Born In Babylonia

12.20.2007

Over on the Star Trek Gaming Clan forums, we got off on a tangent that led us to Steve Martin and his "King Tut" song. There are 3 of us that are over 30, while I think of the majority of the clan members are in the 14-18 age range. Along the discussion we old timers probably got a little vague by introducing a banjo into the topic. I kind of asked if any of the kids knew what we were talking about, and one of them admitted to being lost.

At that point I made a brief explanation of Steve Martin, his banjo, and the "King Tut". I think I did a pretty good job, so I'm sharing it with the rest of the interweb so that more young'uns can learn.

 

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[History Lesson for DK & The Young'uns]
Waaay back in '78, before we new how to surf the internet for porn and movie spoilers, there lived a man named Steve Martin. Steve was a white disco suit wearing comedian who was a wiz with a banjo, often overlooked in its importance in the musical world. Steve first became noticed by America on the stage of NBC's Saturday Night Live (the tv sketch comedy show known to give fame to Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Charles Rocket, Chris Farley, and Phil Hartman). Steve's zany, off the wall comedy styling, often accompanied by wearing a [prop] arrow through his head, brought many a guffaw to those watching.

As was the way back when the internet was written on stone tablets, Steve went on to make a comedy album (albums are the prehistoric version of collections of mp3s). Steve, being musically inclined, opted to include a ditty on his album instead of the straight stand-up fair of the day. Current Events of the time were focused on the traveling exhibit of King Tut's remains and riches. Ever the one with his hand on the pulse of the public, Steve captured the state of times in his ode to the boy king with his chart topping tribute, "King Tut".

Obligatory Link: http://www.jibjab.com/view/96473

[Bonus points to anyone under 30 on why I picked the SNL comedians listed!]

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So far none of the young'uns have mentioned the list of SNL comedians. My two over-30 colleagues immediately cursed the age restriction as they knew the answer. Normally I would have had to look up some of the facts I listed, but this time I just remembered everything.

That in itself is a little scary.

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Happy Non Denominational Winter Holiday!

12.19.2007

Too much going on, mainly with trying to fill Keith's shoes now that he's moved on to coder monkey at Dealnews. I'm my own supervisor until they start interviewing replacements in January. I'm one of the applicants, so maybe I can continue to be my own supervisor?

I've also got my holiday travel planned to go see Mom & Dad. As such I don't think I'll be around the computer much (outside of work) until maybe Xmas Eve. That is not necessarily a bad thing.

The thing I'm going to miss about working at Westar is that we don't automatically get the week between Christmas and New Years off. I got used to that at Spiritus, along with my unemployment window from last December. I may have to see if I can sneak some more time off into that week this year. As my own supervisor, I'm sure I would approve it. Of course, those management overseers may not see it the same way. Curse you double edged sword of management!

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CompUSA: Taking a Dirt Nap

12.08.2007

It was announced that CompUSA is closing all of its stores after the holidays. While they're never had the best prices, I always thought they were close to their competitors. For me, they were the goto store for when I needed some gadget for my PC. Hard drives, IDE cables, trackballs, etc. I even got a Vista-capable webcam for the laptop from there last week.

But now I'm curious to see who low their liquidation prices will go. Granted, there probably won't be much stock left over from the holidays. There may not be much stock for the holidays. I'm sure there will be something for such a good price that I can't pass it by. That's why I've got PS2 games still wrapped up from the Sam Goody liquidation of 2 years ago.

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Alas Evel

12.03.2007

I saw where Evel Knievel died over the weekend. I remember anxiously watching his specials when I was little, wondering if he would make the leap over whatever he happened to be trying to jump. But more importantly, I remember the toys!.

The main reason I remember the Stunt Cycle is that it's one of the few memories I have of "the bad old days". Dad had gotten laid off from work, I don't think Mom was working, and we ended up moving to Florence in the tiniest house I can remember. 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, and a bathroom. And I swear it would all fit in my kitchen/great room/dining room now - not that I currently live in a mansion, that's just how small I remember it. The house had no hall, just more of a room that connected the 2 bedrooms and bathroom, and was more open to the living room.

The living room was where I played with Evel and the Stunt Cycle. The house had hard wood floors, back when carpet was a luxury and wood floors were a pant o maintain. Wood floors meant Evel could ride and ride fast. I think the little rubber tires may have managed a black streak on those floors a time or two, too.

For special occasions, Evel would go out to the front porch for stunts. The porch was more of a stoop, but I didn't know that back then. Evel and the Stunt Cycle would roar along the porch/stoop to tumble down the steps. A successful stunt meant landing on the ground on the Stunt Cycle wheels and going even further (although it would often tumble just as far, if not farther)! It was like a Slinky on wheels.

Now I know what happened to Evel (alas), I wonder what ever happened to my Stunt Cycle?

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2142... Reborn?

11.27.2007

Way back in April I started playing Battlefield 2142 with what would come to be my online gaming clan nerd friends. We had a dedicated server that was ranked by EA, which for the uninitiated is :
a) a way to gain experience points that can be used to watch your gaming character "grow" and get more weapons and gadgets
b) in pursuing those goals, lengthens the life span of the game, and
c) is a great scam to get people to pay for the servers in order to get those ranked points.

A few months back, we did away with our server due to a combination of lack of funds by those supporting the server and a lack of interest in playing on the server. You have to have a minimum number of people on the server for a ranked game to start, otherwise you have to just run around and wait for others to show up - not a lot of fun if you're in the mood to play, I can vouch for that multiple times.

Over the past few months, I've garnered more responsibilities in said online gaming nerd clan. More importantly, interest in 2142 has started to rise again. So after months of thinking about it and weighing pros and cons, I have started to rent a server and will see if it is worth the expense and the time over the next couple of months. Day 1 is turning out pretty good - it's been running with 90-100% of the max number of players since I got home and started looking. That's good, as it will hopefully spread good word of the online gaming nerd clan.

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