It turns out that the Subservient Chicken was created by the Barbarian Group, a Boston-area Web design group. I note this mostly as an excuse to link to another site they did for my brother’s design collective, Release1.
Ah, the Disney experience: It’s wholesome! The photo is from the Adventurer’s Club, which is a 1930s pulp-themed bar on Pleasure Island. The gimmick is the actors playing parts, who do skits and shows and songs (see picture) throughout the evening. I spent a lot of time there last week.
Another Disney photo, perhaps bearing a certain weight of cognitive dissonance for my Unknown USA brothers and sisters. Hey, look: the Mouse (original) is attempting to reroute the ley lines (original) to the Fountain of Youth (original)! Someone’s (original) gotta stop ‘em.
So, did a lot of stuff happen while I was incommunicado or what? I refer, of course, to Nomar going on the DL. Good things about WDW: The new Kali River Rapids ride at Animal Kingdom. Top-notch water ride with the best line experience ever. Worth going to Animal Kingdom for, which is good, cause not much else is. The new Aerosmith-themed roller coaster at Disney/MGM. It’s got rollover loops, just like a real roller coaster! Add in Tower of Terror, and Disney/MGM is definitely the right place to go for thrill rides at Disney. ...
Well, that was a vacation and a half. My digital camera broke midway through, so I have few pictures. I still had a metric ton or so of fun. More details later.
So while my mother was in the hospital, I got her a NetFlix account. Since she’s not always into the technogeeky thing, and because I wanted to make her life as easy as possible while recovering, I manage the queue. It’s worked out really well — she gets the fun of opening a surprise in the mail every few days. And I have a pretty solid idea of her tastes. But I’m feeling whimsical, so now I want recommendations from y’all. What would you rent her? The list of movies rented to date is in the extended entry — she claims to have enjoyed everything so far.
The first person who changed my life, I never met. He or she left some old SF paperbacks in a little villa on Green Turtle Cay, in the Bahamas — Perry Rhodans, as I recall — and I read them while I was ten or so and on vacation. They blew me away, far more so than the golf books. I haven’t stopped reading SF yet. That’s why my dad’s friend Peter Olotka said “Hey, your son likes SF — he can share our room at Boskone if you like.” Dad said sure, and that was my first SF con. I enjoyed the hell out of it, but I more or less stopped going when I hit college. ...
“I can’t refuse to read things because the author is an asshole. I hate people; I wouldn’t get to read anything.”
Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! Etc.