jblog

 Don’t be alarmed. Not a giant. Just me.  This is a 99.5% real photo, i had to photoshop just some of it…just some of it, just a tad bit. 

Last Saturday we went to a place that about half of Oklahoma has visited and the other half knows about.  This was Nat and I’s first visit.  Its up I-35 and just east on Route 66 in Arcadia (of Round Barn fame) (aracdia means idyllic vision of unspoiled wilderness, although its not the root meaning of the word - i digress).  Pops, basically, is a place of route 66 renaissance.  A revitalization of what Route 66 used to be - iconic, familial and peculiar.  You know, a place where if you build it, they will come.  Why?  Because its novel, accessible and family driven.  It’s novel because of two things: they have any soda pop that you would want (including all assortments of root beer) and its got a 6 story pop bottle in front of it.  Its accessible because its off of Route 66, just north of the city and has ample room to park.  Its family driven because they have a greasy spoon, soda jerk bar (very nice shakes/malts), and all the soda a kid can get a stomach ache on. 

I like the architecture of it as well - its essentially a glorification of the old road side gas stations of yesteryear - just blown up to ten times the size.  The 1000s of bottles hang in the huge front glass windows alluding to the real advertisement of cold beverages as most gas stations did and kinda still do.   You can even get gas under the huge expanse of the cantilevered overhang.

One other neat caveat of the place is an internet kiosk where you can send anyone in the world some soda - delivered to their front doorstep.

 Check out their fizzy web site: http://www.pops66.com/

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Our timepieces clasp like shackles for some reason…

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Interesting article if you know what I mean
http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/engineering-technology/articles/finding-ingenious-design-nature

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So supposedly in this dream I’m this cowhand with hat, leather chaps, duster, spur laden boots and gloves.  Well there are four of us and we meet with four other guys that we dispute with.  Well, all of a sudden it gets heated and I bust out my huge buffalo gun, loading these ginormous calibered bullets and start unloading heat. 

The fella who is the lead of the other four guys is played by none only but Robert Duvall.  So all my guys get shot and die.  I manage to get shot in the neck and leg (its kind of weird getting shot in a dream, your brain sort of fills in what it thinks it feels like).  I remember takin out Duvall with a leg shot.  He noticably grimaced after that - thats one thing that was particular in my dream. 

But I remember having some satisfaction at the end of the shoot-out since I was still alive.  So I think my side won.

 I woke up and immediately felt my neck.

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I think everyone has had one of those dreams where we live out the end times.  It’s like having that dream where your naked in front of class. 

Well last night I had a dream where I was near one of the nuclear blasts at home.  It was really eery.  Feeling the first blast was weird.  It didn’t blow you away.  It felt as if the radiation came first and oozed your skin off, then the heat finally comes and your an ash pile. 

But here’s the thing about this dream, after I was killed it reoccured over and over and over.  And … I had the codes to halt the nuclear bomb from going off and was trying to get a hold of the person or thing that would stop the count down.  ( Is this a 24 episode?) The initial point that time went back to was somehow set by my watch or something.  I tried and tried to set it back further, to have enough time to call in the code.  So here’s the other thing, I started to prepare for my next time around, like putting the phone number on speed dial in my phone and possibly shielding myself from the blast or consulting others.  I don’t remember ever solving the problem.  And everytime the blast was really wierd and almost felt my body going through fall out.  - crazy

 Dreams can be interpreted and I think I can safely put forth the logic.

 I’ve been trying to keep on top of recent news on Iran and its quack leader, UN sanctions, nuclear-proliferation etc.  Also I’ve been playing a few vigee games where you can save where you left off - spelling the reason for the reoccurence of my dream, I suppose.

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It is 18 degrees F today.

Mosquitos die!

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The semester is over and i now know the Spartan ways.  For my final, I had to write the history of Sparta in two hours time but also we had to write an answer to our own made up question at the end as well.  The question i picked was why the Spartans are so famous.  It was fairly an easy question to answer, mainly because i wanted to get more of the history part (the bulk) of the exam as I could. 

From today’s standards the Spartans were a savage and horrific people.  Pagan as we would say today.  Possibly they were the most barbaric of pagans (still speaking in today’s vernacular terms)  They had their own systematic approach of eugenics, throwing any newborn off a cliff that didn’t appear to be suitable to a local committee’s standards.  Their social construct consisted of an entire slave population which had to be in check daily for fear of total annihilation, always declaring war upon the slaves in order to murder those who got out of place.  All were forced to be equal in a somewhat communistic society, where you could only use a broad axe to make your house (in order to displace any sign of luxury in the craftsmanship from finer tools.  The family was deemed almost non-existent, only allowing the men to sleep occasionally at their own house with their wife.  (No wonder they had population problems!)  Also their agoge - the training system to make the boys into a fierce warrior by the age of 20 - had very crude elements and wretched punishment.

It’s really a quagmire why they have been stuff of legends since their glory days and revered by many including our founding fathers and other governments.  But what guy wouldn’t admire or be interested in a warrior class people who perfected the art of war, drank black broth, wore manly armor, sword and shield and trained to be as stealthy as possible but also to have guts of a lion in battle.  One of the most epic, heroic and courage laden battles in all of history was fought by them - Thermopylae. 

So why not name your school after them or any valued entity?  Most men look up to strength and might, but also an ideal of daunted sacrifice for the ideas and the way of life that they hold.  They fought tooth and nail for them.  They were extremely pious people, missing a few battles (such as Marathon, most of the Spartans didn’t show up at Thermopaylae because of a festival) because they wanted to please their gods in the appointed festivals instead. 

It was a dance with sacrifice and extreme action.  Knowing when to be still but also when to unleash.

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Well I got married and she needed a new car desperately.  Nat drove a car owned by her parents, a 90? Corsica, which was just on it’s last legs and had close to 200K miles - and it showed, sounded, smelled, felt like it.  + we needed to give it back while it was running.  I knew that the next car would have to be hers and I was very glad to have her drive it.  I researched like a maniac to find a cheap but reliable car… i know that’s a paradox but they are out there.  I was looking for sedans or SUVs, whatever didn’t have major problems associated w/ it.  I also was looking to get a vehicle in which we could go on farther trips than we normally would go on, like to Colorado, to have some adventures together. 

Well after the research the Mitsubishi Montero Sport came up as the vehicle of choice.  I really liked the styling of it as well and thought it was the best mid size SUV on the road at the time.  (still do love the looks).  But I was very impressed at the usual price and reliability of this SUV.  It ranked second in its class in reliability - it is based technically on a rally truck base (the Pajero), from whence it sports its toughness.  It was marketed as a “all that u need, nuttin that you don’t” SUV, but who needs luxury or frills when your young at heart and on a budget?  Perfect.  One thing though.  The engine has the least pep I’ve encountered to date - it just doesn’t care to mingle w/ brazen, get-up acceleration. 

But we go to a dealer to see what they have, the first one felt real tight and it was a very clean car and everything felt solid.  We liked it but waited to make sure we were making the right decision and gave it time to test other vehicles, even other “Sports” (our little nickname for the thing).  After driving others and seeing other price tags we thought the first one we tried was a great buy.   Its a 2000 4×4 model w/ a champagne color with a 3 liter V6.  It has power doors and windows, rack system, nice barrel side steps and large format wheels and tires.   

Well, we went on that Colorado adventure and had a blast that first summer.  It had no problems other than on the way back I had to get a new battery and install it in front of the AutoZone in i-forget-that-small, panhandle town in Texas. 

We still have it and it’s really served us well.  I wouldn’t mind getting another down the road if it wasn’t for the engine’s lack of power.  It still is really worth it considering what we paid for it and still amazed at the price. 

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It’s unique to hear something good from a commercial but everytime I see/hear it, it sounds really good.

Amateurs work until they can get it right,

Professionals work until they can’t get it wrong.

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