On Sunday we stopped by the local Best Buy to look at some electronics.  While browsing through the store we checked out the DVD aisles.  In the science fiction section the Heir grabbed one of the Empire Strikes Back discs and started asking who all the characters on the cover were.  We repeated this process with the other movies in the original trilogy and then I realized that at the age of three I have neglected a serious part of my child's education.

So when we got home I broke out my Star Wars DVD set and proceeded to show him A New Hope, albeit in the bastardized Greedo shoots first version (no comments darthrabe!) and he sat with rapt attention for two hours at his first exposure to a classic.

Yesterday on the drive home I kept hearing weather service alerts on the radio for heavy storms and flash floods.  And then I heard one I have not heard in the 10 years I've been living in Nevada.  It was for a tornado near purplefrog's hometown of Fallon!

I forogt to mention the bid's LiveJournal community renoin2011  Check it out!

And anybody in the northern Nevada area who wants to be of help, feel free to contact me.

I have recently gotten involved in a committee that is trying to get the World Science Fiction Convention in Reno in 2011.  For those of you who aren't familiar with WorldCons, that is where they hand out the Hugo Awards. 

Please check out the bid committee website.  Right now my main job is to build up local enthusiasm for the bid.  Plus buying Reno souvenirs to decorated bid suites at other conventions.

Thanks to jrittenhouseand debgeislerfor putting me in contact with the committee.

Once again we had an office trip to the batting cages.  Once again I hit really well the first time through.  And once again I couldn't hit a ball to save my life the second time.

Though the second time I moved up to 55 mph from 45.  Yes I know that is nowhere near professional speeds but I'm not a professional.

I had a dream last night that could only be described as "The Day the Earth Stood Still" as directed by Salvador Dali and starring Robin Williams.

Vin Diesel is starring in and directing a film about Hannibal Barca,

Be afraid.  Be very afraid. 

Ganked from its creator 

reasie

In an effort to get away from those means that list 100 or so books and ask if you've read them, liked them etc, I present: Twenty Books that have Shaped Me as a Person.

A more personal meme, I think. By "shaped me" I mean that these are books I not only read and liked, but thought about often, in quiet moments, or felt an epiphany while reading.

Presented in no particular order:

Swords Around a Throne, Col. John Elting
Oh Jerusalem, Larry Collins & Dominique LaPierre
Cast a Giant Shadow, Ted Berkman
The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert Heinlein
Gospel, Wilton Barnhardt
Armageddon, Leon Uris
Exodus, Leon Uris
Burr, Gore Vidal
Julian, Gore Vidal
Worldly Goods, Lisa Jardine
Live From Baghdad, Robert Wiener
The Illuminatus Trilogy, Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
Chronicles of Amber, Robert Zelazny
Waiting for the Galactic Bus, Parke Godwin
The Snake Oil Wars, Parke Godwin
Troublesome Young Men, Lynne Olson
A Bridge Too Far, Cornelius Ryan
The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
The Campaigns of Napoleon, David G. Chandler

 

The head of a North Carolina state agricultural lab has retired rather than lower the flag in memory of Jesse Helms.

Nice to know there are some people with principles out there. 

Your results:
You are Yoda

Yoda 73% Luke Skywalker 72% R2-D2 70% Obi-Wan Kenobi 64% Princess Leia 63% Chewbacca 56% Padme 56% Han Solo 53% An Ewok 52% Jabba the Hutt 52%

Wise and all knowing you are…yes. Tall, dark, and handsome? Not so much I'd say.

(This list displays the top 10 results out of a possible 21 characters)


Click here to take the Star Wars Personality Quiz

I haven't made any predictions in the Veepstakes so far, nor do I intend to.

I have long since decided that whatever decision any presidential candidate makes regarding his running mate has little to do with received conventional political wisdom.  They seem to look for someone with something outside of simple ability to garner votes.  So any attempt by me (or anyone else for that matter) to try and get inside Obama's and McCain's heads and figure out who they are going to pick is a waste of time.

I'll save my analysis for after the decisions are made.

**********

No matter what he says I think Bob Barr is going to have a serious spoiler effect, at least in the south.  Two recently released polls in Georgia and North Carolina have Obama following McCain within the margin of error with a large chunk (4-6%) going to Barr.  If both Obama's and McCain's trends continue I think Obama may win both states, albeit closely.

**********

I was very seriously concerned that the only presidential political signs I was in Fallon were for Ron Paul.  And they were all over the place!

Now it's not like I expect Obama to have huge support in Churchill County, Nevada but I would have thought I would have seen at least some people for McCain.

Noted racist, homophobic, tobacco apologist and face of the modern Republican party, former North Carolina senator Jesse Helms has died at age 86.

Good riddance. 

Yesterday  

purplefrog  and I took the Heir to Grandma's in Fallon (65 miles east of Reno) for the Independence Day celebrations.

In the mornining there was the parade which like most small town parades featured large numbers of veteran's and fraternal organizations as well as local businesses, but since they were also doing the Silver State International Rodeo in town it also had every state high school rodeo team in the west (and Canada) as well.

After the parade the Heir got to splash around in the inflatable pool that Grandma bought him.

 

The afternoon was quiet with naps and  

purplefrog  and I going to the movies ("Hancock" which was better than most of the reviews you may have read)

Dinner was the traditional grilling of hot dogs and hamburgers.

The day finished off with a postiviely huge fireworks show.  It was much larger than normal, I suspect to celebrate Fallon's centennial.  We can see the fireworks from Grandma's back yard very clearly caross a couple of cornfields and road.

 

We arrived home last night. Great trip, but I'm glad to be back.

The last two days were spent in and around Anchorage either buying souvenirs or else going to the Eagle Valley Visitor's Center (that J loved to point out used to be a bar when he moved to Alaska).

Oh and eating home cooked king crab legs! Yumm!!!

Many, many moons ago I visited Lake Louise in Banff National Park in Canada.  Yesterday I went to Lake Louise Alaska.

It was a 3 1/2 hour drive up from Anchorage along the most beautiful country long the Matanuska River.  We stopped for a while to look at the Matanuska Glacier.  Once we got there we unhooked J's boat and cruised across the lake for a while.  Afterwards as we left the lake we finally saw a moose.  Three in fact.  A cow and two calves.

Later on the drive home we saw another one in the Matanuska valley.

On this trip I've seen a couple of bald eagles and a sea otter.  There were several whale sightings on the ship, but we never actually saw one.

I've been looking for hoary marmots, but I haven't seen one yet.  (Sorry  jrittenhouse )