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Firearm Abuse
TheChive has a post up, ostensibly about good things being done with guns, but in reality it’s an example of firearm abuse.
It seems that Cambodian government officials worked with anti-gun zealots from the EU and Britain to turn thousands of weapons into “art”.
A moment of silence please.
A Thrillseeking Adventure in Indiana and Kentucky
It’s that time of year for the inaugural thrillseeking adventure road trip. This trip takes me to Santa Claus, Indiana, again for HoliWood Nights at Holiday World, with a side trip to Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom.
I’m taking a half day at work tomorrow and will be driving down tomorrow afternoon and evening. It’s about a 6.5 hour drive from Kansas City. I’m going alone this year as my usual coaster buddy can’t make it. If my other coaster buddy, Charlie, would get a real job, he could go with me. Yeah, I know you ready this, buddy!
I’ll spend the day Friday at Holiday World, with Exclusive Ride Time (ERT) that evening on the Raven, the Legend, the Voyage and Pilgrims Plunge. The Voyage is currently my top coaster. It’s the most intense and unforgiving coaster I’ve ever been on and it’s great. I’m not a fan of water rides, so I don’t know if I’ll be riding Pilgrims Plunge, which is the tallest water ride on the planet.
Since I attended HoliWood Nights last year, I thought I’d made a side trip to Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville, Kentucky. I discovered it was fairly close when I was plugging addresses into my GPS unit. I’ll drive over on Saturday morning and spend most of the day there. I’ll head back to Holiday World in time for ERT that evening.
As always, there will be pictures posted at Family Joules, and possibly some videos on YouTube.
Hey Paula, if you find this like you found the corresponding post last year on Pencil Nub, my previous blog, welcome!
For everyone else, Paula blogs at the HoliBlog, the Holiday World blog, and tweets on Twitter.
Prowler at Worlds of Fun
I went to Worlds of Fun on April 25 to get my Platinum Season Pass and get some coaster riding in. I was surprised at how busy the park was. It was the second weekend the park was open. I think it was raining the previous weekend.
I waited in line to ride Patriot, which is always a good ride, then headed over to Timber Wolf. That line was pretty long as well. While I have enjoyed Timer Wolf in the past, it wasn’t worth waiting in line for, at least that day. I headed over to Mamba, which had an even longer line. When I was about halfway through the last set of switchbacks, they close the ride because of the weather. It wasn’t raining, but there must have been some lightening nearby. A 200+ feet tall steel roller coaster and lightening don’t go together too well.
I decided to leave and started to make my way back to the gate. I went through Africa to check out the soon-to-be-open Prowler, a Great Coasters International (GCI) wood coaster. I’ve ridden two other GCI coasters, Renegade at Valleyfair in Minnesota and Evel Knievel at Six Flags St. Louis. Both of those were a lot of fun, so I was expecting something good from Prowler.
I only had to wait a week to find out.
Last Friday, May 1, Worlds of Fun hosted a Prowler preview event for the media and season pass holders from 3 to 8 p.m. I left work early and headed to the park. There were a lot of people there already, and more would come as people got off work.
I met my friend Charlie there, and was going to meet another coaster buddy a little later. We made our way into the park and headed back to Prowler to wait in line with the rest of the season pass holders. The media people had their own line, and since there were fewer of them, they got more rides than us hoi polloi.
Well, it was worth the wait. Prowler is a blast! It’s not the biggest, baddest woodie on the planet, but it’s lots of fun. It has plenty of twists, turns and airtime to keep anyone happy. We rode in different parts of the train, and agreed that it was definitely a backseat coaster. Like Evel Knievel, however, any seat will give you a good ride.
Charlie had to leave for work after our third ride, but I stayed until 8. My other coaster buddy, Jason, left early as well. He was going to be one of the first riders when the coaster opens to the public because he won a seat through a charity auction.
I got six rides in the five hours I was at the park. Not bad, but I would have enjoyed more.
PROWLER POV Video Worlds of Fun
If you like wood coasters, Prowler is definitely one to check out.
How to Detail Strip a Glock 22
I have a Glock 22C, but aside from the barrel and slide, everything is the same.
Doing a detail strip doesn’t look that complicated, though if I ever do it I’ll want to be in the presence of someone who knows what they’re doing.
One thing I love about the Glock is it’s easy to field strip and you get four easy to clean parts.
I Get My Pr0n the Old Fashioned Way, in Email
I have a common name. How common? Well, there are lots of me in the phone book. Because of this, my Gmail address receives a good share of email that is meant for someone else.
First we have the people who, when entering their email into an online form, use my email address. This results in me getting emails about Redbox DVD rentals, quotes for home remodeling or online registrations for cell phone service. There’s the occassional odd website registration as well.
Next we have the people who send an email to me thinking I’m someone else. These are by far the most entertaining. I was invited to a bachelor party. I received song lyrics. I got some pr0n.
That’s right. A little bit earlier, I received an email with a video attached. It was from a stranger, though I think she’s emailed me before. The name of the video was fairly innocuous. It wasn’t something I would look at and go, oh, that’s pr0n.
I started watching it, then, uh, yeah, there were nekkid people.
I exchanged a couple emails with her and I think I made it clear that I wasn’t who she thought I was and she deleted my email address.
We shall see.
The First Time I Went Camping
I was talking with a friend at work last week and he was telling me about his adventures with the Boy Scouts. One of his girlfriend’s boys is in Scouts, and he’s been brought into the leadership fold. He was talking about camping, and my mind wandered back to the first time I went camping with my dad.
You’ll have to excuse me as I’m not the greatest story teller.
I don’t remember how old I was, it would have been in the 70s, though.
We camped at Branched Oak Lake, which is outside Lincoln, Nebraska, near a town called Malcolm. Incidentally, my dad was born and grew up on the land that is now under the lake. It was a village called Crounse. His dad farmed some land there. I sort of remember the site where we camped. If I went back out there I could probably find it. It was near the lake, but not a regular campsite.
My dad had an old green, canvas tent that we set up. It was an A-frame type tent, and there were three or four poles that you put together to support the front and back. The flaps were the kind you tie together with little canvas tabs that were sewn on.
We cooked pork steaks for dinner that night. I remember they tasted pretty darn good. We probably had potatoes with them, but I don’t remember.
The next morning we walked down to the lake. It was quite and the lake was calm. It probably looked like glass. It’s pretty cool to see a large body of water that is still. I remember times when I was in the Marines and at sea aboard the Peleliu that the Pacific Ocean was like that.
For breakfast that morning we cooked bacon and eggs. They tasted great. Some things just taste better when cooked in the great outdoors.
I wish I could remember more detail, but it’s mostly just feelings at this point. I don’t remember if we had a campfire or used a camp stove, or maybe both. I don’t know if we talked much. We probably did. I imagine I spent some time looking at the sky. Away from the city lights, the stars shine brighter, are more plentiful and you can catch glimpses of the streaks of stars that give the Milky Way its name.
A Bad Dream
I had a dream last night that I got a new Lab puppy.
I looked out the window and saw him and realized I hadn’t been feeding him. I felt horrible. It was like I’d forgotten I’d got a new dog.
I opened the door and he came in carrying his food bowl in his mouth.
I gave him some food, and that’s the end.
Weird.
Happy Birthday to Me
I suppose I should get at least one post in for January. This is it.
Tomorrow is my birthday.
Unfortunately, I’m not down in Florida like I was last year.
Upgrades All Around
I upgraded to WordPress 2.7 and updated the Checkmate theme to the latest final release.
The new year should bring some actual posts.
Happy Birthday, Marines!
Semper Fi.
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