My friend Rodger's new Business Venture

Click on the blog title to go to his site. Rodger is my friend who has been working in IT for a very long time....since he was 18 I believe. He is single, doesn't have a mortgage (he used to) and at 33 has decided that he didn't want to be a cube rat anymore. (Bastard ;)) So he cut a deal with his old job and is semi"retired". He has been a huge fan of racing for years now, and has tons of experience with various car clubs on track days. You pay to race your car against the clock on a professional racetrack. He has taken that love of racing and decided to open his own racing school. Sounds good, and I wish him luck.

Nashville Zoo

We went today for the first time. Nice place, all the exhibits are the natural surroundings type (the way the SF Zoo is slowly trying to do) where the animals feel more at home and are less stressed. Not alot in the way of big cats (Olivia's favorite animals) but some cool stuff nonetheless. We bought a family membership because we intend to go back (it's only 20 minutes away). Hopefully we can get Olivia enrolled in some Jr. Zookeeper programs. It's worth the money and a lot of fun. It was a bit too hot today so we only saw half of it. Hey we've got a pass so we can go whenever......

Movies that need to be made

Stormbringer. The novel by Michael Moorcock featuring the guy in the picture above. Elric and his Soul Stealing Sword Stormbringer. With the technology they have today, it would be an awesome movie.

The Wheel of Time. Novels by Robert Jordan about a simple farm boy who turns out to be the Prophesized "Dragon Reborn". Destined to fight the Dark One in the final battle. Great series of books which needs to come to an end soon or the author will start losing readers.

A Song of Fire and Ice. Novels by George R. R. Martin. This is the bravest most unpredictable writer I have ever read. This guy kills off main characters right and left!!!! No qualms about it. You start liking the character and ZAP, they're dead.....brutal. The kind of books that suck you in and won't let you go.

Rainbow Six. Tom Clancy's novel about an international anti-terrorist squad headed by Clark and Chavez. Great book, would make an awesome action movie.

Alex Ross

My profile pic of my favorite SuperHero, Spiderman, and this awesome pic of the DC Heroes is by an awesome Artist named Alex Ross. This guy draws with awesome detail......his figures look so realistic like these guys posed for him or something.....

KublaCon...the Khan of Cons

As my friend Dan calls it, "The Gathering of Geeks" If I hadn't moved to Tenn, I'd be attending. It's a Gaming Convention at the Burlingame Hyatt. At a Game Con you play games; of all kinds. Role Playing (you can probably play Jesus if you wanted to as in the above pic), Miniatures, Card Games, Board Games....and the truly wierd play Live Action Role Playing Games where they, usually, dress up like Vampires and get all depressing and Anne Rice on everyone and you don't want to be around them. We usually played Role Playing Games, usually the rules system called Hero. It's also a great place to see some of the strangest, geekiest, nerdiest people ever. You know the bloated, pasty-faced Uber Geeks who never leave their Parent's basement and spend all day playing Everquest or Worlds of Warcraft..... There are some normal people there, but for the most part there is an abundance of fat, unwashed folks. "Smells like Clams." my friend Dan's Stepson said once.....how very true. Don't get me wrong, I love the place. We get to see some old friends we don't see normally, and get to hang out and do nothing but game. It's a recreational weekend that's loads of fun. I will be missing it this year, but my Buds will be there. Hoping to make it next year.

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day weekend. Most of us don't even stop to think what this weekend is about. The Movie Theater industry uses this weekend to release it's huge summer blockbusters, retail stores have sales and most of us go camping for some strange reason. The above picture is a famous one from WWII. Marines planting a US flag on the Island of Iwo Jima. This is what Memorial Day is all about, remembering those that have given their lives for this Country. In the 60's soldiers coming back from Vietnam were give copious amounts of crap. Undeserved if you ask me. Wars are started by Politicians and Crazy Men, but they are fought by our Fathers and Sons, and now our Mothers and Daughters. It's their job, their duty to do this, whether they want to or not. It's not their faults really. You expose a human being to such extremes, people's reason tends to go out the window. So this weekend, and every day for that matter, if you see a soldier, shake his/her hand and thank them.

XENU??? Who's that????

Hopefully you clicked on the Wikipedia link. If you haven't, well here goes....XENU is L. Ron Hubbard's "Satan". The foil to his being the "God" of $cientology. As a hack Sci Fi writer, he came up with this lame story about an alien Overlord who brought billions of people to Earth, threw them in volcanoes, threw in a Hydrogen Bomb and blew them up. Oh yeah, he collected their "Thetans" or Souls as we normal people would call them and put them into boxes, took them to a Cineplex and forced them to watch movies for 3 days......... WTF?????? I kid you not. This is what the Cult of Scamatology believes. Of course when you first join you aren't told this stuff. This is revealed to you after 5 years and 50,000+ dollars. They say you've reached OT III level....apparently Tom Cruise is an VIII or something..... The story continues that XENU was trapped in a mountain cave by his Loyal Officers and there is a force field keeping him there powered by and eternal battery. The wonderful Matt Stone and Trey Parker decided to make a South Park episode that reveals this myth and pokes fun (Lord Knows Cruise likes getting poked) at Scamatology and Cruise. Since they know Scamatology likes to sue, they had everyone's name in the credits as John Smith or Jane Smith. Someone ran with this and created a website (link in the links section) for the First Church of XENU. A site for people to "worship" the enemy of Scamatology (as a joke of course) but also as a way of educating people of this Cult that our stupid Government has given "Church" status too......I always knew these guys were freaks, but not how big of freaks.......

It was a Dark and Stormy night....

Well not really.......So here I go....Rants, raves, and observations from a California transplant living in Tennessee......