July 2007 Archives

NASA releases the most detailed photos of Earth ever seen.

• New HD Star Trek Episode starring Sulu
• Not a surprise ... The Truth About Hummers
• This is a computer keyboard a lot of guys would like to utilize.
  

 I spent most of the weekend watching this favorite series from my youth. I can still remember being about eleven or twelve years old and getting chills up and down my body when she said, "O Mighty Isis!". And hyperventilating. (I was a sensitive child). Seeing it as an adult was no disappointment. I couldn't stop watching! Basically, it's about a couple of high school teachers who date each other and who solve crimes. These teachers scuba dive, ride horses, and in one episode, walk through residential neighborhoods peeking over fences in search of their lost pet crow. The male teacher drives a VW Thing. The female teacher has an amulet and can turn into Isis. But her boyfriend never figures out that she's both women. As Isis, she has both elemental and animal powers. My favorite episode was about the school mascot, a dog named Lucky, who gets caught in the undertow at the beach and dies. The dogs owner, a little boy, learns how to turn the page when tragedy strikes and ends up at the end of the episode with a new dog to train. Another favorite episode involves a persecuted "hillbilly" student who saves a pond from being drained by cataloging all of the wildlife in the area in a little brown book. The outsider is then allowed to hang out with the cool kids, who embrace him as their own. In one of the last episodes, a singing arab with a turban on his head, helps save the day and doubles as a pop music star who does magic tricks during his act. I also have to mention the episiode where Bigfoot is discovered to be a tall man named Richard who just doesn't want to be around other people because they make fun of him for being so tall, so he lives out in the woods.

I found what may be the last new copy of this game in the world. Which is weird, since it was the best strategy game of 2003 or somesuch. Our new dining table arrives in about a week, and I plan to inaugurate it with an all day Railroad Games party! I don't think it will ever live up to the ideal I have in my head of stuffy old men that smell like peppermint and smoke calabash pipes and drinking brandy in between moves, but I'm so happy to have a copy of the best game and most fun I've ever played. I can't even construct a decent sentence about it.

The third edition of Age of Steam is coming soon, but they've simplified the rules - those wimps! Always dumbing down the games for the babies! (I'm not talking about your daughter, Kurt!) So I'm glad to have snagged a 2nd edition. I'm sure no one really cares about this turn of affairs for me, which is why I'm glad I have a blog to post the news to, and imagine that there are interested parties (besides Kurt and Brad who will get an invitation soon!) And Scott, Will, Ian?... if you want to come! And anyone else who reads this! Although none of us stands any chance against Brad who lives and breathes train games. Although I am hoping to channel General Grenville M. Dodge.

Also on tap for the Rail Festival is the olde Avalon Hill Rail Baron and the new Railroad Tycoon. Probably looking at mid-September for Rail Festival 2007.

• When Jesus returns from the Sirius star cluster in the year 2012 and our troops are there to greet Him, I wonder if this picture will suddenly make a lot more sense and our President will be vindicated.
• BREAKING NEWS! Two die when SpaceShipTwo explodes.
• A giant pink bunny and other secrets revealed by Google Earth.
• Supermodels in Rehab from Italian Vogue (NSFW)

This story corroborates something I read in the Wall Street Journal a few years ago, that World of Warcraft is the new golf!