounts of people that attend during the weekends. It was a
pretty good show, but no surprises. I was secretly hoping for the new Cougar to debut, but it looks like I'll have to wait another year or so. The
Ford GT and
new Mustang were highlights, along with the
new Corvette. A
hydrogen powered RX8 and a
hybrid Escape were also very cool. GM put out
IR download stations at each brand booth. A good idea in my opinion, and it made a cool "download complete" noise that was worth the 5-10 seconds of download time.
Today Melissa and I decided to try out the cross-country skis I inherited from my parents. The aptly named "LOLA Valley Park" is a perfect spot and the fact that it's only only a short walk from my house was a major contributing factor to the decision.
Melissa has since decided to go pro, I decided to
look like a dork, and the cat
disapproved of the whole thing.
While shopping for a new dresser a few weeks ago, I decided to give in to the consumer in me and get a whole new bedroom set instead. Lastnight it arrived at the store and Melissa and I picked it up and assembled it in my room. Now for the first time in my life, I have a complete matching bedroom set consisting of a headboard, nightstand and
a dresser and chest. It's certainly an improvement over my random pieces of furniture I had before. I guess it's just another sign of lost youth when you start getting excited about new furniture. That or I've got a bad case of cabin fever from all this cold weather.
As you can see from the
Gnome Cam, it snowed almost 2 feet last night and this morning. Apparently Butt the Gnome
was not happy about being outside during the recent storm and is currently on strike. The strike involves sitting on my porch holding a sign, as opposed to just sitting on my porch. To be fair, the fact that he's nailed to the porch probably limits the actions he can take, and although I'm not in any way inclined to take him off my porch, I decided to look up the
www.freethegnomes.com web site referenced on his sign. After reading about the organization, I have a strong feeling they had something to do with the
disappearance of Myrone the Gnome. While not as militant as the
Gnome Liberation Front, I don't think they would hold themselves above kidnapping for political purposes. I for one am not backing down. Gnomes have a genetic predisposition to be decorative and using them for any other purpose is
sick and perverted.
Mars Exploration Rover Spirit successfully sent a radio signal after the spacecraft had bounced and rolled for several minutes following its initial impact at 11:35 p.m. EST (8:35 p.m. Pacific Standard Time) on January 3. Fortunately CNN decided to tune into the event and I was able to watch the whole thing live. It's amazing to think a device created on this planet is now roving around under human control on Mars. The next rover is scheduled to land Jan 24th and I plan to stay up late for that landing as well.
Click here for photos from the Rover.
The
Blacknova Traders game on this server has been reset and patched with the
create universe patch which will hopefully fix the recent scoring issues. I will stick to a 6-month reset cycleuntil further notice, so the next game reset will occur June 2nd, 2004.
This
new years Melissa and I made dinner for everyone to initiate the Redford Dinner Club. After we ate, I smoked a cigar which I still have the taste of in my mouth, and it's not pleasant. After smoking, Duane tried to
get my cat drunk and was marginally successful. The result was difficult to judge since he was already high off catnip. We soon realized we were too old to care about the new year we decided to visit Mike's party. We stayed for a few hours and finally got home around 4:00am, which counts for bonus points since all bars close at 3:00am.
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