Fourth of a trilogy

I've seen three movies this year made to add on to an existing set of three films, making them the fourth of a trilogy. In each of them, the b storyline is about what the hero has given up to keep saving himself/others/the world, and how he wants it back. In each of them, at the end, he does get some of it back, mostly because of the respect they garner saving others/the world yet again.

Goe, never saved the world, never will.

Storyblogging XC

Another assortment of stories courtesy of Mr. Crankshaw.

Goe, readin'

Penguins

why does the larger penguin appear to have handles on its wings?

Goe, curious.

Yellow Plastic Mice

It's a convention of yellow plastic mice. The obvious answer to this would be large plastic cats.

Goe, needs to rest up today.

exercising

so the jogging thing kinda fizzled, partly because i was being lazy, and partly because there's only so much you can do going in a circle. a coworker is into bicycling, and wanted me to ride around with them, so i bought a bike and did this. the exercise felt good and it was much easier to get to places i normally don't bother trying to even locate. so i decided to try riding the bike to work monday. took 45 minutes to go five miles. on the way home, it took 40 minutes. feels far more productive than running in circles.

Goe, biked down to the fireworks last week.

Jim Gilchrist

Jim Gilchrist of the Minuteman Project is a cockless assmuncher who won't stop spamming me with his political crap even though I've asked him to stop.

I hate that crap and that nutless asshat.

Goe, hates that crap.

Stories, et al

More stories listed out by Mr. Crankshaw.

Goe, prolly gonna buy a bike.

A few hours at OMSI

"Are you a tsintaosaurus or are you just happy to see me?"



These little fella's obviously hadn't evolved turtle magic yet.



This one really is happy to see you. Seeing you means lunch!

Goe, wondering who turned the heat up outside.

Rise of the potato

There's not much to be said for potatoes. There is also very little to be said against potatoes. Small and mundane, they just are. Most people don't think much about potatoes, unless they happen to be growing or preparing some. Like a thousand other objects, they float through our lives almost unnoticed.
There once was a magical potato. He was from a small backyard garden in what passed for the suburbs of a small city. He came into being in much the same way that other potatoes do, except that he was aware. He was aware that he was a potato, that there were other potatoes, and that the other potatoes were larger than he. He was slightly jealous of the size of the other potatoes, but most importantly, he was aware.
His life was not difficult or filled with great hardships. It was mostly boring. He lay in the dark and grew. He could not converse with the other potatoes, they were potatoes and couldn't talk. He could hear conversations though, loud boisterous conversations drifting down through the soil from the world above. A world far larger and better lit than he could have ever imagined.
He grew. Over weeks and months he grew, until he was an average sized potato. One day, something bit him. A passing insect, one of the few subterranean travelers to pass close enough for him to see, was trying to burrow into him. It was the first time he had felt pain, and he didn't care for it at all. He was unable to ask the other potatoes for help with the bug, and lacking any instincts at all, he had no idea what to do about it. When it bit him again, he bit back and ate the whole creature.
Potatoes are not normally carnivorous. They usually subsist on nutrients delivered through the potato plants that bring them into being. This potato though was magical. He was capable of doing a great many things other potatoes could not do. One of these was to eat. He had never seen another potato eat anything, and surprised himself by managing the feat at all. Even more surprising, he enjoyed the taste.
The potato began to change. He grew in ways that normal potatoes normally do not. He developed an appetite for insect, eating any that came his way. He began to understand the discussions wafting down from above. With every passing day, he felt more aware, more alive, more powerful.
He wasn't powerful enough to stop the natural cycles of time, and his first autumn was fast approaching. As he lay where he always lay, thinking about what the future might hold in store, he felt a rumbling nearby. Not the tiny vibrations of a doomed bug, or the slow thumping of something moving above the surface, but almost a regular shaking that was growing slowly stronger. He could hear potatoes yelping as if in pain every few seconds, but could not see what was happening.
This continued for a few minutes, then, when the rumbling seemed almost upon him, a potato he'd been adjacent to his whole life shifted away, vanishing into a wall of dirt. He felt something nick his skin and he tried to bite it, but it was too large to eat. It withdrew quickly and then lunged in again, this time behind him. It pushed him a few inches, the earth collapsing in behind him. He found himself exposed to sunlight for the first time, but a hand grabbed him and tossed him into a bucket before he could comprehend this.
More potatoes followed, and his circumstances came to an almost surreal familiarity. He was again surrounded by potatoes and soil, but the potatoes were more numerous and the soil was sparse. The removal of the others would have not bothered him as he did not enjoy their company, but he now realized how much he loved laying in the soil. He became angry at the thought of something doing this to him on purpose, and began to plan his revenge.

Goe, thanking Rachmeg again.

Picasa is my friend

Headbutting to extinction, next on FOX!



You want a piece of me?



Chompy McChompersons will be your partner on Dancing with the Stars.



Good thing it's not a living room, or someone might not notice the elephants.

Goe, having a good day.

Not OMSI yet

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

More from the Washington Park Zoo

Meerkats doing what cats do best.



Mr. Bat is making his move...



It's important to do a daily operator pmcs on your elephant.

Goe, found some missing stories courtesy of Rachmeg.

Ninja Monkey at the zoo

Ninja Monkey with a bear.



Ninja Monkey trying to demonstrate why mimes should never be spared.




Ninja Monkey testing a potential student.

Goe, needs to buy another samurai sword for Ninja Monkey

Milling about

Leash laws are important, but only if they're pretty.



A volcano lounges in the afternoon sun.

Goe, had a really nice weekend.

Rose Garden

Mt. Hood over the Rose Gardens



The mountain is ready for it's close-up.



A blooming lamp post.

Goe, got a little burned on a good day.

A Plan, a man, a glitch

I had a plan about taking the guys to the zoo some coming weekend. Was going to go this last weekend, but made other plans on account of indeterminate weather. Now I can't find the guys. I'm hoping the cat didn't swat them under the couch or something. May have to take the ninja lego monkey instead.

Goe, concerned.

The Park and other things

Took the guys to a couple of parks this afternoon. Went to Mill End's Park first.



They are so small, it's hard to get them in focus. Darth kept mocking me until I threatened to feed him to a squirrel.



We left Mill End's Park and went to Mt. Tabor instead. We found a lamppost in the middle of nowhere, but no wardrobe to be seen...



Goe, did notice a lot of stairs.

freemasons

there's some sort of mini-marathon of shows about freemasons on the history channel. most of it is generalized history and conspiracy theories, but every now and then, as if by accident, they let slip something about a freemason ideology. it seems to be mostly a straightforward realistic ideology that i happen to share (at least in common with what they 'reveal' on tv).

it's like when math geeks say that the universe is written in math. it is. doesn't do me any good because i don't know calculus. most people don't. i try to explain it to people when explaining related matters as 'life is physics', momentum, leverage, inertia, etc. the masons seem (again, based on what they 'reveal' on tv) to have formed an ideology based on this compatible with the understandings of medieval stonemasons who didn't know calculus and lacked a scientific vocabulary to explain their knowledge of physics.

Goe, wonders why the aflac duck gets more girls than he does.

Gratz

to the Flea.

Goe, predicting it'll be a dorky nerd.

Voting

I don't. I'd like to think it's because it's too much pressure on me, but really it's because I don't agree with anyone running for anything on more than a few issues. If I vote for Candidate X because they promise to reduce crime, I don't want them to assume that I'm supportive of expanding corvee labor.

Goe, not standing athwart history.

whole lot o shakin

the earthquake swarm off the coast that made the news a few weeks ago faded away, but another swarm started, and this time someone with some know-how is checking it out to see if it's a new volcano, old fault line, or monster.

Goe, should go to bed soon.

The Moon

the moon was out when I went to work. clouds were drifting by it, reminded me of the cheesy moon clips they use in werewolf movies where you see a bright spot in the clouds, then the clouds drift to the side and then you see the moon, with one or two small stringy clouds in front of it. it was kind of weird in that the clouds, as they drifted to the side, didn't drift smoothly. it was very stop'n'go, like it was an overlay with malfunctioning rollers that someone was running across the sky.

Goe, because my thoughts are not your thoughts.

Walking along

Was walking to the store and someone came running up alongside me and then slowed to a walk. Was weird, so I looked at them and TA-DA, it was Crazy Guy.

Goe, may enlighten you someday with what he remembers of the Rabid Babboon conversation.

harassment

someone has been instructing people i work with to not speak to me.

how is that not reprisal?

Goe, annoyed.

Cheesecake

I know lots of people who love cheesecake. I don't mind it but it's not something I would go out of my way to try. Saw some on sale at the store a month or so ago and thought I'd try it to see if I notice anything that I missed before, like flavor.

I didn't. Bland, gooey, etc., but now I keep finding myself wanting cheesecake. I still don't like or dislike it, I just want to eat it.

Goe, thinks it's weird.