The Deathmobile

I was at Universal Studios over the weekend, and I saw the Deathmobile from Animal House parked behind one of the sound stages. I couldn't get my digital camera ready fast enough, and before knew it we had passed it by.

The tour guide made no mention of it, and so I have no clue whether or not it was THE Deathmobile or merely a reproduction. I have a year long pass, and will be going back this weekend so I will try to get some pics then.

Until then check out a picture of it at rankinblog

The Friday Five

Once again I have neglected my blog, but The Friday Five offers me an opportunity to answer these questions;

If you...

1. …owned a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve?
My wife is Mexican, and a great cook, so it would have to be a Mexican restaurant.

2. …owned a small store, what kind of merchandise would you sell?
Vintage Disney. I have a closet full of Disneyland memorabilia that I have instructed my wife to sell on eBay upon my death. She’ll be set for life. (Assuming she lives only one year after my death.)

3. …wrote a book, what genre would it be?
Suspense. I never know what’s going on anyway.

4. …ran a school, what would you teach?
Math. I failed math my first semester in seventh grade. From then on I believed I didn’t have the brain for it. Since then I have taken calculus, and always been in the top 5% of my class.

5. …recorded an album, what kind of music would be on it?
A cross between rock and classical. E.L.O. has always been my favorite.

Friday Five

Time for the The Friday Five ;

1. What was the last song you heard?
Mr. Blue Sky by ELO. I have all their CD's, up to Out of the Blue, loaded in my CD player in my car. There isn't much on the radio on my way home from work, so I usually listen to CD's during the drive.

2. What were the last two movies you saw?
We don't actually GO to the movies much, so I am going to have to include DVD's. We rented I am Sam with Sean Penn the other night. We also watched Raiders of the Lost Ark.

3. What were the last three things you purchased?
A Cisco router, my wife’s anniversary present and a card to go with the anniversary present.

4. What four things do you need to do this weekend?
Clean the house, go to Disneyland.

5. Who are the last five people you talked to?
A guy I see every morning at 5am when I take our dog for a walk, my wife, my two stepsons, and my assistant at work.

My Wife

I have said it before; my wife is wonderful.

Today is our fourth anniversary, and after I woke up and had my shower I went downstairs to my computer and coffee just as I do everyday, but this morning there was a package for me. Inside my package was a box See’s candy, and get this, the first boxed set of the James Bond 007 collection! James rocks, especially when played by Roger Moore.

My wife is not a big movie fan, and even less of a James Bond fan, but she knows I dig 007, and so of course she knew the DVD boxed set would make a great gift for me. I was excited, but a little disappointed. You see, in years past my wife has given me my present first. The reason she able to do so was because she would get off work earlier than I. This year, I figured I would be able to her her present first because I now get off work at 3:30, and she doesn’t get home until close to 5:30, but alas, she scooped me again.

That’s cool, she’s a great wife, and I love her very much. She remembers every little thing I enjoy, and gives me great presents on our anniversary. She actively tries to make me happy, and I admire her in how she handles herself in our relationship. I strive to be as good a husband to her as she is a wife to me.

Happy anniversary, honey. I love you more now than I did when we got married, and I look forward to all the years ahead together with you.

Trip to the Library

My stepson is having a little trouble keeping up with his class work. That’s OK; I had trouble keeping up when I was his age too. Because my wife and I would like to help him bring up his grades, we have been making several trips to our local library every week. Until these recent trips it had been many years since I went to the library in our town, and I forgot what a wonderful place it truly is. For those of you who grew up surfing the Internet, they have books at the library, and a lot of them, and they let you take them home for weeks at a time FOR FREE! If you don’t finish the book, just let them know and they will let you keep it longer at no extra charge. Still one of the best deals in this country by far.

I told the boy on our first trip last week that I remember my folks taking me to the very same library when I was a boy in the late sixties. I was maybe nine years old at the time, and was obsessed with birds. (I had escapism issues.) I regaled him with the history of the Dewey Decimal System, how I found several books about birds by using the card catalog, and how I just came from the same section where the bird books were thirty years ago and they were still there! He looked at me rather unimpressed, and asked me how we could find a book today about Poncho Villa for his class report.

Well, the card catalog is long gone, and now the library uses a computer system to tell you not only what books are offered at the branch you are in, but also all the books in all the libraries countywide. Once we found the book he needed, I went back to wandering the aisles picking out different books to leaf through. I looked through almost every section in that whole library. I finally settled on a couple of books from the entertainment section near the table we had staked out, and read a little about old radio shows while my stepson read about the exploits of Poncho Villa, and my wife copied some recipes out of a cookbook. It was very peaceful and relaxing.

The advent of the Internet has made research for school-aged kids just a little too convenient. It’s relatively easy to Google up a topic from the comfort of your own home rather than take the time to drive down to the library and search out your subject in the vast collection of books. Yet, in a library you might find not only what you are looking for, but stumble across other information as well. You could be hunting down one title in an aisle and accidentally find something else of interest because the books are ordered according to topic. Look up the Dewey Decimal System and you will see what I mean. If you are looking for a book about old radio shows for instance, you would first look it up on the library computer, then go to the section where the book is located, and the track it down by it’s Dewey Decimal number. As you do so, you will see other books about radio shows, radio personalities, movie stars, television shows, as well as numerous other titles of books dealing with entertainment of various forms. This exposes you to much more than just what you may have been expecting to find, this turns you on to whole other aspects of a subject you may not have thought about. It may also lead you to learn more than you would have otherwise.

As I mentioned in the last paragraph, taking the time to properly research a topic using books rather than online sources exposes you to more information. With todays fast and efficient search engines it’s pretty easy to do an Internet search of almost any subject and pinpoint what you are looking for with a fair amount of accuracy. Once you find what you are looking for on the Internet, you can quickly search a document for exactly what you need by using the word search function of your web browser. No more need to actually READ through pages of text to find a paragraph of pertinent information, just let the computer find it for you. If, on the other hand you decide to find a book in a library that deals with the subject you are interested in, you will need to read a good portion of that book to glean anything of value from it. There is no word search for books; you need to look at those words one at a time.

It is also easier on the body to read from a book than off of a computer screen. At least it is for me. Even today I print what I have written so I can proof read it. Reading off of a computer screen is taxing. The light strains my eyes, and I lose my place when I scroll up or down. On a printed copy I can handwrite in my corrections and then go back and correct my original on the computer.

I doubt the local library system is going to become extinct anytime soon. Just as earlier pundits predicted the computer would usher in a “paperless” society that would result in a shorter work week, the idea that the printed word will one day exist only in binary format electronically stored in a computer file is just plain ludicrous. Our local library has actually been allocated a larger budget in recent years, and as a result is open on more days for longer hours than it has been in years. This is encouraging in that at least my local government recognizes the value of libraries. There are sixteen libraries in our county, one of which is a scant ten minute drive through town form where I live, and another just a few more minutes from there. Most all of the sixteen are open six days a week, other are open no less than four, but are in fair distance to others that are open more often. A few are even open seven days a week!

This warms my heart, because I plan on spending a lot more time at my library from now on.

Mars Water

This 99¢ store ad in my local paper brightened my morning.

Friday Five

I figured since I haven't posted anything in a while I would give the Friday Five from The Friday Five Weblog a shot.

Here are my answers:

What was...

1. ...your first grade teacher's name?
I can't recall, but here's her pic. I'm the geeky little dweeb in the dark red shirt just to the teacher's right in the middle row. (Circa 1965)

2. ...your favorite Saturday morning cartoon?
That's a toss up between the Pink Panther, and Scooby Doo. Neither of those interests me any longer.

3. ...the name of your very first best friend?
My memory about my really early days is starting to fade. I had a best friend in Pomona on Harrison St. when I was four or five, but I can't remember his name. I guess, therefore, the next best answer would be the first best friend I can remember, and that would be Mike Bennett.

4. ...your favorite breakfast cereal?
Quisp, no Quake, no Quisp. (Really, Fritz, I DID like Quisp AND Quake.)

5. ...your favorite thing to do after school?
Ride my bike down to the barranca and look for critters.