You'd have to have played Half Life 2 to understand... And here's House Freeman.
If they were ever to do a Half Life movie, Hugh Laurie would be the perfect actor to play Gordan Freeman.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
«Jesus Freeman»
Monday, May 19, 2008
«Motivational Monday: Common Sence»
What were they hoping to achieve? The big forklift would easily reach high enough...
Sunday, May 18, 2008
«This is a Big Tree in My Opinion»
I wanted to show what I see in the way of big trees, so Monique can understand why I said the tree in her backyard is not a "massive beast".
This tree is in the campground around Ward Lake, it is a Sitka Spruce. As a comparison, I'm standing in front of the tree. There are many such trees in the area. Click images to view full.
This one is a different tree of about the same size. Much more difficult to see the scale because there's nothing in the image to compare it to.
There's also rather unique root formations and openings under some of these trees. These form when a seeding grows on the broken stump of a previous tree. The seedling grows into a large tree and the old stump rots out from under it. You can see Ward Lake in the background.
As I've said before, I live in an Alaskan rainforest.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
«Caturday: Sorry About Last Week»
I skipped Caturday last week. I hope it didn't cause too many of you to wander in a disillusioned daze through the past week.
Friday, May 16, 2008
«Response to Looney on Gay Marriage»
This post is a response to Looney's opinions on California's ruling on gay marriage. It is suggested you go read his post first.
I fully support gay marriage. Just because there's been no precedent in civilization doesn't mean it's wrong. With that sort of attitude, civilization would never advance.
And how exactly does this ruling "trash the Constitution"? All I see it trashing is the Leviticus book of the Bible. And by our First Amendment, church and state are separate.
Besides, wasn't the Old Testament kinda trashed by the New Testament? Churches seem to ignore parts of the Old Testament that don't suit them (claiming the New Testament trumps it), while upholding other parts of the Old Testament that does suit them. (Wouldn't it be nice if we could just pick and choose what laws we wanted to follow, and disregard the rest?)
Anyway, back on topic... I'm sure I could find many different sources other than Ephesians 5:24-25 that define marriage. Just because you choose to use the biblical definition doesn't mean everyone should.
By your definition, Poor ol' Drek and his wife aren't really married, and can't be. Please, don't take this as calling Drek's wife a man; but rather that their marriage was not a symbol of Christ. And I'm sure Drek would have a word or two about asserting the validity of his marriage.
Besides, from what I read into Ephesians 5:24-25, it's using Christ's love as an example or analogy... Not directly saying marriage is a symbol of Christ.
It all comes down to the simple fact that gays are people, too. There are certain legal rights given to married couples, and gay couples should have those same rights.
Perhaps you can tell I have a strong opinion on the subject of gay rights?
«Gibletzinsauseovich»
Comrade Corndogski Gibletzinsauseovich Nikolai Pimptastovich
I have searched for that exact name in Google, and not surprisingly, there were no results. Once Google indexes this page, there will be.
Where did I get that name? I wasn't even the one that thought it up. I ran across it when I was looking through my 7th grade steno pad from my math class. Another kid in that class came up with the name and I wrote it down.
Now it shall be an immortal name, as the Google cache and the Way Back Machine do not easily forget. I may make it a project later on to immortalize that entire steno pad. It has some quite unique content, and it would be a shame for it to fade from history.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
«The Immortal Bird»
I had to take pictures of this raven when I saw it. Look closely; you'll see it has a dart through its head! Almost looks like it went in the throat and out the eye on the other side. How it's still alive, I don't know. Click an image to view full.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
«Deer Mountain (Photo-Heavy)»
Yesterday I went for a hike on the Deer Mountain trail. I knew I wouldn't get to the top, because there's 50 or so feet of snow up there. Deer Mountain is 3,001 feet tall, and I'd say I made it to about 1,800 feet (just a guess) before the snow was prohibitive. Click an image to view full.
Here's a picture of the mountain.
Half a mile into the trail, elevation 980ft.
Not much past the previous picture, here's the first significant patch of snow.
And from there on there were patches across the trail in some places.
3/4 mile into the trail, elevation 1,240.
1 mile into the trail, elevation 1,500.
There's a viewpoint right past the 1 mile sign. There were 5 elderly people up there at this viewpoint. Two of them were talking on cell phones, while two others (presumably their wives) were worried about roaming charges. Finally one of the ones on the phone said they weren't roaming. It just struck me as funny. Here I am, 1,500 feet high on a mountain, had to walk through snow to get here... And I find a bunch of old people on cell phones. Here's a picture from the viewpoint.
I zoomed in as far as I could (20x) on Metlakatla from the viewpoint.
A bit past the viewpoint, the trek gets more challenging.
I looked directly across to another mountainside at my elevation, to find it covered in snow. No doubt my side looks similar.
This is as far as I got. Keep in mind, I was only wearing slip-on shoes. I was starting to fall through the snow patches, so I turned around.
I took a picture of part of town I could see from here, then descended back down the mountain. Looks like a junkyard or something on the South end of town.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
«Cruise Ship Watch: Zaandam»
There were actually 5 ships in today; Norwegian Star, Star Princess (already have pictures of those two from earlier this year), Mercury, Spirit of Glacier Bay (small ship), and Zaandam.
Zaandam in Ketchikan.
By the time I was on the dock taking pictures, the Mercury and Spirit of Glacier Bay had already left. I already have posts about the Norwegian Star and Star Princess, so all you get is a picture of just the Zaandam today. Tomorrow you'll see what I was doing earlier in the day that caused me to miss taking pictures of the other two.
«Elderly People»
You may have seen signs like this. They warn you of the possible presence of elderly people.
Why is there a need for a warning? Well, the type of elderly people the sign warns about may be a little freaky to those who are not prepared for see them...
This is an animated image
Monday, May 12, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
«Taken on May 6»
Here's a few more pictures I took on May 6, here in Ketchikan, Alaska. Although I concentrated on taking pictures of the cruise ship (Star Princess) that day, I took a few pictures of other things. Click an image to view full.
A view of our tunnel from the cruise ship dock. Here you can see the houses on top the tunnel. An interesting little piece of trivia: the houses on top are older than the tunnel itself.
Ok, here's another picture of the cruise ship that was in that day. I think this picture is a better size comparison between the ship and buses.
The Ketchikan Creek fish ladder, and the creek itself. The town was named after this creek. The creek was named Kitschk-hin by the native Tlingit indians.
These stairs are part of Married Man's Trail. The name of the trail comes from the early 1900's, when married men used it as a hidden path to the brothels on Creek Street.
Interesting little rock arrangement I found.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
«Musical Taste: Miscellaneous Odds»
Parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
By request, this part is a little different. This part will not be 3 songs by an individual band that's my "style". These 3 are songs I like that are outside my normal style.
Peter, Paul and Mary - Puff the Magic Dragon - 45RPM
What can I say? I have a soft spot for dragons.
Portal - Credits Song 'Still Alive'
From the game Portal.
We like the moon
The RatherGood.com Spongmonkeys! I seriously like this song, it's no joke. You may recognize them from a Quizno's commercial.
Friday, May 9, 2008
«Macro Photography»
I've been playing around with the new camera. Here's a few images I took up close with manual focus. I've always liked macro photography. You can take a picture of a very mundane object and get an amazingly detailed picture from it. Click an image to view full. You're free to use these as desktop backgrounds if you wish.
This is a photo up close of the needles of an asparagus fern.
Incense stick burning.
Another photo of the incense stick.
A flower from a christmas cactus, that seems to flower all times of the year except Christmas.
You can probably expect more of this type of photos to be posted here in the future as I find interesting objects. If you're interested in getting the original sized images (2560x1920), just email me a request for them at: [To stop spambots, you must have javascript enabled to view the email address]. Blogger sizes down large images when you upload them to a post.
EDIT: Full-original-sized images now available when you click to view full.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
«Read The Fine Print»
So I saw a hell of a deal from Publisher's Clearing House in the mail. They say you've won a guaranteed cash prize. Please just send us $21.96 as a processing fee to claim your cash prize. Cash prizes total over $600,000!1
Then you read the fine print and see there's only about a 1 out of 996,999 odds that your cash prize will be anything over $0.79 (and the grand prize is only $9,600). That's a hell of a deal on their part. You send me $21.96 and I'll send you $0.79 back.
How do they figure a cash prize total over $600,000? You try sending $0.79 to 996,999 people... Remember, that's their "total" cash prize payout.
1: Not the exact amount they quoted as their total cash prize payout, just an approximation.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
«Page 161 Tag»
I've been tagged by Looney...
The "Page 161 tag" is where you quote a complete sentence from page 161 of something you are reading. Amazing that Looney caught me when I'm actually reading something. I usually don't read books. I do all my reading online usually. But right now I am reading "The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster".
I'd like to add, page 161 was not the best page to be tagged for this book, page 161 has mathematical proofs of His existence, and not too many complete sentences. So, from page 161 of "The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster":
What's even more interesting, there's some truth to Microsoft's ties to the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Check this out, there's a Flying Spaghetti Monster sculpture displayed on Microsoft's campus. Here's a picture of it:Microsoft is one of the most successful businesses in history, undoubtedly as a result of their secret ties to the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
There's even rumors that the sculpture was commissioned by Bill Gates himself. It's kinda funny how nearly everything about this religion coincidently falls in place.
And Monique: tag, you're it.
See the rest of “Page 161 Tag”»
«Marf's Shared Stuff»
I'd like to point out a new widget in the sidebar: Marf's Shared Stuff. It will only show on the blog's homepage, not in individual item (aka blog entry) pages. This is deliberate.
I have it only show on the homepage because otherwise the sidebar is too long for many of the individual item pages. I've seen too many blogs with cluttered sidebars that seem to go on forever. They cause you to scroll down for a mile just for the sidebar's content; the post body itself is short. I don't want this to be one of those blogs.
You may also notice the widget has its own webfeed. (What is a webfeed? Click here for an explanation.) It is a separate feed from the blog's; so if you want to subscribe to it, you'll have to do so separately. I also have email subscriptions available. Again, separate from the blog's email subscription option.
I make no claims or promises of daily updating for the widget. If I see a random thing of interest on the Internet I'll share it if I think about it. I'll try to keep adult content to a minimum, so it should all be Safe For Work material.
In case you're interested, it's powered by Google Reader. It's a new feature they just announced. I think it's a pretty neat idea.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
«Cruise Ship Watch: Star Princess»
The Star Princess was in town today. I got a few pictures while it was still docked. As always, click an image to view it full sized.
It's tough to get the entire ship in frame.
This picture was taken from Married Man's Trail.
That's one of the Alaska state ferries, the Malaspina passing the Star Princess. Picture taken from the lobby of the Cape Fox Lodge and Restaurant.
I zoomed in on the ship from the 3rd Ave bypass. The camera has a 20x optical zoom, but I didn't quite need that much for this photo.
And I caught it leaving town...
«Post Scheduling Feature»
First off, a very minor color change was made to the layout. Look for an orange color (example color) in various places. It's used sparingly because it is meant to draw attention. (I took the color from the webfeed icon)
I was almost going to switch to Blogger Beta (Draft) just so I could have scheduled posts. But now there's no need to because post scheduling has been released for everyone. So now you don't know when I'm actually writing the posts... *mischievous eyebrow raise*
Hopefully what this will mean for my blog is more posts made at 12:01 AM. I'm in the Alaska time zone, and as such, by the time it's Tuesday for me it's already almost Wednesday for other parts of the world. For example, in Australia it would appear I'm lagging a day behind on my posting. So I try to post things for a day as early as I can, and how much earlier than 12:01 AM can you get (and still have it register as being on that day)? Before, if I didn't stay up and make a post after midnight, it wouldn't be until around noon that the post was made. Now I can write a post ahead of time and schedule it for later.
Theoretically, I could schedule several posts ahead of time. Then I could take a break or even die and you wouldn't even know it...
That's something that has come to my mind on more than one occasion. I'm involved in a few online communities, but there's no way they'd know in the event of my untimely demise. They'd just assume I stopped caring or just abandoned them. How sad.
Monday, May 5, 2008
«Cruise Ship Watch: Norwegian Star»
The Norwegian Star came through town again today, and this time I took a picture. This picture was taken from my window, at about 3:30 PM today as the ship was leaving...
Click image to view full
See the rest of “Cruise Ship Watch: Norwegian Star”»
«Motivational Monday: Overconfidence»
Not every bird is easy prey for a house cat...
Sunday, May 4, 2008
«IPOD Meme»
Even though, you know, I don't have an IPOD. I'm using WinAmp on my computer to randomize my entire music list for this. 1,589 songs; not much compared to some people.
As seen on Escape Hatch:
"Instructions: Go to your music player of choice and put it on shuffle. Say the following questions aloud, and press play. Use the song title as the answer to the question. NO CHEATING."
I have bolded the questions, and inserted the random songs from my collection that came up...
How does the world see you?
Willie Nelson - On The Road Again
(Not true, I hardly ever go on road trips. I'm trapped on an island.)
Will I have a happy life?
Wolfsheim - No Happy View
(Wow... That just may be true... And it really did come up randomly.)
What do my friends really think of me?
Randy Newman - Birmingham
(I didn't even know I had this song)
What do people secretly think of me?
Afro Celt Sound System - Sure as Not
(Ok... I suppose I can be a little indecisive sometimes.)
How can I be happy?
Final Selection - Lost
(Wow... My happiness really is lost...)
What should I do with my life?
Sopor Aeternus - Not Dead But Dying
(I suppose that is life. We're not dead yet, but we're all dying.)
What is some good advice for me?
Rammstein - Stripped
(Is it telling me to strip? lol)
How will I be remembered?
Loreena McKennitt - The Highwayman
(I'm not a robber!)
What is my signature dancing song?
Beseech - In Her Arms
(I don't dance. Be it in "her" arms or not. There isn't even a "her" in my life anyway.)
What do I think my current theme song is?
Coil - The Anal Staircase
(That's a weird friggin' song. I'd say about the weirdest I have...)
What does everyone else think my current theme song is?
Sisters of Mercy - Emma
(Sorry, I don't have a witty comment to make about this one.)
What song will play at my funeral?
Weird Al Yankovic - This is The Life
(Gee... Thanks a lot.)
What type of men/women do you like?
Celtic Spirits - Martha's Harbour
(That's not even a description.)
What is my day going to be like?
Painbastard - Nyctophobia
(Painbastard and fear of the dark, that's not a good sign.)
Well, it would appear the 'randomness that be' does not look kindly at me...
Saturday, May 3, 2008
«Caturday: Invisible Trap Behind Me...»
Oh, I know the post title doesn't make much sense. This first picture is one of the classic Caturday pictures:
Friday, May 2, 2008
«Musical Taste: Sisters of Mercy»
Parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
The Sisters of Mercy, an English gothic rock band. They were popular in the 80's and early 90's, but I still like their music style. Nothing wrong with the 80's.
Sisters of Mercy - vision thing
The Sisters of Mercy -- More
Flood 1 The Sisters Of Mercy
Thursday, May 1, 2008
«A Word About My Layout»
You may not realize it, but some thought and work went into this blog design. It's custom-made by me. There are a few things that I've checked it for, such as visibility for different kinds of color blindness (using this page). I've also tried to design for people who use a larger font size than the default. If you increase the font size, most things on the blog should scale with it; at least for a size or two.
I know some of you don't like dark backgrounds. No-one complains about light backgrounds because they are a standard. I personally like dark backgrounds. I often sit in a dark room when I'm using my computer, and dark backgrounds cause less eyestrain for me. It is my blog, so I have chosen to use a dark background. I have a little personal liberty, don't I?
Maybe after I get everything all tweaked out with this design, I'll make a lighter layout and have a way to choose between them. I have tested a method I came up with for doing this and it works just fine, although I can't change the color of the ads on the fly, so they look out of place in a lighter layout. But for now I'm still doing minor tweaks to this layout.
I've been thinking about changing the coloring of the navigation menu so it stands out a little more. If you have any thoughts or ideas for the navigation menu, please, leave me a comment here. Or any suggestions for the layout or color scheme in general. I'm always open to suggestions.
Also, completely unrelated...
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