Big Brass Ones...

Wow! I saw this news item on my Yahoo news page, and was a bit surprised...
The New York Times has SUED the Pentagon over the Domestic Spying issue. Do they know who they are messing with? As much as I am for them and congratulate them for standing up to the Big Government forces, I have to wonder if they really think they'll get anywhere with this. Which makes me wonder what their real motivation is. Hmm.
Anyway, to read more check out this yahoo news link.
(Check out the photo too of the NYT's office - It looks like an English Castle!)

Asian Sunday

A nice graphic I pulled from... http://www.eff.org/ - though it has nothing to do with the following post...

I have fallen into this pattern lately on Sunday's and I'm enjoying it...
Waking up early (and barely) making it to church.
Staying after the service for either a group discussion, or Sunday school.
leaving church and realizing I'm starving!
I've been going to a local Japanese restaurant and have been having some really good food. Last week I had Chicken Katsu Don, and asked around during the week if anyone knew of a local Asian food market where I might be able to find some "don burri sauce". Well, I was recommended to go to "H-Mart" (I'm surprised they can use that name without trademark hassles from K-mart!). It was an AMAZING store, and I had a great time. I went to the little shopping mall or strip mall where H-mart was and saw that there was a Korean restaurant there. I've had Korean food only a few times before, but have always enjoyed it, so in keeping with my Asian Sunday theme, I decided to go there first to get some food. What a neat place, and I had a really good dish... Beef Soon Yook. It was only me, and yet they treated me very nice, and brought out about 8 small side dishes! That could have been the entire meal right there. The Beef was very interesting... It was in some sort of batter dip that was mottled in color then deep fried, and served with some slightly cooked vegetables all in a type of sweet and sour sauce. And I liked all of the side dishes except for one (Waldorf salad - something about apples and mayo that turns my stomach). I'm a big fan of the Kim-Chee though, they also had some large bean sprouts, some marinated broccoli, some sort of green leaf marinated (looked a little like broccoli Rabe?), a small dish of cabbage and what tasted like celery and tiny shrimp, a marinated beef (cold), and some spicy Tofu. Then when I was getting ready to leave, they brought the check and a small dessert - I had never seen this before and had no idea what it was - so I ate it :) I'll try to describe it... it looked almost like a mushroom cap, in that there appeared to have been something in the center that was removed. It was white with a bit of brown. It was in a tiny dish, with a little wooden fork, and smelled like "dessert wine". I had to ask the waitress what it was, and after asking her to repeat it because I didn't understand her accent I realized what she was saying was "Lychee" - I'd heard of this before but didn't know what it was, now I do... a type of Chinese fruit. (and good too!).
So after lunch and with a happy full belly, I went into the market (you know what they say about shopping on an empty stomach ;)... The market was HUGE! and busy with lots of mostly Asian people (big surprise). I saw maybe 2 other white people and one black couple. I felt very out of place, but didn't really care. I just took my time and wandered through the market looking at all the interesting new items (I WISH I had a camera). Many of which I had no idea what the items were, and then some that I knew what they were, but no idea how one would cook with them - for example a bag of dried anchovies. There was a seafood section with a man cleaning fish for the various people, and what looked like some really fresh fish. (matter of fact, all the food looked fresh and good). There was a little old lady in a little "booth" with big rubber gloves on and she was bundled up with a sweater and all (I think cause there was a door for the fishmarket right there that was open). She was mixing up fresh batches of KimChee (A SPICY cabbage dish that is a staple in all Korean households). I eventually found the sauce aisle, but after pouring over all the many choices of sauces, never did find my original Don burri quest. Oh well.
As I was nearing the end of the sauce aisle, I kept hearing a loud banging noise. Like someone slamming a large book down on a table along with a woosh of steam. I turned the corner and saw a man standing in another tiny booth with some sort of machine that was making this noise. The sign said "Pop Rice". He saw me trying to see what was going on, and waved me over to take a closer look. As I approached he gave me a sample of one of these rice pops. (along with another little Asian boy of about 8 years old ;) So I stayed a minute and tried to figure what this machine was doing. The best I could tell, it was squirting a batter into this small reservoir, then somehow by using some sort of high compression (steam or maybe just gas) it "popped" out a light fluffy rice cake about 8" Diameter. It tasted good, so I bought a package of them for $1.99. (sort of felt obligated since he gave me the free sample :) I found this link that describes what I saw (and it's at the same market that I went to but their story is in Boston.)
I ended up buying some really beautiful noodles. I have no idea what they are, but they are small white noodles perfectly cut and formed. (I hope to take a photo of this). I got some sort of fish base soup sauce for noodles (again, no idea what it is, or exactly how to use it). I wanted to buy a bag of the dried anchovies but didn't know how to prepare them. I also got the bag of rice cakes, and finally bought some really cool Japanese Tea cups. (I think I'll go back and buy the matching teapot at a later date), I also got a bag of Japanese Sencha Tea.
As I was paying for my items in the express lane, the woman glanced up and gave me a smile with a sort of unspoken line of communication like "welcome, we don't see many people who look like you here". (at least that's how I interpreted her smile). I can't wait until I go back again. There are SO many items there that not only had I never tasted them before, but I had NO IDEA what these items even were. One man passed me with a shopping cart and there was this large spiky brown thing about the size of a large pineapple... What the heck was that!
If anyone reading this knows how to prepare those dried anchovies please post in the comment section! :)
(My apologies for such a long post! But I could probably go on for a few more pages ;)

Sad News

I caught a headline just now on my google home pages that said "skinny nerd dies" (pretty horrible headline if you ask me)... The news was that the actor Don Knotts passed away on Friday night at 81 years old. I always did like Mr. knotts and my favorite role of his was as Gangster Theodore Ogelvie in the movie "The Apple Dumpling Gang" . I got to see this movie in the theatre (July of 1975) when I was a kid with my family, and I remeber really liking the movie.
Mr. Knott's was probably best known for his role of Barney Fife on the Andy Griffith show.
Here's a well written clip I pulled from the IMDB website:

Don Knotts, the irrepressible comic actor who won five Emmys as Deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, died Friday night in Los Angeles; he was 81. Knotts died of pulmonary and respiratory complications at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, and had recently suffered health problems that kept him from making an appearance at his hometown of Morgantown, West Virginia, last August. Knotts started out in entertainment as a ventriloquist before returning to college and then enlisting in the army at the onset of World War II. After the war and college, he returned to New York and pursued a career in radio and television; he nabbed a part as a psychiatrist in the Broadway play No Time for Sergeants, which starred actor Andy Griffith. He reprised his role in the film version, and after moving to Los Angeles, was cast opposite Griffith in the actor's eponymous sitcom, The Andy Griffith Show. The show ran from 1960-1968, and Knotts won an unprecedented five Best Supporting Actor Emmys in a row as manic deputy Barney Fife, a role for which he would forever be identified. After leaving the show, Knotts embarked on a film career, appearing in family-friendly films such as The Incredible Mr. Limpet, The Reluctant Astronaut and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, among others. His career in the 70s was marked primarily by Disney films such as The Apple Dumpling Gang and No Deposit, No Return, until he joined the sitcom Three's Company in the middle of the show's run as the bumbling landlord Mr. Furley, forever interfering in his tenant's lives. After Three's Company, Knotts made innumerable appearances in television shows and occasionally films; one of his most notable recent roles was as a mysterious television repairman who sets strange events in motion in the film Pleasantville. Knotts was married twice, to Kay Mets from 1948-1969, with whom he had two children, and to Lara Lee Szuchna from 1974 to 1983. --Prepared by IMDb staff

Friday Art

Ok, I think I talked about this earlier but if not just a quick recap... I signed up for some Watercolor art classes at a semi-local museum/art school. It's been an interesting experience and I'm starting now to enjoy it. The first two classes I found frustrating because I was trying to learn the new media of watercolor. Just last night I had a bit of a breakthrough in starting to understand it, and I turned out a small painting that I was somewhat pleased with. It's NO Piccaso, but for it being only the 5th watercolor I've ever done, I'm happy with it.

We're doing the basic still life of some fruit on a table. Nothing complicated (relatively speaking I supose - because apples are difficult to paint!)
I think if you click on the photos, they will open in a larger format. Note, the paper was kinda cheap so it curled/rippled on the scanner. The "waves" at the bottom are from the curls.
This second was was at the end of class, and I just wanted to play. It's using a sharpie to do a rough sketch, then a quick wash of color. Turned out pretty good (imho).




Here is one or my earlier attempts that I was quite happy with that I ended up giving it as a Christmas Present :)


After class I went over with a friend of mine to a "zen tea house" in the city. It wasn't quite what I expected - I had it in my mind as more of a traditional tea house, but it was kinda tourist-y. I had a bubba tea (or bubble tea I've also heard it called). What a strange drink... leave it to the Japanese to come up with this :) (oops apparently it originated in Taiwan). It had tea in it (but you couldn't taste it as it was SO Sweet - too sweet in my opinion.) But the kicker is... it's got these little 1/2" slime balls at the bottom of the glass, and yes, you're supposed to drink/slurp them up through a fat straw. They are Tapioca! I'm glad I tried one of these "teas" but I probably won't have another one any time soon. Too sweet.

Scanner Darkly

Hello All! I'm back! Did ya miss me? Did ya know I was gone? Well, I wasn't really gone, I was just taking a few days off from posting. It's not difficult to blog an item per day, it's just a strange sort of fatigue that sets in.

I've got a few items to blog about, but I'll start off with just this one for now...
A new movie is on it's way... Scanner Darkly - Done by Richard Linklater (who I admire some of his work - Waking Life, Dazed and Confused, Slacker) and produced by Clooney and Soderbergh. The movie is an adaptation from a book by Philip K. Dick (yes Blade Runner! Probably the best Scifi film ever made). This movie looks too good to be true... It's done in the same artistic style as Waking life (which was great), the cast is amazing (though there is something strange about casting Robert Downey and Woody Harrelson in a drug movie). Keanu (who will probably do good in this role as he plays a confused druggie), and even Winona Ryder (mixed feelings about her anymore). Anyway I just watched the trailer online and it looks pretty cool. I will defintely be waiting for this one.
Check out Downey's T-shirt in the snapshot above! Illuminati! I wonder where I can get a shirt like that...

Kamen Water

First off a celebratory, "TGIF!"

ok, that's outta the way.

I came upon this link today and felt it worthy of spreading the word... Ever hear of a "Segway?" - It was rumored that it would change the world. Mr. Dean Kamen who invented this scooter like device was able to enlist the backing of many millionaires to put up the $ to help with this project. (Steve Job was one of those). I hope that Kamen is able to pull those strings again to get backing for his new venture... Clean water. Read about it here on CNN.

AND... after that be sure to check out this invention. A much simpler, and cheaper alternative that in my opinion should be in mass production by someone like Wal-Mart or Target. It sure would be nice to see a large corporation help do the right thing.
I heard about this simpler invention several months ago, and it often re-enters my mind as being a good solution. I also think this same device could be "rampped" up to become a much larger collector of water, and possibbly chained together to form a "water farm" in the open sea. But that's just my humble opinion. Water = the gift of life.
Kudos to Mr. Kamen.

FlipBook

I found two neat websites last night... I've been interested in a new breed of websites that are generally called "social" websites. These are websites that pop up that encourage users to share there photos, pictures, bookmarks, personal profiles, etc... I find it interesting that with the www we're still developing websites that promote to world coming together and sharing. A good thing!
Anyway, here's a website for the social site:
http://www.blinklist.com
and more importantly, this led me to discover this website:
http://www.fabrica.it/flipbook/
It's a simple "do-it-yourself" animation program right in your browser. Most of the animations are simple/crude stick figures (as was mine) but there was one in the "top rated" section that was very well done (elephant hunt). Check out my short animation, and then try it yourself. (Warning: As with anything open to the public on the internet there are those who abuse this and post crude and obscene things. I would not recommend this for children (which is sad, because they would enjoy seeing how cartoons are made).
Here's my short:
batter up

Valentine Sunset

I was treated today with an incredible sunset. The colors were amazing, a mix of pink, orange, and purple, that really seemed to go well with St. Valentine's day. I was also lucky enough to have my camera with me, so here are two photos that turned out the best. Mind you, they don't do the real thing justice, the colors were richer or deeper. (I think if you click on the photo, you'll get to view a larger image).

Compact

I was just thinking I had nothing to blog about today, when I came upon this group listed on boingboing...
They are calling themselves "Compact" and in a nutshell have vowed to not buy anything new in the year 2006. Wow. I am all for decreasing our need/want/addiction to buying "stuff" but I don't know if I could make it for an entire year.
Here's a link to a news article about them in SFGATE
and here's their blog:
http://sfcompact.blogspot.com/
I found it interesting too that they are referring to "freecycle". I joined my local freecycle group about 6 months ago.

Wabbit Season - Lawyer Season

First off the formalities...
I'm wishing Mr. Whittington a speedy recovery.

Let the jokes begin.
Sorry, I know this is serious, but When I first saw this headline I thought it was a joke. Turns out our fearless vice president is walking around in the fields of Texas shooting lawyers. He "accidently" shot his friend while Quail hunting (no... not Dan Quayle), and his buddy was bending down in the high weeds (hiding?) when Mr. C jumpped some quail, followed a bird around and nearly blew a hole in his friend.
They are already starting some scandal with this because apparently Mr. C's people did not alert the press until 24 hours later. (Some speculate to see if the man lived or not). I'm curious to know if there will be any charges pressed. I realize this was a mistake, but it seems you can't just go around accidently shooting people without a slap on the wrist. After reading the news clip on CNN.com It struck me as "wierd" too that the VP travels with an ambulance in tow. That's got be wierd for him, to have some guys basically following you around with a stretcher - kinda creepy.

Seriously- get well soon Mr. Whittington

Winter Storm

Well, it was a long day today. I feel like I spent 90% of it shoveling snow. We got a good 12" or so (not including drifts). Here's a photo that I took from my window as I was driving - turned out pretty good considering...








I also finally finished my scarf (just in time for the winter again). It turned out ok, but you can tell it was handmade. A few dropped stiches (2?) a few bumbles here and there, but hey, it's my first attempt and it's functional :) I don't quite understand why the beginning ended up being so "flared" beleieve it or not, I counted the stitches and the end matches the beginning yet when you try to fold the scarf in half it's not symetrical. Oh well. I'm happy with it. I don't know yet if this will be my first and possibly last knitting project.



Well, back to the grind tomorrow.

It's friday!

Actually, It's 12:25 Sat morning, but who is counting?

It's been a busy week for me - a "good" busy though.
Wed, I went to a group within our church called "issues and actions" and among other things we talked about a book called "what's the matter with Kansas". I didn't find out about the book until it was too late, but I attended the discussion anyway. I was glad I did. It was neat for me to listen to other people's thoughts about politics (and a little religion). I didn't speak (I don't do well in social settings), but the conversation was interesting. I look forward to going again, and maybe actually speaking up.

Thursday night, I went to my second art class in Watercolor. It's going well, but I am frustrated at myself for not being able to paint well. It's a new media for me, and I just want to be able to do it (now). I'm a very patient person, but not when it comes to learning new things like this. So, I'm frustrated, but at the same time I'm still interested in learning more. I think this will take some practice (I hate that word), but I'm going to try, because I do enjoy it.

Tonight, I got to visit with my pop. It was a good dinner, and we had a good talk. A lot of it revolving around my art class and church meeting :)

It's now late, and I'm looking forward to sleep. (not looking forward to a big snowstorm that's headed our way tomorrow). I can tell I'm getting older now, because I'm starting to dread snow.

Before I turn in, I'll leave you with this to think about...
I listened to the hearings with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales regarding the Domestic spying issue. Very interesting. A few highlights that struck me...
• Head of the hearing (Sen. Spector) refused to swear in Mr. Gonzales.
• Sen. Biden asked Mr. G "How will we know, General, when this war it over?"
Mr. G "I presume the straightforward answer, Senator, is
that when Al Qaida is destroyed and it no longer poses a threat to
the United States."
Mr. B "The truth is, there is no definition of when we're going to
know whether we've won, because Al Qaida, as the president
points out, has mutated into many other organizations that are not
directly dealing with bin Laden and are free agents themselves."
- This was scary, because it was basically pointing out that there is no clear "goal" in winning this "war" against bad people.
I had also heard somewhere that in the new Patriot act (up for renewal soon) there was a new "law" that would ban citizens from carrying un-approved signs at a Dem. or Rep. National convention. WHAT?! I tried to look this up myself, but had difficulty finding and reading the actual act. The best link I found was on good ol' Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_PATRIOT_Act

You can read some of the highlights from the hearing here:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/07/1457259

Have a good weekend

New Tomb in Egypt

I just read this article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11252094/
talking about a new discovery of a tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.
I've been interested in the Great pyramid before, which has led me to an overall appreciation for all things related to ancient Egypt. This new discovery is pretty cool though a bit disappointing in that it was not the tomb of a king. Still... To be able to uncover a tomb in the year 2006 from SO long ago that has been hidden and sealed for thousands of years is incredible.
I only wish they would send another robot up into the undiscovered rooms in the Great Pyramid... Now that would be a discovery!

religion, movies, and dirt balls

A few random thoughts...

Writely>
I found a neat website the other day. It's still in Beta mode it's that new.
I understand what it is (sort of) but can't really think of how to use it myself. The way I understand it is, is that it's a sort of word processor online that you can have multiple authors edit. A sort of blend of a blog, word document, wiki, message board. It might be neat to have a certain topic to start a written dialogue on with other users. If anyone has any ideas post them in the comments area.
Check out the website here:
http://www.writely.com
PS> If you are on a mac with Safari, you'll need to switch over to firefox.

neat website>
I just found this website today that looks pretty cool.
http://collisiondetection.net
(edit 2_9_06: The above image is a polished ball of dirt. Read about this Japanese process here )

Religion>
Why did God rest on the 7th day? Was it because he was tired? (which insinuates there are limits to his power).
Is it "rest" more as in "taking a break" like an artist who stops painting to step back and look/admire/critique his/her work?
And why did it take 6 days? Why didn't he just snap his finger and "poof" it all into existence?
(I don't expect answers to these, just things I like go say "hmmm" about ;)
On another religion question:
One of the miracles that Jesus did, where he healed a blind person... he picked up some dirt from the ground, spit in it (ewww) rubbed it on the guy's eyes, then told him to go down to the river and wash it off, at which point the man could see. Why all the "magic tricks" to this miracle? Again, why didn't He just snap his fingers, and "poof" his miracle? It makes me think that there is a connection to the dirt-spit-water. How many of Jesus' miracles involved this sort of parlour trick? (I'm not putting this down by any means... I'm just curious why the sort of "magical" elements to his miracles).

Oscar Movies>
I got in a good discussion the other day with a friend about this.
Of all the Oscar nominations, I have only seen about 12 of these movies.
When we looked up the top 100 box office numbers from 2005 I was surprised to see some of the titles. The Dukes of Hazzard made it to #25. Just this past weekend, Big Mommma 2 was the tops for the weekend. So I'm not blaming Hollywood anymore... I'm blaming the people.

Finally, I decided to post to comments in the comments section. If you've posted a comment before, I have responded. :)

Have a good Wednesday

StrangeChallenge 3

Someone posted this StrangeChallenge in the comments. Rather than hold onto it and use it later, I'll post this as #3:

3) Take 4 minutes and just watch the clouds go by.
points = 2 (1 bonus point if you have a digital watch and set it for exactly 4 minutes)

This reminded me of a movie I once saw (I forget the name at the moment) but the person would lie on the grass look up at the clouds, and try to "bust" the clouds apart with his/her mind. I have tried this with not much success (go figure).

Vegan's = Terror?

I can't believe this story...
http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=75151

In case the link is bad...
my nutshell version...
A woman who is a Vegan (vegetarian) went to take part in a protest against eating meat in front of a ham store. An officer from the homeland sercurity apparently was sent to "spy" on this protest and was taking photos. The woman confronted him, and wrote down the license plate on a piece of paper. The officer demanded she turn over the paper or go to jail. She refused - went to jail where they took the piece of paper.

As a related post:
Have I mentioned lately how much I enjoy C-Span? I happened to catch a bit of an "Impeach Bush" Rally on C-span Sunday evening. (After getting tired of watching the boring superbowl). These people were serious, and I don't know If I agree with all that they said, it was still very interesting to listen to their comments. I had difficulty finding it on c-span, so you're probably better off starting on this website:
http://www.democracyrising.us/

StrangeChallenge coming tomorrow :)

Saturday morning

I've got a few topics of interest so I'm just going to throw them all into this sat morn post...
Bono>
I happened to catch a little bit of the televised prayer breakfast with the President. I don't know what this was for, is it a reoccuring event? is it to promote a certain topic among world leaders, or is it simply a photo-op? I was flipping through the channels and Bono was giving a speech. I was surprised by how eloquent he was. I thought it would be more like a "rock star" speech, but this guy can talk. Of course he threw in a few "rock star" comments but that kept it entertaining. I guess i should not have been surprised as Bono has met with a lot of world leaders, and I'm sure he would not get this access just because he has a good voice. One comment that struck me (and others as I've seen this replayed on a few news clips) Bono was comparing the devestating Tsunami statistics of 150,000 people who perished. He then went on to say that 150,000 people are dying in Africa every MONTH - and most of those deaths can be prevented by simple medicines and clean drinking water. Such devastation is hard for me to fathom. Here's a transcript I found on another blog of Bono's speech.

Art>
I just started my first watercolor painting class this week (Thurs. night). It was new experience for me. I enjoyed it very much inspite of my frustration at trying to learn a new medium. I've been toying with the idea lately of adding some original art/sketchs/doodles to my blog in the same way as Drawn... I "might" do this with some of my watercolor experiments.
On another note: I got to the class about 10 minutes early (I had hoped to be there MUCH earlier but spent about a half hour driving around the city looking for parking!) As I was setting my new paints, and paper out, I glanced up to see who was walking in, and it was my friend Paul! Turns out, he had signed up for this class before I had, and was able to keep it from me so it was a surprise. I was glad to have a friend there :) He's also a talented artist so I hope to see some of his cool work.

Blog question>
What's the format for responding to comments left on your blog? A few people have left some comments, and I would like to respond but am unsure how... Do most people just respond in the comment area (like a message board), or should I create a new blog topic as a response? Maybe you could post a comment, and let me know how you've seen it happen with other bloggers. I too will look around and see if I can find a "pattern".

Music>
I just discovered a REALLY neat website...
http://www.pandora.com
It's a "social" music website... Social in the vain of Flickr, digg, technorati, delicious, etc...
You simply enter the name of a favorite group/artist/song and pandora will first play one song from that group, then start a streaming radiostation of what it thinks is "similar" music.
I typed in one of my favorite 80's band - depeche mode. It came up with 3 good matchs (all of which I knew of ;) I just registered (for a free account) and now I can create multiple "stations" so as I've been typing this post, I've been listening to a "white stripes" station. I've heard some good new music! (Ted Hawkins - Joe Purdy to name two). In todays radio world its about 2-3 songs of top 40 hits, then 10 minutes of commercials or sub-par banter. I've started listening to the local Country Western Station in the morning only because they play more music than those crazy morning DJ's. There is not much of an outlet anymore for "indy" music or "alternative". I like the idea of satellite radio but I don't want to spend another monthly fee to subscribe. So... I'm glad I found pandora.com and encourage you to check it out. (broadband recommended).

ok, long post I know.
Have a great weekend!
Enjoy the superbowl if you're going to watch it. I will probably watch some of it only for the commericals and see what 2.5 MILLION dollars gets you now-a-days. If only we could put some of that money in the problems that Bono was talking about.

note to self: Oscar movie nominations.

I guess I hit the big time...

Just a quick post here... This blog must have hit the big time... I got my first "comment spam" it was way back on a previous post, but I figure I have to turn on the spam features now for this blog. I had hoped to keep it open and easy to leave comments but thanks to those evil spammers, it makes it tough on all of us. So my apologies to future commenters. I do (very muchly) enjoy when someone leaves a comment on my humble blog.
I hope this will not be too much of an inconvenience, all you really have to do is type in some weird word after typing your comment - and I choose to moderate the comments also.

More bloggy topic(s) later.

Toyota set the Hybrid bar

I jumped in my Toyota pick-up truck today to run out and get some lunch, and heard them discussing the new Toyota Camry on NPR. They were calling it Toyota's trojan horse... It's a standard Camry (very popular selling) and yet under the hood is a hybrid. I think this is terrific news! Anything that can help get us off our "oil addiction" is a good thing. I just went to the Toyota website and sure enough they have a section on the new Camry and I have to say it looks nice. I would seriously consider buying a hybrid if only they sold a toyota hybrid pickup truck. (Which I think is a good idea for the smaller Tacoma). I putt along in my 4 cylinder happy to get around 20mpg, but I'd love to get 30+ with a hybrid - especially since there is no telling what the gas prices will be doing in the future - other than going up.
Kudo's to you Toyota.

HGG - text adventure

A little while back, I mentioned something called a text adveture. These were books originally, but then in the 80's they were turned into computer games. I remember trying one on my Commodore 64 called the "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" - yes, it was based on the book by Douglas Adams. Well, while surfing the web, I stumbled upon a website that has a bunch of these that have been converted to a java applet that can be played in your web browser.
Just a blast from the past.

Here's a list for all of them:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~pot/infocom/

or to just go to the HitchHikers one:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~pot/infocom/hgg.html

It looks like a group of people have ported the original Infocom games to both windows and Mac format. At this website.

PS> I would be careful about trying to actually save these games to your hardrive. I don't know who runs the website, and wouldn't recommend it.

PS> I never played it but the ZORK had a huge following of nerds and geeks.