Book Search

07.28.2004

The internet has finally failed me. Unfortunately, I don't really think it's the interet's fault.

My latest quest has been to find a book from my childhood. The problem is I don't know the title or the author of the book. Yep, that makes it more difficult.

Around 1980, I got a book that was a puzzle/brain teaser book in disguise. The book was the entrance manual to the Space Force Academy, and each chapter told a sci-fi little story follwed up with a puzzle or brain teaser to solve. The chapter I remember most had line drawings of various everyday objects from different perspectives, because things would float around weightless in space, so you would have to learn how to recognize things. They had needle-nose pliers, rolled up tube of toothpast, and a comb among other things.

There was also a chapter on recognizing ships based on their running light configuration. The book would show front, side, and rear views of their fictional ships, with each ship having a rudimentary running light configurations (usually circles with varying degrees of filledness - yes, filledness!). At the end of the chapter there would be pictures of various circles all spaced out, and you would have to piece together the orientation of the correct ships and try to figure out what was going on.

The front cover (which was perforated) had a decoder wheel on it for the chapter on alien languages. What would the Space Force be without aliens to battle? The one picture I remember from the inside was a "Space Force Wants You", Uncle Sam styled picture that took up a whole page. The artwork was really good - all black and white, done mainly in pencils (again, from what I can remember).

The closest I've been able to come to finding it has been Steven Caldwell's Space Patrol, which I remember getting around the same time. Not the same type of book (no brain teasers in this one), but it had some interesting ship designs.

If anybody has an idea as to what the name of the book might be, let me know (I'm sure with my description it'll be found in no time, right?). All of my searches have let me to StarCom toys, 1950's comic strips, and more Star Wars/ Star Trek games that I really knew existed.

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Send in the Games

07.27.2004

I've been playing some more videogames lately. Non-wrestling games on top of that (even though there's still 1 more I need to play). Hoping to scratch the Grand Theft Auto nerve, I picked up a copy of Driver 3. Unfortunately, I suck at the game once you have to get out of the car (I can't help but get killed). Fortunately, there's a free-driving mode and some cheat codes that pretty much open up the game if you don't want to follow the story line. In this mode, I really like the game. I keep thinking I'll jsut pick up the controller and while away 10 minutes or so, but by the time I look at the clock I've been playing for an hour and a half. If only god mode worked in the story mode I could actually play the game all the way through!

Ever on the lookout for a good motorcycle game, I saw a review of MX Unleashed on Tech TV, or G4TechTV, or whatever you want to call them now. It seemed to have a good mix of features, so I figured I would give it a try. Once again, cheat codes to unlock everything came in handy, because I tend to like the freestyle mode better than the career racing section. The gimmick of this game is that other vehicles are unlocked (trucks, monster trucks, helicopters, and biplanes). Although it's neat to try out the other vehicles, they're not that much fun after about 10 minutes.

Both of these are good for a short little diversion, which luckily is just what I was looking for. Now I've got to get Jer to play Driver 3 to see how much fun he has as he wantonly mows down passers by with a machine gun (he's probably looing forwart to the new GTA game - hopefully in September - than I am!)

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15th Anniversary DJ Story

07.26.2004

Waaaay back in '89, I had my first venture into self employment with a couple of guys I worked with. The local minor league basketball team (does basketball have a minor league?) was in need of sound guys. Kory, on of the aforementioned guys I worked with, happened to know people that knew people. All we needed was a mixing board and we were in business, so , a mixing board purchase later we were in business as KJs Sound!

Along the way we managed to dj a couple of school dances, and I think Kory was even doing it full time around town for a while. My favorite story is the ihgh school dance we did in Russellville. Kory had managed to buy an old Hearse that would carry all the equipment, and we had to stop in Russellville for gas and directions. The guy at the gas stationed couldn't get over our lack of either a dead body or that we weren't going to pick a dead body up. I'm pretty sure the kids at the school were giving us the eye when we drove up, too.

Since then, we've all gone on to different jobs, but I got a call from Kory a couple of weeks ago. A friend of his was getting married and asked him to dj the reception. Why, this could be a chance for the KJs Sound Farewell Tour! Thinking it would be fun just for the chance to say "KJs Sound Farewell Tour" I voluteered to help. Well, the reception was this past Saturday, and I learned a couple of things:

• Old DJ equipment can get very dusty.
• As Johnny pointed out, we're probably the only DJs that have rusted screws in the mixing board (15 years of humidity and neglect can do that)
• You can pretty much stop playing music made after '87 when DJ'ing a wedding reception.
• Kids are goofy dancers.
• I'm glad I've got a real job

So the KJs Sound Farewell Tour managed to get pulled off without anyone getting killed. We caught up on a lot of old memories by doing it, but now it's over. At least until the KJs Sound Reunion Tour...

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Spam Limits

07.22.2004

Today I noticed my spam counter had actually gone down since Tuesday, from 6946 top 6945. How did I lose a spam? It was then I noticed the Yahoo fine print at the top of the page:

With SpamGuard turned on, Yahoo! Mail will deliver suspected spam to this folder and delete them after one month.

It seems I've been collecting spam for a month now and it's starting to get deleted. Well this just totally sucks. I was running an experiment here!

So, since there's nothing better to do with the folder, I emptied it and have started the spam count over. I wonder if I'll get more than 6946 spams in the next month? I wonder if I'll realize I've got plenty to do without counting spam?

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Time For Some Links!

07.21.2004

The incoming freshman class at Duke University are getting free iPods. I wonder if everyone's tuition mysteriously went up $300?

Ever wonder what your name would look like in Egyption heiroglyphics? Before 10 minutes ago, I hadn't, but now......

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