As I said in the past, I’ve been hoarding a lot of links and photos that I’ve meant to post, but haven’t found time for.

In fact, there are enough of them that it would take a pretty large time to load them all if it were on the main page; that being said, and considering the fact that some of you may not be on broadband, I’ve placed them below the fold.

Simply click “More” to see them. Some pictures are clickable, some are not. I have a LOT more of this kind of stuff…

more->

This was all done manually to see how painful that would be. In retrospect I now think automated gallery tools are the way to go.

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First, we have this animated image of the wonderful Matrix Origami Battle that was cut from the film:

I loved this scene in the bootleg version…

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Next we have a picture of the new ride at King’s Island Amusement park – The Anal Surprise!

(Note to self: Skip King’s Island this year)

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Never get this drunk, you will regret it:

Mrs. Best regrets coming to her husband’s birthday party. Again.

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Gargoyle-like images on a cathedral are sometimes called “Grotesques”, and the National Cathedral in Washington has this one:

Unlike a lot of my crap, this one is true…

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I’ve got nothing to say here, I just like the old Star Trek series:

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Once, when I lived in California, I had the opportunity to see the fog come drifting in over the hills and curl down into the valley. It was spectacular. I mentioned this to a friend who said “Yeah? It does that all the time.”

Turns out this guy was from Hong Kong and, as you’ll see, that isn’t uncommon there:

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Infiltrator detected!

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How they kept Luke from losing it, too:

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War! It’s FAN-TASTIC!

From the civil war in Liberia, not from Hot Shots Part II

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Soylent Green is People!

The woman with the umbrella in the lower shot is getting the hell out of there…

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Lately Pam and I have gotten into watching Cowboy Bebop and are gleefully awaiting the arrival of Disk 2 from Netflix

And we are looking forward to the introduction of this character, Ed

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Just what does a Taco Zombie crave? Seasoned Beef? Lettuce?

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WRONG! It’s spelled M-I-S-O-G-O-N-Y!!!!

I really shouldn’t post this… now I’ll have thousands of Erin Grey fetishists eating my bandwidth

So, Pam and the Son & Heir and myself attended the midnight premiere of Star Wars: Episode III at the local cinema in the Charlestown Mall.

Our night started at 10:15pm as we headed out the door to the mall; it’s only 5 or 10 minute drive (at most), so within a short time we were viewing the very large numbers of cars in the parking lot. We decided just to park and walk rather than hunt for a choice space; better to get in line quickly.

It also occured to me later that the very large truck in the lot was, most likely, delivering the film packs to the theater right then. Lucas & Co. are very paranoid about the films leaking out before release time, and I understand that the new procedure is Just-In-Time delivery of the film packs.

We stood in line for only 30 minutes before they started seating everyone. While we were there I managed to sneak in a few pictures; I was reluctant to be too obvious with the picture taking lest some security dweeb make the tactical mistake of trying to take my PDA.

In the background you can see some of our friends in Jedi-like capes

And here we have a young lady who brought her blaster (a rather uncivilized weapon).

And the person just in front of us in his Jedi cloak.

We were in our seats well before 11:30pm, and it was a short wait until 12:01am and the beginning of the film.

I’d never been to a midnight premiere before (having been raised in the sticks where they roll up the sidewalks at 8pm), and it was very enjoyable. There were a lot of college students there; ironic to think that most of them were not born when Episode IV came out in 1977…

The shiny, red, candy-like button!

There are an amazing number of things that human beings do to relieve stress.

1. Drugs.
2. Exercise.
3. Alcohol (I separate this from drugs as alcohol is legal).
4. Dangerous driving.
5. Studious avoidance of the problem that is causing the stress.
6. Smoking

I think that I, at one time or another, have done all of these with the possible exception of number 2.

Some of these I haven’t done in a L O N G time… and don’t really miss as I now prefer to have my mind clear rather than take a chemical vacation, however short it may be. That pretty much rules out numbers 1 and 3.

I’m past my dangerous driving/high insurance cost phase of my life, and driving a station wagon like a madman doesn’t really have the same panache. So that’s out. So is smoking as I do not wish to smell or taste like an ashtray – I’d like my wife to continue enjoying a kiss from me, thank you.

So, I’ve been doing a lot of number 5. And, while I cannot begin to control all of the things causing major stress in my life, there are enough of them that I must do something before it begins to have negative effects on my health.

So, in light of that, I submitted my two weeks notice of resignation to my job this morning. Yes, again. Yes, I have other work lined up (I’m stressed, not stupid), so we’ll be fine. But, no more travel and no more of the other issues that were driving me crazy with regard to work. Hopefully I can deal with the other non-work problems in due time; some have a time limit so I can be sure that there is some relief in the future.

Perhaps this will translate into some more time for my own projects and posting to this ‘blog. I’ve been hamstering about a billion links and pictures in the hopes of posting them, all to no avail. We’ll see what transpires.