Halfbrown

There’s nothing like ASCII art to get a message across:

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           ooO Ooo

Let me preface this story by saying that when I got home last night I thought I heard people in the road in front of our house, and I heard some car doors open and shut. It even sounded like someone was walking around by our garage, but when all this happened I was trying to get Evan to fall asleep for the night and couldn’t get up and go see what was going on. Most people wouldn’t think this is weird, but the driveway in front of our house is a private road and only our next door neighbors and ourselves use it; so anyone else on that road is unusual at best.

OK… I got a call at work tonight from Kimberly and she said that some guy just knocked on our front door. Not opening the door, she asked who it was, and the guy said “I’m one of your neighbors.”. When she asked what he wanted he said “I’ll come back later.”.

Here’s a few things to note:

We only have neighbors on one side and they are a white couple with a teenaged girl; the guy who knocked on the door was black and seemed to be alone. We also have no black neighbors on our street or on the street across the way. I think there’s a Filipino couple across the street and 2 or 3 houses south. I wish they would cook up some pancit and tocino and bring it over. I could handle neighbors like that.

There have been some shady goings-on around the 2-3 block area we live in over that last few weeks so I got myself home as quick as I could because I also knew that Kimberly was a little freaked out since she was home alone with Evan; and as I said earlier, it was just something that was out of the ordinary for us. It’s not that I’m worried because it was a black guy because that’s dumb and I’m not that way. I was concerned because this is just something that didn’t see, completely kosher and I’m a naturally paranoid person.

So I got home, everything seemed OK around the house, and I went into my home office to finish working from home. But its been a weird night.

I’ve been thinking about the old days lately; back to when I was a young lad sitting in front of our families huge 19 inch TV and spending a good 10 hours or more with my trusty Atari 2600 playing Pong, Combat, Pac Man, and whatnot. I’d say I had a good 50 or more games for my 2600, and I played that thing until it just fried to death, begging for mercy as I whipped the joystick to and fro trying to find the chalice in Adventure.

So imagine my surprise when I head over to ThinkGeek and see a swanky little controller with 10 Atari games harcoded into it. Just, um, “Plug and Play”. Heh heh… anyhow, they also have an Activision version as well. I love the idea of one of these. I think it’d be great if it could be upgraded to handle more games as well. I wouldn’t mind playing some “E.T., the Extraterrestrial” right about now.

The “Shock and Awe” campaign has begun. War is a terrible thing, but there are some interesting aspects to it.

What is impressive is the accuracy that the JDAMs and other bombs have. Sure, the tomahawks are accurate… but I’m intimately familiar with them (having served aboard a US submarine) so their precision came as no suprise; but the accuracy of the bombs is incredible. Whether you are for or against the war, you have to marvel at how things have changed in the past 12 years or so since the last time the US was involved in Iraq.

A buddy of mine and I were talking about the news coverage from Iraq and he told me something that he and his bandmates were saying (loosely quoted):

We have the technology to get a video stream of a girl fucking a donkey clear as a bell on the Internet, but just try getting a decent videophone feed from Iraq!

I’ve always disliked them, but the call for a boycott on the Dixie Chicks is hilarious to me. And no, I didn’t vote for Bush, nor am I from Texas. I just think it’s funny to see them get crapped on by the media and their own fans for making remarks that were bound to upset their fan base.

Once the 5PM deadline isn’t met (and it won’t be), Bush will wait approximately 2 hours before launching the first strike. Two hours sounds like a nice buffer zone before bombing.

If I’m ever driving home between 10PM and Midnight, I always tune into our local “Alternative” station 107.7 The End to listen to Loveline with Adam Corolla (of “The Man Show” fame) and Dr. Drew.

I’ve been listening to them for years now, and this last week has been hil-freakin-arious!! They’re syndicated all over the nation, and I highly recommend listening to them if you can gind them on the radio.