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I was overhearing a conversation in the lunchroom today held between a group of women. They were talking about the new Batman film and then got onto the subject of the previous Batman films and which ones they’ve seen and liked.

That’s when, for the avid Batman fan, it got funny. I couldn’t help but laugh…but supressed the urge and continued to listen. I wanted so badly to correct them too…but didn’t want to come off as the “comic book guy” (see Simpsons reference), therefore I just bit my tounge and continued to take it in. Here’s some of the conversation that I could remember:

“I loved the Batman movies”
“I liked the tv show with Batman and Robin”
“It was cheesy though”
“What was the movie with the Penguin?”
“It was the one with George Clooney”
“Oh, I loved him as Batman”
“No, that one wasn’t with George Clooney”
“Oh”
“That one was…Val Kilmer…yeah”
“With the Catwoman too”
“The Catwoman?”
“Yeah, Michelle Phieffer”
“I don’t remember her in that one”

Sigh. As you can see…one of them kept mixing up the horrible “Batman and Robin” movie, the last of the franchise, with “Batman Returns” the last movie with Keaton. They also mixed up the fact that Kilmer wasn’t in that one. As far as most Batman fans are concerned…”Batman Forever” and “Batman and Robin” never happend. It’s hard to scrub the Bat-nipples from your mind though…

Technorati Tags: batman, tdk, joker, bale, keaton, kilmer, clooney

Last year I had posted about a house down the street that had some strange happenings regarding furniture left out on the lawn for weeks on end during rain and snow, yard sale items left out during an overnight rain, and possible vandalisms by neighborhood kids.

Well…things got almost normal for a while. All the furniture in the yard and driveway disappeared. The fence that had been torn apart was rebuilt completely from the ground up. Yard work was being done to help make the house a little more appealing to the “market” as for sale signs started popping up in the yard again.

Last week, however, as I drove by I noticed that a number of items had been spray painted bright neon pink. The mailbox attached to the front porch, a couple of small statues on the porch, and a planter in the yard. Now, mind you, this wasn’t professional work. Someone didn’t take these out, lay down newspaper and spray paint them…no. They sprayed them where they stood. The porch and yard is pink with overspray.

You would assume that it was some sort of act of vandalism, but the items remain where they sat over 4 days ago. If I were a homeowner who had their items vandalized I would promplty wash them or remove them from sight. I know that the homeowner is home…I see her walking every day. Plus a vehicle (boyfriend, husband?) sometimes sits in the driveway.

Did she spray paint the items pink? Did someone else? What the heck?!?

Technorati Tags: spray paint, yard, pink, neon, vandalism

Ok, so I haven’t been here much to post…but I’ve been spending a lot of nights working on the basement with Amy. As you know from previous updates, we’ve been hanging drywall for most of the time. As of this weekend we officially started the “mud and tape” process on some of the finished areas. We’ve got one and a half more panels to put up in the ceiling and we’re pretty much finished with hanging drywall. Enjoy some photos:

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Technorati Tags: basement, project, drywall, home improvement, finishing

Wow, what a weekend. Last Friday a group of us from the Mandalorian Mercs “Rancor Clan” and one member from Michigan headed down to Knoxville, TN for the annual AdventureCon. Unfortunately, our good friend Brian (Jun Garros) wasn’t able to make it this year due to the rising cost of gas.

We rolled into Knoxville about 3PM with Mark driving Darryl and Jason in his car and myself and Travis in my van with everyone’s gear. It was great to see Knoxville again and I felt like I knew the place so well since we spent a weekend there last year. Not much had changed at all.

After getting our rooms and unloading our gear we headed down to the convention to pick up our weekend passes and meet up with the folks from Mercs who arrived Thursday night. It was great to see a few familiar faces, and of course meet some new folks that I’ve only spoken with online. The convention was held in a different room of the convention center this year…which made it seem like it was a bit smaller than last year. Still though, every booth was packed with toys and artwork.

Friday night after the convention we all headed over to Market Square to eat. A couple of folks decided they’d try elsewhere for food. I ended up with Will (Legion) over at the hotel bar where he said the food was pretty good. Even though we had to wait FOREVER for service, I got a rueben which tasted pretty darn good. Later, the rest of the group showed up in the bar while we were still waiting for our change and sat with us for a few drinks. Susan (Gabrin) pretty much giggled the whole time…we think she had a bit to drink.

Saturday morning we awoke bright and early (I for some reason ended up waking at 6:30AM) and headed over to the Market Square Kitchen for breakfast. I’ve heard a few things about the place…but the food has always been good tasting and at a nice price.

Saturday was the BIG DAY. We geared up and headed down to the hotel lobby a little after 10AM. It’s always great to come down that elevator for the first time. Half the folks in the hotel are usually there for the convention, while the rest are there for weddings, vacations, etc. When you walk out of an elevator in full Mandalorian gear with weapons at your side…people stop to stare. There’s usually a few photographs taken as well.

We trooped over to the convention hall and of course got stopped for pictures once we reached the lobby. We tried to make a “dramatic tactical entrance”…but it just ended up with us walking through the convention floor in single file with guns drawn. We all gathered in a corner and were barraged by folks with cameras as we held poses for over 10 minutes. I swear with the flashes going off every couple of seconds, I felt like a star.

We trooped the convention from 10AM until about 5PM after the costume contest. Just before the contest had started we were already getting anxious to get out of our costumes. Unfortunately Susan fainted for a breif moment, but thankfully she was already down on the ground when she went out. I think it was the combination of the heat, lack of water, and her high heeled boots. She was up after a couple of minutes of resting and back in good shape.

The costume contest went pretty well. We entered as a whole group, won second place in the “sci-fi” category, with the tall Kaminoan taking first place. The prizes were a little hard to break up groupwise, so they went on a first come first serve basis. Nothing amazing though…we got a Napolean Dynamite poster, a Beowulf figure, a Simpsons figure, and a scaled lightsaber replica. I just enjoyed the publicity.

We skipped the costume contest parade, as most of our feet were no longer functioning. We stumbled our ways back to the hotel to strip down and rest for a bit.

Later that evening, we had dinner in the hotel bar again, with service being a little better this time. We stumbled across Brian Harnois from Ghost Hunters on Sci-Fi Channel and invited him to sit with us for dinner. We talked about his show, a couple of his personal paranormal experiences, and then found that he is a HUGE Star Wars fan and even owns a set of Boba Fett armor. We talked for a little over an hour or so and even paid for his meal.

Someone got the idea to armor back up (wasn’t really looking forward to wearing that costume again that day) and head over to Market Square where the night-life continues after 9PM. So we put on our sweaty, cold, costumes again and headed back down to the lobby and out into the night with glowing helmets and lightsabers.

When we arrived at Market Square…we were treated like celebrities. Again, we couldn’t walk more than 5 steps without someone wanting a picture of us or them in the picture. Quickly, me not looking forward to wearing those boots again turned into a great time. People loved us… We headed down the street and stopped by the local bars where folks again took pictures with us all night. We even stopped by the local move theatre and got our pictures taken with some of the staff.

After that we headed back to the hotel AGAIN, to de-armor and sleep for the night. No amount of money could be paid to me to put that costume on again that night.

Sunday morning we ate at the Market Square Kitchen again, they were expecting us. We headed over to the con, with only a few of us in costume this time. I had wanted to finally meet up with Ernie Hudson from Ghostbusters, as I had brought my son’s proton pack from Halloween to have signed. I lucked out and found that he had just started signing as I walked in. I jumped in line and waited my turn until I could head up to meet the man himself. I got a quick video of him looking over the proton pack and then signing it for my son. Was a pretty awesome experience.

Spent the rest of the day walking around looking at the deals and manning the Mercs table. We had a pretty good showing at the table and handed out a lot of business cards and stickers. We had a few interested costumers and explained to them how to get onto the forums to get started on their own costume.

Most of the folks that arrived on Thursday left that evening, and the rest of us headed to get some pizza at a local pizza joint after we broke down the table and left the con for the weekend. The pizza was AWESOME, and very filling too. Split a large with Darryl and couldn’t even finish my half…I left one slice.

We said our goodbyes to Susan and Brandon as they were headed back to Missouri the next morning and us “Ohio guys” sat in the now quiet hotel lobby which had been filled with convention-goers just the night before. We all headed back to our rooms to sleep and then loaded up for the long trip home on Monday morning.

I was sad to leave Knoxville yet again, but was sure that I would most likely be back again next year.

Costume Contest Video
Mandalorian Mercs at AdventureCon
Mandalorian Mercs out on the town

Technorati Tags: adventurecon, adcon, knoxville, tn, tennessee, convention, comic, toy, sci-fi, mandalorian, costume, brian harnois, ernie hudson, ghostbusters, ghost hunters

As some of you may know, I log into SecondLife every once in a while to hang out with friends and explore the amazing sims that people have made. There are TONS of things to do and buy there…but unfortunately sometimes that requires having Lindens.

In the SL world, real US money is converted from your credit card into what they call Lindens, or SL money. Normally, to get Lindens you either have to 1) buy them with a credit card or paypal or 2) get a job in SL. Working isn’t my sort of thing…I mean, I go to work for real all day…the last thing I want to do is come home and work in a virtual world.

There is a third option, however. I was browsing around and found a site called MetaRL. They allow you to take quick and easy surveys or complete simple tasks to earn points that you can then cash in for SecondLife Lindens. You can also trade in points for IMVU cash, There cash, and more.

Sure, there are tons of these sorts of sites around, as well as some actually in SL. This site has an easy to use layout and quick payouts. There are also contests to compete in each day to win ponits and you can even refer your friends to earn points. So are you looking for FREE Lindens without working or using real money? Then check out MetaRL.

Technorati Tags: metarl, secondlife, second life, sl, lindens, free

Well that was a fun couple of days. The new PC was down. Was having some video problems that wasn’t letting it run. I was using the laptop for the time being, which when you’re used to a desktop, doesn’t feel the same. So I was limiting my time on the computer because I’m not too fond of using it.

Joey came over and looked at the computer a bit. Got it working again, but not after he pulled out one of the dual graphics cards. Seems to run about the same…so I guess most of the stuff I was doing probably wasn’t utilizing them at the same time anyways. Oh well.

Trying to get caught up at work with AdventureCon coming up on Friday. Thursday will be my last day for the week. Then I’ve got to finish packing for the trip at home. Probably putting together my clothes and stuff this evening, but Amy wants to do some basement work tonight as well. So I’ll just have to jumble it all in there.

Got everything I need for AdCon, I believe. Got all my maps printed up, receipts for the hotel, and tickets to the con. Now if I can just survive all day Thursday with the anticipation that I’ll be driving off at 7AM Friday morning.

Technorati Tags: computers, graphics card, sli, nvidia, costume, convention, adventurecon, adcon

I’m a little late writing about this…but things have been hectic, plus Amy finally got the photos uploaded (what good is a post with no photos?).

Back on the 22nd my mother-in-law celebrated her 50th birthday with a rockin’ bash at Gordy’s in Westerville. They had “Hurricane Jerry” there for some great rock and roll music. There was some good food and appetizers too. A lot of people showed up, everyone either friends or family of Pam’s. It was a great turnout and nice to sit and talk with folks you haven’t seen in a while.

Here are some photos of the event:

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Technorati Tags: party, birthday, over the hill, jerry loos, hurricane jerry, gordys

It’s official…the drywall project has begun. Last weekend we had some help from my father, Mr. Moore (former scoutmaster), and Colton (Amy’s brother) in moving drywall down into the basement. Now that the electrical work has been finished, it was the next step in the process of finishing that basement room.

Because of where our stairs to the basement are located, it makes for a troublesome task of moving stuff up and down the stairs. We had a washer and dryer waiting to be disposed of, but since we were going to have to move the fridge before we could pull them out or take drywall down, we ended up doing it all in one shot. We slid the fridge over to the far side of the kitchen and were able to get the old washer and dryer up and out.

Funnily enough I had explained to my father and Mr. Moore about the “junkers” who live down the street and how we should probably just drop the broken machines off at their place. Instead we took the shorter route and dropped them next to the dumpster down the way. I normally don’t like to do that because the trash truck won’t come get items that are set to the side of the dumpster…and I didn’t want to further “trash” the look of the community with junk sitting around by the dumpsters.

As soon as we returned with the drywall, however, my dad pointed out that the washer and dryer were gone. It only took them a matter of 30 minutes to “sniff them out” and run off with them.

Getting the drywall into the basement was our next task, as we weren’t sure the 4 x 8 foot sheets would survive the series of 90 degree turns in the kitchen without snapping in half. On a random chance, Mr. Moore and I discovered that with a little bit of bending, the sheets slid right through the kitchen with a little bit of bending and pushing.

After a couple of hours we had about 35 sheets of drywall in two stacks in the middle of the basement floor. Mission accomplished.

The next day we had my father over to give us some pointers on how to hang the drywall properly. With his guidance we put up 4 sheets of drywall, finishing off the back wall and a small portion of one of the side walls.

Last night, Amy and myself put up about 5 more sheets on our own, almost finishing the one full side wall. We had two outlets we had to cut around, and only messed up once. After we discovered our errors we pulled the sheet down and replaced it, thankfully being able to save the “messed up” piece to be cut up for the intended desk alcove on the other wall.

It’s grueling work…but it’s moving along pretty smoothly and soon enough we’re going to be tackling the confusing task of the ceiling.

Technorati Tags: drywall, house work, home improvement, sheetrock, basement, finishing

This weekend we headed off once again for Indiana for the annual “Race Day picnic” with the Nichols family. It’s always a fun time and we head over to Southeastway Park in Marion County to set up. We always grab the same spot every year, I’m actually amazed at how that ends up working out. By the end of the afternoon there are so many other picnics nearby I would have figured one of these years someone would come along before us and snag our spot.

This year we were technically back a little further than normal, but only due to the fact that the tables were further under the shade, which was nice. We plopped our chairs down, set up canopies, and chowed down.

As usual, we had a great lunch of fried chicken and tons of sides from everyone who showed up. We pretty much end up eating all day, listening to the race, and relaxing in our chairs. The kids love the open space of the part too. They ran all over playing with toys and drawing on the concrete with chalk.

We even took a break later in the day to walk down to a letterbox that was hidden in the park. This was an introduction to Letterboxing for a few of my family members, and we haven’t even cracked open our book since 2004 or 2005. So it was nice to have a fresh entry and one from a different state at that. For more info on Letterboxing check out this link.

The day wound down and we packed up after the race ended. All in all it was a fun time. I enjoy getting together with the family every year for the event.

Normally I would have pictures up here, but due to the new PC and setting everything up again, I haven’t gotten my FTP program up yet. So for the time being check out my dad’s pics here and some of Fred’s pics here. Fred also posted a blog entry about the event here.

Our photos are now up:

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Technorati Tags: family, picnic, race day, indy 500, indianapolis, food, fun, southeastway park, letterboxing

Ok, to finally wrap up the “new computer” series of posts…Joey came over last Friday to install the new power supply he picked up for my PC. I’m very thankful that he was there to help install it, as it looked like way too much work for me. I’ve only installed a motherboard once, so taking this new one completely apart just to fit the new power supply in didn’t look like much fun.

I’m now up and running on a partition on my current drive. I spent most of yesterday copying over files from the old side. Still need to comb through the old side before I drop the partition. Want to make sure I don’t lose anything important. Getting adjusted to re-installing everything.

I think one of the biggest hurdles is all of my saved passwords from Firefox. But then again most sites have a “forgot your password?” link, so that shouldn’t be too bad.

This new computer runs nice and smooth. Popped into a few of my games, including SecondLife and they look amazing. I can pretty much run games on full graphics settings, but knock them down a bit just to keep the performance running smooth.

Next step is to transplant Amy’s hard drive into my old computer and hope that it behaves. Then maybe I’ll drop her old PC body onto Craigslist for some cash.

Technorati Tags: computer, new pc, computing, graphics, secondlife, second life