Lightning Hymning

If you can believe it, I got to drive in rain a few days ago- at night. Victory is mine! I was singing The Old Rugged Cross, Holy, Holy, Holy, At the Cross, Saved by the Blood, Amazing Grace, and Are You Washed in the Blood? at the top of my lungs on the way home. The Lord must have rewarded me with rainfall. Just imagine if I were also playing my guitar. He'd probably pull a Genesis 5:24 on me. (I'd better still my tongue before I get too sacrilegious.)

Once the rain stopped (i.e. once I pulled into our property), I started taking pictures of the lightning. They're not fabo, but they look not a little neat to me.









I need to sing more hymns.

When It Rains...It ...

Well, I don't think the monsoon has shown up in force, yet. As we all know, the monsoon is the time of year that God loves most. Therefore, if God loves it, we should love it. Amen.

I remember back when...it rained and hailed and the wind blew so hard that I broke down crying because I thought a tornado was going to kill us all. I was like, 13. Or 8. Yeah, let's go with 8. That was the time that we watched a movie to calm me and my brother down. (My brother, to this day, is afraid of storms.) Dude, Where's my Car? must have seemed like the perfect thing to watch with us children at the time.

Would that my parents had known of Metroid Prime, and that I was able then to bear the awesomeness! But that would have destroyed my previously smaller feeble mind.


I digress. But how did I get here? Oh, yeah! Today I got water. Lots of people were there, but not really. We were in an order that made wait times low, I suppose.

Check it out!

Rain! Rain! Rain! Wooho...uh...

Oh, it was just the water pouring down off of the hose. Drat. When it rains, it doesn't rain. Grr.


But...so is life in the desert country. There's a reason that no thing pleasant exists here.

Hey, I also saw this little pal again!

R from the A: Rearranging, Part III

I'll create the header sometime. It's storming now, and I'm basically offline.


OK, now it's time to destroy the rest of the programs in the start menu. It seems that the start menu saved itself automatically, but nothing in it is installed, the nut. Under Documents and Settings, and under All Users, I find my foe. I guess that's where the start menu is located, and under All Users, the Omega Start Menu manifests! En garde, thou vile fiend!


...long story short, now the hated start menu items are vanquished to the Destroyer bin. There's 1.6 GB in there now. 12 more items deleted...and hey, I found and imported my bookmarks. Man, I've got so many of them. I'll delete lots of them later. Lots of them. Hear me, you guys? I'm going to delete a whole lot of you.



OK...now time for what I was about to do yesternight when I ran out of time. Humble fool...I am going to organize my pictures. I experience extreme trepidation.

My plan is to organize them by year, then by month of year. This untested method scares me. Nevertheless, here I go. We typically upload each card when it's full (we use three cameras- a old cheapy, and a model from '04 or '05, and my Nikon S10), creating a file for them. So I have "uploaded from mom's card may 25 2007" and I need to go to that, then dispense those pictures into their destination master folders.

[time has passed]


Since it's raining, I need to take pictures. Thus I create the folder called "Video or Audio from cameras." Since camera video is so rare in comparison to pictures (and so hard to find inbetwixt them), I think they need their own folder. And just like that, I free up 590 MB from my card.

[more time has passed]

OK, I've organized (remember! We have no idea I won't utterly fail and make a jumbled mess of things yet) about a sixth (probably less) of my photos. It's time to go cook. We're having Double Egg Twice Baked Grainy Bread Air Souffle with Sauteed Sausage and Sardines a la GoodGame. Yeah, it's been raining, I'm not in the cooking mood. I'm in the...cartwheel mood.

[lots of time has passed, it is now 8:20 PM]


Ah, it's wet and cold. I love how the cold rips the life from your soul, and the wet drains the happiness and/or contentment from your heart. I am weary of picture migrating, it's scary. I did discover that when a filename is blue, it means that the file is compressed. I wonder if that's bad or not. It takes around 5 minutes to uncompress 300 MB, and it only takes up 1 more MB on the hard drive, what on earth is the point? I'll find out sometime.

Well, it's time to go, humble fools. I'll see you tomorrow. I still have something around half of my pictures to move and oh so many headaches, mainly relating to duplicates. Trying to guess which is the real folder...because one folder has 199 pictures, and the other has 299, but each one has the same pictures. Maybe I'm tired.


Files (pictures) relocated: 5.76 GB moved from pre-Crisis, dormant "Kev" user account to post-Crisis account's My Documents.
Pictures sorted: all but 235 MB.
Pictures left to relocate and sort: oh so many.
Hard drive space left: 11.1 GB with 1.73 GB in Destroyer bin.

The Lord's Coming, or just Some Clouds?

Well, you remember the last time I saw clouds. But this time they weren't thin sky-coverers...they were big clouds! Puffy clouds! I think they're called cumulus clouds! They blocked out the sun every once and a while! I'll need to talk to Kile II about this sometime.

In fact, the first time I noticed this, I was in my room, and suddenly it got darker...since it has been about five months since we've had clouds that are capable of moving in front of the sun and temporarily blocking it out, I kinda thought it was the Lord's coming. I thought, "Well, here goes."

My cat, Precious, also noticed this. I think she saw it a few seconds before I did, because she ran and jumped into the windowsill a few seconds before the sun was blocked out. You know it's bad when even a cat is surprised to see clouds.


Here's a picture. It's clouds. The meteorologists say, "It might rain tomorrow." I say my new bedtime prayer: "If it shall rain before I wake, I pray the Lord, Numbers 11:14-15 on me!"


Yes, and even more are on the horizon...I must get up at 3 AM tomorrow, regardless of when I get to sleep, so that I can see if it will indeed rain. Rain, rain...how sweet the sound.


Before long, it'll be dust storm season. I love dust storm season so much. Talk about nostalgia...back when our land was pure, stunningly brilliant, clean, unmolested...back before we moved onto it...

It's A Joyous Day When The Messengers of Peace Cover the Sky and Lift Our Countenence

So, it was like any other recent day. I got up, and looked out of the corner of my window. It looked gray, but I didn't get my hopes up. The sun is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9.) It has lied to me before and it will lie again. I slumped out of bed. Late night last night. I bet I looked like an unshaven Russian with a hangover.


I walked into the living room. Still decorated from my brother's party. I always have a growl in my voice when I first wake up and I say "hell" a lot. Then I looked outside...it was still gray! Could it be?

I walked onto the porch, and my heart skipped three beats, and my lungs had to kick/otherwise hit it and make it start beating again! I couldn't believe what I saw! It was heartening beyond any measure!


It was...A SKY FULL OF CLOUDS!

The Lord could have called us all back right then!


Oh boy! I began singing a joyous melody. Then my dad called. Parents calling me usually ruin my day. But not today. The clouds built a dam to block the sorrow. "What are you singing about, you fool?!" he asked. I said, "It's cloudy!"

We haven't had clouds for I-don't-know-how-long! I told my dad the other day, I said, "Why haven't we been getting any weather?" he said something along the lines of "Because we live in a sin-cursed creation, we make idiotic decisions, and we're trying to live godly." "But pa, I love clouds. If it doesn't rain soon, I swear, I [edit]


...but now there are clouds in the glorious sky! I even took pictures! Now if only it would rain. I hear it rains endlessly in Florida, like it's the apocalypse. I think I'll send an email to the Hitman, who is in Florida. His consoling words: "Don't worry. I only miss church if I'm out of state. I mean, like, if I'm anywhere in Arizona, I'll make it." He sure does know how to cheer someone up. But not like the clouds! Here they are!

Yes! Shades of gray mixed with white mixed with black and the tree is blooming!
Beautiful! When I saw the visage of the sun blocked out, I immediately thought "You [edit]

[edit]

ince I was 11...man, that's violent. Uhm, I think I'll edit that out for um, ...space restraints. Now, watch as I drop the preserves and spread the peanut butter with this mix of Barney's Clean Up and Chin Up from Charlotte's Web. Did I mention that the word "pretty" recently became hallowed? Yep. Right next to "patter."


Chin up, chin up, everybody everybody everywhere!
Chin up, chin up, everybody to the gleaming sky now stare!
Chin up, chin up, clouds clouds pretty clouds everywhere!
YEEHAW!

Rattlesnake Stew

I was not ready for church this week. It was one of those times when you go to sleep knowing you're not ready for church, and you wake up thinking the same thing. I was shot for seemingly no reason.

Once I got there, things turned out great. I think Pastor could tell I was a little down. He probably thought my dog died or something, because he knows I absolutely love rain, and if I'm still in the dumps while it's raining- (it was raining last Sunday)- it's a clear indicator something dear to me died. Except this week. This week, I just did not sleep well.

[For my records, I also discovered this week that doctrine and/or the Bible are the only topics that universally throw our family into arguments.]


Pastor once more reminded us that we're having a soup dinner next Sunday...we've decided that we're bringing Rattlesnake Stew. We have the meat from a rattler we killed sometime back; it was a year or so ago, at least. It was a clean kill; you'll note it did not bite itself like either of the two snakes I blogged about (first and second).

Now, I am unsure if them biting themselves is bad- they obviously do it as some last-ditch effort to kill us- but regardless, I would rather not risk it with my church pals. If you think about it, if you bring any less than your absolute best (i.e., hold back the best for yourself), why bother to bring anything at all? So we'll bring rattlesnake. Only the best for them.

I figure we'll make beef or chicken stew, then just add the rattlesnake meat. They'll be so excited! Now, Mrs. Bruckner said that she wouldn't go to church if I brought a rattlesnake in, but it will only be a partial rattlesnake. And she doesn't have to eat it.



You know what?

I'm going to go milk, then do some work in MoviePlus. Oh, I'll also cook dinner first. We're having shrimp and ham put into The Joy of Cooking's version of Chinese fried rice. I'll make my brother...something. Off I go.

OK, I am back several hours later. Dinner somehow worked out. I did not add the shrimp, but froze it to add to...something. I made the idiotic mistake of letting it sit in the fridge for a day. Actually, three days. Time flies!

Also, I worked for more than three hours (4 hours atm), and I produced this neat video you should watch. It is 4 minutes long- 4 minutes and two-thirds of a second. It is 13 MB in size.
I'll provide a 3.5 MB, slightly lower quality video for my fans at the bottom of the post (it's almost as high quality as the 13 MB video, so if you have restrictions, the one at the bottom is OK.) Here comes the disclaimer...wait for it...


WARNING! VIDEO SHOWS RATTLESNAKE BEING KILLED! GRAPHIC AND CREEPY! WARNING!

That came out better than I thought. Aren't you proud of what my feeble toiling produced?



Time to be frank. I need to edit Bess's wedding footage. It's been ...3 months now, and I typically do not procrastinate this badly. She made the mistake of not pressuring me into editing it, but she shouldn't have to pressure me for me to do it, right? But I do not work well when left to easily forget things!

I learned how to use the program- MoviePlus 5- a while back. I chronicled it in these two posts: Bess' Wedding #1: It Begins and Bess' Wedding #2: Come to me, my baby!

I really like Metroid. I'll need to make a post on that sometime, as it fascinates even me.

Please, let me know how it loaded for you. It loads fine for me...but you can never tell with these things. Below is the promised low-size movie for dialup users. See, I'm trying to be helpful...oh drat...it won't upload. OK, new plan- if you need a lower size video, email me, and I'll upload one for you specially. It's almost midnight, and I don't want to miss this day's post. Sorry, guys.

A Picture of Precious and a Beautiful Morning

Isn't this a good picture? I think it's a good picture (enlarge it). Precious is very overjoyed that the kittens are...no longer capable of reproducing. More on that later, once we judge the improvement.



It's a little hard to tell, but she's laying on about 50 toilet paper rolls.

Below is a picture of the weather today.

Ain't it pretty? And to think, wasting such a beautiful day for church!


[Kev sighs] ...the things I do for church. Oh, it's a dark, ominous day...and the clouds are he-ere to stay. It's a dark, ominous day, and the clouds are dropping some rain.


That's my rain song. Today pastor will talk on the subject of easily manipulated fools husbands, and I'll ask why the Star of David is wrong, as well as why Satan "does not know your name," as he stated in his New Years 2006 sermon.

It's the hap, happiest season of all...

I feel the need to "look back." I've seen bloggers do this before. I am unsure of what causes it, but they feel a need to go back and think on events of the past; I am sure it's not just bloggers, but bloggers reveal this stuff like others don't. It almost seems therapeutic; as if dealing from a clean slate, reassessing memories, re-rating experiences, evaluating how things have changed, and reforming world interaction based upon the wider/panoramic view of what has been, a change from the daily world interaction based on the comparatively narrow current window and the outdated "panoramic view."

Let's begin with my thoughts on winter, shall we?



For me, the winter season is very special. For one, it's the best season of all. It's the Samus Aran of seasons. Now, I'll be the first to tell you that some of my best seasons are fall, spring and summer, but we all know that's just an excuse because I am really seasonist.

It's just now starting to get cold enough outside for our indoor temperature to be effected; we have "HeatWave Max No Cool Burn Box Brick Oven Taste of Hell" classified insulation (because we live in Arizona and totally need good insulation :| ), and I love it. Uhh, that it's getting so cold, that is. I do not love the insulation. It is hard to believe that some actually do not like winter [link to a blog for Hudson Community Chapel, titled "winter splinter", and an article from The Southern Illinoisan], but I totally, honestly understand, as long as they totally, honestly understand that I despise summer.

In that light, I don't know if I could ever live in an area where the winter season caused me to hate it. In Arizona, it's still very cold (under 10 degrees in the mornings; I know this is child's play to colder states, but so is their 90 degree summer!), but it isn't cold enough to despise the winter. Unless, of course, you're my dad. Oh, how my dad hates winter. He doesn't pick flowers for, and meet the parents of, summer, either, but he doesn't hate it as much as winter.

In fact, here are my dad's feelings about winter, portrayed by a photo I took of Paper Mario.

Paper Mario had some truly amazing character dialogue. I am unsure of their method, but it is by far the best I've seen. I haven't seen too much, though.

Yes, pa, we know you hate winter. But I love it. Perhaps people are born to love different seasons. A personality issue. Regardless, I like winter a whole, whole lot. The tinge of coldness in the air that somehow cannot be recreated in such subtle tones by merely turning the thermostat down...

The knowledge that anything you do outside will be ten times easier than it is in the summer (and how!)...

The water coming out of the tap at a nice temperature...

The bone-chilling effects of rain...the freezing despair...then being able to heat back up...

Going to sleep, warm under the covers...not being able to move for fear of losing the pockets of heat that have accumulated in the blanket...

Wearing clothes that should be worn in summer and freaking people out (they all wear sweaters like GIRLS!)...

Actually being able to drink hot beverages, like actual humans...but choosing to drink cold beverages because why not!...how chilly ice cream seems...

Christmas lights up everywhere...Christmas songs (I am partial to Todd Agnew and Friend's Do You See What I See album)...

My parents' dog, Little Jihad, waking me up to go outside...

The sheer base awenem of winter. More recently, it means I can play Twilight Princess again! Woo! Princess party over he-......I mean...ouhm...that is...I meant to say...

...manly...party... over here. Yes. With uh, razors, and ...power tools. And sports on the TV. Yes, uh, manly party over here...er...with...fast cars and...beer nuts...and......uhh...lawn mowers. Yeah, nothing but manliness over at this party, no princesses allowed. No marshmallows. Lots of sandpaper, and footballs everywhere.




In ending, randomly, I suggest this post from my blog- "That Dead My Great Grandmother Again." I did a search of my blog, and it came up, and I was laughing over it. Boy, she had a scorpion farm or something. And uh, Pastor was feeling a little..."hellfire" around the collar that day.

Christmas season. The "most wonderful time of the year."

Sadly, with the Thanksgiving season evaporating like a small drop of water in Hell's bucket of despair, Christmas is "officially" in season. The winds of sorrow and the glazed sea of soulless eyes will soon converge on stores for one sole purpose: gifts. Merry making gifts. They'll mull about with fearsome greed.

I heard a story from K-Love a year ago. I guess the "Crossdressing Elmo" was the hottest gift (it came with a set of clothes that could be turned inside-out; one side would be a feminine outfit whilst the other would be more masculine). A lady from K-Love was trying to find one, and she got one reserved for her, and when she went to the store, the checkout lady had to tell her that the shipment didn't make it. The checkout lady either almost cried or did because everyone else she promised a Crossdressing Elmo to got very mad (and this K-Love lady didn't, and she was expecting her to). I think it was Crossdressing Elmo, at least.


I know everyone always says this, so I might as well jump on the bandwagon: hasn't Christmas been in season? I noticed Walmart put up Christmas decorations 5-7 weeks ago. I was getting some Meow Mix for the Damned Cats, and there they were. "Ho ho ho ho!" one Santa looked as if he were saying. Another seemed to say, "Ha ha ha ha, your momma wears army boots!"

I've never seen such a freak of a Santa. Ooh, that box made me angry. The first time someone told me my momma wore army boots was an old (as in my old, not old old) dentist. "Oh, don't you ever brush," he said during one of our first visits. "No wonder we couldn't detect any cavities!" he declared. "Ugh, splack!" he noised, coughing. He looked like he was gonna vomit or something. I guess he had some type of food poisoning. "OK, nurse...get me the scalpel...I'm going to have to surgically remove the plaque.


"All my years in the business, and this is the worst," he quipped. "OK, take him to the x-ray arena and let's try to loosen some of that with an elongated exposure," he said, out of breath. Once we got there, he started getting annoyed. "Damnable lawyers," he said as he pored over paperwork. "OK, kid. You tell anyone we shot you with an elongated x-ray exposure, and I'll tell everyone your momma wears army boots. Got it?"

I was 10 or 11 if memory serves. I nodded, wide-eyed, as they lowered me into the pit. I heard the silo-like door seal shut. Remember how technology was back then? Excerpt from this post:

Everything went fine, that is...until the dentist came in to take a final look. Wow, it's amazing how much their XRay technology has improved. It used to be...you'd have to wear a 400 pound lead "apron," and so you wouldn't die while it was on you, they first hooked you up to an iron lung. THEN, they sealed you in a concrete chamber 50 feet underground so you wouldn't "radiate up" the atmosphere. Like it was YOUR fault!

Speaking of concrete enclosures, Mr. and Mrs. Bruckner are moving to a new locale this week, and they are fans of the Red Sox. So I want to get them something. I'm thinking of making them a lamp with a Christmas stocking as the base. You know, a red sock. Also, it'll be a Christmas decoration. I am still undecided. Perhaps I will get them a...

Uhh...a pair of underwear. They're an...I am not quite sure how to put this...slightly elderly couple (but they don't let that put a damper on their spirits!), and they get cold faster than a group of young, smart, eager-to-learn Bible students just lining up to be taught!



OK...actually, I am the only one there under 40. Drat.

Actually...I don't know how old the Hitman is. He may be 39. I know he went through something around 10 years of training ("deacon" training"), so he's at least 10. He reminds me of Fulgore. You don't really know how old he is, but you can guess.

I don't despise Christmas. I simply do not regard it as the "reason for the season" (we don't even celebrate it). The reason for the season is the weather! Yes! Darn. Now I'm craving Riesens. Do they have ads like that? The "Riesen" for the season could be a minty Riesen with white chocolate coating. But, noo, Kev is an idiot.


It's hard to believe that some people actually hate winter. As much as I despise Arizona summers, I would not ever want to hate winter. You can find out why we don't celebrate Christmas with a simple Google search of "pagan christmas." It's not that we think it's evil; we don't find it necessary (and it's stressful!). Also, the celebration should not be his birth, but his resurrection. That's where the power lies.

I Corinthians 15:17-18:

17	And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
18	Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

Not to be confused, this is Paul speaking to those who say that there is no resurrection of the dead (he's working through their logic; if there's no resurrection, as they claim, then they cannot have the remission of sins...you know, just like we can't justify taking the "promise" and "blessing" part of Israel's program without the "wandering through the desert like camels" and "cursing" part). Verse 12, same chapter, provides the context:

12	Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?

(Italics mine).

So, remember: a text...

("The body of a printed work as distinct from headings and illustrative matter on a page or from front and back matter in a book.")

...without a context...

("The part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning.")

...is a pretext (An effort or strategy intended to conceal something.). That's one of those cute catchphrases people use. It's true. That's why CNN says "We put the world...in Clintext. UH, context! Crud!" (drumroll)

Wednesday, August 1st: Heavy Rains: 'Tubba Blubba Storm'

Today I was playing Paper Mario (virtual console), the third chapter, the one with Tubba Blubba. Ahh, this level. My fondest memory of it involves rain.

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--------Unnecessary Nostalgia--------
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My Granny was coming to visit 5-plus years ago, and I was playing the level (I knew how to read?!). She brought Whataburger. I remember that was when she informed me that I had hair like my Dad's, and that it would not fall out ever. Oh, I was so happy! I don't know why. What 9, 10 or 11-year-old worries about losing their hair?

Maybe it was because my brother lost his hair. Alopecia, as I proudly explained to everyone who asked. Another fond, lovable memory was just a few years ago, when we were at our current home. My Granny, once again, came to visit. And I, once again, was playing Paper Mario. Truth be told, I love playing this level when it rains so much, I keep a Paper Mario file saved at this level at all times. Oh, and once again, it was raining. So, Paper Mario, rain, and Granny. Again.

We had enchiladas for dinner that night, I think...

My Granny was driving a U-Haul, and for some reason, got stuck in the flooding. I think a cop came. Man, maybe my Mom will clarify, I forgot. Anyway, I decided that since my Mom had the sauce made, I should make the enchiladas! So me and my brother, hands unwashed I am sure, set out to finish dinner! Heroes we would be!

Sure enough, we made enchiladas that night, and it was good. Or, they. I remember I found the recipe book and everything, but...I digress.

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----------------Today----------------
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It all began as I heard scratching at the door. The door which has an enclosed screen porch surrounding it. Intrigued, I got up to look. I had been listening to an "audiocassettetape" on the subject of prayer. The guy repeats himself too much, and talks too slowly. As I stood in the doorway, with the door closed, suddenly an extension cord under it whipped out under the door, being pulled at least 3 feet.

I knew then that this was no dog. It was scratching so hard. Too hard. It HAD to be a werewolf, I reckoned. No, I don't have any idea why I am 17 and 2/3 yet still thought that. I said to myself, "OK. I will go to the window, and tap on it, and if it's a werewolf, it will come to the window, and I'll know for sure." I seriously did that and thought that. I am completely serious.

Surely, it came to the window. But it was Tessa, one of our dogs, not a werewolf. She looked crazed. I thought, "DAMN. I don't know if dogs are friendly to werewolves! She does look like she's crazed though, like there's a werewolf egging her on!" And so I still was not sure. "OK," I told myself. I am serious, let me remind you once more. "OK, it has not scratched through the door. It has not damaged the door. If it IS a werewolf, and I open the door, it doesn't appear to have the strength to push it open if I hold it."


I drum my fingers on the arm of my chair as I consider, ponder, search the depths of my mind with all my mental energy, to find out why I believed it was a werewolf. I come to no conclusion.


I opened the door. I frantically searched the scene, trying to discover what size of ferocious beast I had to combat, frantically my eyes were stuck in "identify" mode to separate our dogs from the Wolf. At that point, I realized it was just Hannah, our scared-of-storms Border Collie mix. She's our oldest, and our first dog. She's the best trained, but not the best listener. I like her the most. She's crazy. We call her the "chupacabra," because she loves watching the chickens. I'll tell the story sometime later. Man, my skin is soft. It's like...uhh...sand ...paper...yeah, that.

The question, after I let her in, is how did she get through the screen?


That's how, and it looks better enlarged. She jumped through it. How? Well, that's a mystery. There's enough slack that biting it would be of little effect, so she probably just scratched, and scratched, until she got a hole started. Then put her face through the hole, followed by her body. That's my theory. The reason she was so scared? Rolling, almost continuous, thunder. Not loud, just continuous...
That stuff was weird! I almost didn't notice it, it was such a monotonous rumbling.

I took occasion to let both Precious and Vicious in, and also LJ my Mom's dog. Lucky, because they would have been owned by this storm. It didn't look too bad out. Keep in mind, today is water day. Here is a picture taken at exactly 11 AM:


Looks worse in the picture. I took these pictures just in case it did storm later. Two minutes later, the first sprinkles came. I was 3 seconds from going inside when I heard them. This next picture, taken less than 6 minutes after the above picture, should show you just how fast it can turn ugly out here. Taken at 11:06 to the north (actually, two, taken within a minute):

It continued like this for over 40 minutes, getting worse at times but not letting up much. The last picture I have showing the rain is 11:40, and it was still raining hard. Even after it stopped raining such apocalyptic shards of water, it still sprinkled until about 11:56.

Below is an eerie picture I took out of the window of the truck after getting a load of water, at 11:27 AM.

Notice how creepy it is? Well, I do. It's all foggy, and fog is rare out here. Steam is common. Hehehe. Not really.

Below is a picture of TW's (when there's trouble you call TW!) street, flooding. I did not have a chance to photograph the opposite side of the wash. It was much worse. Picture taken at 11:28 AM:

Pretty. At least I think so. See the blacktop all over? Strange. Speaking of strange, poor TW lost 10 and a half bags of concrete to the weather. I was being rained on. People would back up 5 times just to hit a puddle just right and splash someone. It was hierarchy at its worst. Hierarchy means chaos... right?

People were walking on the side of the road aimlessly, mumbling random nothings. The mad old hermit, Tom Carson, who lives in the house next to the well, was hoeing his yard. That mad old hermit. Hoeing his yard in the middle of a storm. What's next? Hoeing random passerby when it's not storming? I had to put a stop to this.

I approached his fence, but he didn't see me. His dog did. His dog was going crazy, and some strange creature was drowning. It was crying in a weird fashion. I tried to locate it, but when you approach creatures like that, they silence themselves. A natural, suicidal reflex, no doubt.

The Brenshaw's dogs were also going crazy. They keep them locked up next to the goats they so recently acquired. The goats are pretty young, and I have been taking pictures of them every 2 weeks to chart their growth. Here is a picture of TW's yard, taken to the east, at 11:33 AM.

I like it. And one to the west, also at 11:33 AM:


Doesn't it look simply pernicious? After this, I went to get another load of water. On the way there, someone was driving out of the well. All of a sudden, a tire flew from their trailer and made its merry way down the road. It was freaky. Their trailer tires were all almost-flat and stuff. Apparently, they did not correctly fasten their spare... apparently. And apparently, they do not air up their tires... apparently. On the way home, I took some photos- the street was flooding. Oh boy! Taken at 11:56 AM:

Any guesses on how many gallons there are? A million? Two million? Three trillion?! I decided I wanted to get a better look at the bigger puddle, about 30 yards further down the road. Taken at 11:59 AM:


Cool! Right? Right. And here is what I wanted a picture of. It did not disappoint in its splendor:

Glory! However, in my overzealousness, I failed to realize that I drove into the middle of a flooded road. Below is a picture, also taken at 11:59 AM, showing how deep the tires are in (8"-10"):

Yikes. Did I escape? Yes! Easily! I am the Dracula, born of the dead! The bad news? So did two of our dogs! Drat!

I had left the gate open as I took the pictures of the wash feeding the flooding street. Daisy and Tessa were out. Daisy, as I came back, took off running. Tessa followed, running really, really, stupid fast. Wow. I just watched as she barreled down on Daisy like a bullet. I have never seen any animal run that stupidly fast.

I noticed they were heading east and then they were going to round the corner to go north. I had to beat them to the side gate, where I would let them in! Simple, easy solution. I was going to go through our wash, but alas, I was foiled, as the path we can drive through:


Is blocked. Also the rest of the wash was running:

(Ignore the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer and remnants of this picture, please, and also that this is linking to it, please)
Pretty cool, right? This goes to feed the wash running along the street, where TW's street was flooding. That there is our pipe, through which the water flows to mosey on down the wash to the street.

Anyway, I opened the side gate, and Tessa came in. Daisy has this thing where she runs from people. She thinks it's a game. Tessa is very respectful of humans. That made it easy. I dropped the water, then proceeded to chasing Daisy down. I stopped (on the road, which is somewhat allowed out here, especially if catching a dog) and about 2 minutes later I captured her.

I finally squatted down, and that let her, I don't know, think she could surrender peacefully. She came cowering over to me. I wasn't angry at her. I carried her back to the truck and got a load of water. While I was there, I met a toad, or frog, whichever, named Harky!

Me and Harky grew to be dear, dear friends during that 2 minutes I spent photographing him. He was hanging around the well where baby toads can easily be captured by evil 5-year-olds. I chased him for a bit taking pictures, then showed him the beautiful puddle of water where he could swim freely, foruntilthepuddledriesup! I liked the one where he looks like he's turning into an agent.


That's really about it. Oh, also, Tiger escaped during the chaos. I luckily happened to be nearby and caught him just as he started running. He could not cross the wash, and that made it simple. To remedy this escape route, I blocked the screen door.

Simply a board hiding the hole. If they can't see it, they can't escape through it!


Now it is bright and sunny. What a twisted web we weave.

[1,000 gal us, 500 TW]

Monday, July 16th: Thunderstorm: 'Muffin Storm'

It all started late afternoon, about 5 PM. I had decided to make a batch of muffins. Pumpkin muffins. I'll share the recipe soon. For some reason, I forgot to halve or third the recipe, so I made like 20 of them. Halfway through making them, I realized there was a storm blowing in from the south! That is...south to north.

This picture was taken at 5:21 PM, to the south-southeast. This is indicative of a storm blowing in, for sure.


Pretty. At least I think so. By the way, I am calling this storm the 'Muffin' storm. The last one, if you forgot, was the 'Kitten' storm.

Next, our local mountain, we call it "stuck-up peak." That mountain thinks it's better than us- towering over us like it's so great. It gossips about us to its other tall, tall, huge, beautiful mountain pals as they collectively open up cans of Mountweiser Cristle. Curse it, and it's friends! Well, not it's friends. They're cool, I guess. It's mainly just stuck-up peak. Picture taken at 5:49 PM, below. South.

Can you see it? There's a very, very faint outline of a mountain above the visible mountain. At this point, I was going back inside and finishing the Muffins. When the clouds advanced, below, taken at 6:00 PM. South.

Take that, you foul, evil mountain! The closer mountains aren't that high, so they don't act like they're the Queen's dress. One of them has a mining crew working on it, though. That's a mountain's plastic surgery. They're probably burying some ages-old, demonic monstrosity! Oh, no! I wonder when and if it will break free? These things typically go for hundreds of years, so that no one remembers they're there (and thus do not know how to destroy them), but...that's just in the movies; this is real life!


Meanwhile, this is what it looked like to the immediate west. That is, west and up.

Nice and clear. It did not begin to really storm until later, right about the exact moment I could no longer take pictures. It didn't rain too terribly hard, and certainly, it was a far cry from the doomsday storm we had some years ago.

Here are some pictures of lightning. I finally surrendered, and just took video of the lightning, then lifted the frames from that. I mean, got really, really lucky, and got the lightning! Yeah, taken at 8:29 and 8:30. Let's say.


It rained off and on the rest of the night, with the lights flickering once or twice. It finally died down around 11 PM. I am going to make some salmon dip as, yesterday, we went to CostCo, and bought some smoked salmon. If it's good, I'll post the recipe, and make it for church someday. Those poor, poor, unsuspecting, churchgoing fools.

ION: Water Day, Teasing Clouds, Wedding, and Church Next Week

Today I got water (1 load TW 3 for us 330 left). It was uneventful, as Seven of Nine would say. You know, that Borg-human from Star Trek: Voyager. The series has just started replaying on Spike TV (well, "almost just"). A few weeks ago, it was showing 3-4 GGW commercials per show, and several condom commercials (ROFL, the one where all the guys are pigs, then become civilized once they have condoms! Yeah, right, laughing boy).

Now they're not showing either, except one or less of the latter. Hm. Still a lot of lame car commercials, and some "hottest bartender" commercials. Anyway, I'd much rather sit through an hour of commercials than 5 minutes of the Jim Bakker show. That guy looks almost as emotionally imbalanced as John McCain and seems almost as dull. See how I avoided calling him names, but pointed out valid character faults?

Seven of Nine finally has her normal suit. Before, she was walking around in a somewhat-shiny silver one, and, I swear, her breasts had to be at least the size of a human skull (maybe even a Klingon skull!). Each one. Now they seem much more normal. I first noticed it when B'Elanna was leaning over a console, and Seven was standing next to her.

I thought, "whoa, half of her total mammae must be at least the size of B'Elanna's head! And she's a filthy, dirty, yet lovable, half-Klingon! No, that's...can't be right...they don't bounce at all! And as we know, bouncing is a normative activity indicative of healthy breasts! Maybe she has very severe mastitis, which I recently learned humans can develop." But I digress. Aside from digressing, I just heard the word "supersperm" on TV. A show called "Village of the Damned." It's about mind-controlling kids which use their eyes, stuff like that. It's boring.


My Mom and Dad will be getting married here shortly. They were divorced, no one cares, blather blather, etc. I will be operating the video camera. We will need to purchase a Mini-DV, or possibly one of those fancy new hard drive containing gizmos. I need to catch back up with the camcorder market. We may even want to just rent one. It would probably be the best option- we don't have all that much to camcord. Get it?! LOL

My Mom recently bought the wedding dress. She was going to make one, but I told her, "Mom, I'd rather pay $250 for half of your dress than to see you waste your life making one that isn't going to look good. That pattern looks like CRAP!" After several weeks of delivering speeches like this twice-daily on work days and thrice-daily on home days, she caved. "Fine!" she screamed through tears. "I'll just go BUY the damned dress! OOH, I HATE YOU KEV!" she ran to her room. She'll thank me someday. Everyone will. Someday. Some...glorious day. The dress ended up costing $20. Don't ask.



Funny thing about today...it was cloudy, but there was VERY little rain. Our pastor mentioned a few weeks ago that they got what was called the "two-inch rain." One drop of rain every 2 inches. It was cloudy all around, and we probably had four waves of clouds go around us, one wave every 2 hours or so. It is technically too early to say that it did not storm, but... I took a lot of pictures, and I will delete them all if it does not storm. A distant city on a hill got pwnt by all four waves. Curse their bowels!


Also next week we have an arranged, I suppose it would be called a Bible study, with our pastor. We're special! "Now, Kev's Mom," he began a few days ago. "We really need to have a sit-down, open up the Book, and discuss this inappropriate behavior." With that, he looked over at me disgustedly, probably making sure I am OK with him treating my Mom that way. I mouthed to him, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." His whole body shuddered and he looked down, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists. I musta spoke some power to him! Whoo! Church is going GREAT! I am totally looking forward to the meeting! We're gonna have lunch, but I don't know. A restaurant seems too noisy for a talk like that. I vote Subway, someone goes and gets the subs, then we all eat. I wonder if his family will stay or not? Hmm. I will bake a batch of those muffins, too.









Dan:
"OH MY GOSH!"
Ness:
"WHAT!"
Ness has sprawled herself out in improvised attack position, eyes wide and wild, daggers drawn. Dan speaks, then runs off:
Dan:
"It's Princess Paprika! EEE!"
Ness:
"Who?!"
Jayme (intones):
"The lovable, red-headed princess-spokeswoman for AllEmpec Foods. You know, the one who wears the red contacts."
Ness:
"Oh. Right. With the scary looking, talking clouds?"
Jayme:
"Uh-huh. She tells stories to small children."
Ness:
"I gathered that by the crowd of small children gathered around her. And Dan."
Jayme:
"...yeah, Dan has no shame..."
Ness nods soberly, sheathing her knives.

That Dead Bowl Again

Today it rained.

Rather, this morning. I was awoken at 3:30 AM by my Mom telling me how it's storming.

It was a thunderstorm- our third one in the last month, the first being on July 6th. I will blog about the second one, then this one. Is it just me, or is that dude who does the weather alerts really, really hot? I mean, his voice? On the radio? It's not wrong to be attracted to a mans' computer-assisted voice, right? For all we know, it could be a woman, right?...I mean, it is computer-assisted...

I will do the subject of this post, then I might as well do a TA update.



Today, a bowl died.

I am not talking about just... dying. Dishes die occasionally around here, and it is nothing to post about. But this bowl was different.

This bowl suffered.

This bowl envied the dead.

This bowl had 5 different colors of mold in it.

This bowl, in the end, had to be put out of its misery.

This bowl, in the end, begged, to be put out of its misery.


My brother brought it out of his room today. My theory is that it found its way under his bed or hid someplace. There it was assaulted by the mold. There were 5 different colors of mold on it. See picture, below.


As you can see, there is blue mold, white mold, black mold, gray mold, and yellow mold. The yellow is on top of some white to the left of the picture. It may be hollandaise. The only problem with that theory is my brother does not eat hollandaise, and, well, I haven't made hollandaise for at least eight months. So unless my brother secretly knows how to make hollandaise- or even likes hollandaise- and for some reason puts it on his spaghetti- on top of the white mold- I doubt it is hollandaise.

A moment of silence for the bowl, a courtesy not afforded such deaths as Bambi, whom suffered weeks with a horribly painful blockage of his urinary tract. Bambi was just a goat.

This was a bowl which was with us for over eight years.

Church This Week

So, my Daddy didn't make it to church this week. His excuse? Hmm. I think it was "I gotta cover up the hay for four hours!" That's good though.

As, this has been the best day of church yet. There were a lot of people- I surmise they are coming down from summer vacation- and I met one new person, named Santa. He has some children, I do not know how many. One of them is named Huey.

Last week, I asked Pastor RJ if they had a church directory. "Sure, sure, Kev," he said wearily. "Actually, next week, we'll have one made up juuust for you. With the addresses blanked out..." My grin froze as I processed it. "Ahahaheheh," I laughed nervously after a few seconds. He walked away. I shrugged.


It's sort of a small church, and if three people stand side-by-side width-wise in the entrance-room, it blocks the path. So when you're making your way through there, typically there are people on one side, and typically you're walking with someone. So you block the way. Then someone talks to you, so you have to stop. It's a constant battle of watching your back, and not blocking the way- that is, letting people through when they need through. But they're getting stopped by people, too. It's like a really slow freeway with hundreds of arms attempting to grapple you.

So, I had just looked. Then someone elbows me out of the way. It turns out it's a guy whose name I won't disclose. He mumbles, "Out of my way," angrily, and storms past. Then he stops and says, "just kidding" and shakes my hand. Rofl. I am glad there is someone there who shares my sense of humor. He is somewhere around my Dad's age, but I relate to older people better. Young people, all sorts of things in their heads I am not sure of. They're all like, "hey man, let's get stoned!" then they crack that stupid joke about Saudi Arabia.


I caught up with him, and told him I thought someone was trying to kill me (as he shoved past). He got a kick out of that. "Well, hah, I get that all the time. I used to be a trained assassin, actually." "Wow, really?!" "Yeah. That was back when I was Catholic. When the Pope needed someone...removed from office, I was the public petition he signed for their...impeachment. I wasn't the only one, he had a lot of people "dropped into the pit," as he called it."



He has a daughter with an awesome name. She's like, three or something. Everyone was chatting and such, so Pastor RJ forwent the singing. He said that, due to "certain peoples'" gross exaggeration (at this point he looked to me, indicating everyone should follow my example), our fellowship was probably more pleasing to the Lord. I've never seen so many people talking to each other in such a small space. The room is a good size, but...with all the tables and chairs, whew.


Anyway, the last time I had this much fun at church, my brother and Dad did not go to church. And this time, they did not go to church.

I think the problem- and I am not yet discounting the possibility it is their very presence there- is the constant "bickering" that goes on when me and my brother are in the same car. You see, when a parent says something normally not discouraging or annoying in ANY way, then a sibling adds "YEAH KEV," it compounds it, and at the same time, makes it as bad as if that parent had said it, as that parent does not retract the statement in any way. You know, approving the statement by silence.

That's annoying. It totally, and completely, guts the whole purpose of church (merrymaking; or at least not being in a horrible mood!). This week I felt very happy, like I felt the first week I went to church. The following weeks were dismal- not so much the church, but the car ride there.

So, I think I will begin driving in a separate car (Al Gore would be rolling around in his grave!). The 1989, 8-cylinder Ford (Al Gore's grave would catch fire from friction from the speed of his rolling at this point!). I also like to listen to KLove on the way to church. My Dad dislikes Christian music (all music, but he only has occasion to hate Christian music), so we don't listen to it much on the way there. It is, to me, I suppose, a way of preparing myself for fellowship at church. Hopefully, if we drive in separate cars, it will bypass the annoyance.




I'll post soon about KLove. There's a story to tell. Anyways, after church, me and my Mom went to Walmart. I got a new pillow. Now, the cheap pillows cost $5. The good pillows cost $15. I got a $15 pillow. It is three times the size of my old pillow (also, three times firmer, so it is actually sixteen times the size of my old pillow!). I am already sleeping much better- I don't have a headboard on my bed, as I need access to the closet;

The closet does not have doors on it, so there is a wall at the head of my bed for a few feet, then air (the closet begins). A 2-foot-wide pillow hits this walless section, and spins. This pillow is 3 feet wide, so it does not spin at all. It is great. All the pillows had pictures of women sleeping on them. These women seemed to have thought ahead enough to slip into a revealing (comfort is the word!) nightgown, yet forgot to cover themselves up with a blanket and/or sheet.

Being the savvy buyer I am, I looked for the woman who looked the most comfortable. Now, for being asleep, a lot of them were smiling. I assume they must have been dreaming of how sweet their sleep was with that wonderful pillow they were resting their head on. So, now the question was, "who is having the best dream?"

I selected one of the biggest pillows. I figure, if there is more space to rest your head, there is a higher chance of dreaming a dream of how sweet your sleep is with this wonderful pillow you are resting your head on. Yes. Savvy defines me in five golden-blue letters.

Also, I got a lollipop. I know what you're thinking. "Lol, Kev buying a lollipop." Well, this one said, "Sour Green Apple."

What does "sour" mean to you? Does it mean, "corn syrup sweet?" It doesn't? Oh, wow. Because this lollipop has NO SOUR AT ALL. It's SO sweet, the only thing I can compare it with is banana flavored ice cream. Yuck, yet I respect your tastes if you like it. It is "Carousel" brand. I just love those sour blow pops. So you could imagine how bitter I became at Carousel brand. You know, maybe that's it- you're so angry that the lollipop is not sour at all, you become sour yourself.

I am kinda worried that I am so upset over a lollipop not being sour.




I took some pictures on the way there, and a 20-foot section of road was being rained on (lol!. Here is a picture I took of an 18-wheeler. I did not realize it at the time, but...have you ever heard of people taking a picture, then, upon reviewing it, learning there was something there they did not intend to photograph? Like, a ghost? Well...if you look below...


A DEMON IS DRIVING IT! You can see him there in the window! He is pointing at me, even! I can't tell if he has four horns, four ears, two horns and two ears, or if that's badly drawn anime hair hairday manifesting itself! Oh, my! I wonder what Satan would transport in an 18-wheeler? Possibly a vat of evil! What if it spilled?! It would create a crater of darkness and despair!


...anyway...I almost didn't go to church this week. I am very glad I did, and this was a lesson for me. I struggled with, if to go or not, and I thought about it this way: if I go, I will not *regret* it. But if I don't go, I will. They'll miss me. Plus Pastor RJ had that church directory for me. It isn't very informative, I guess they just put the church members' names? Huh.

Friday, July 6: Thunderstorm

Sorry, this is a few days late. Correct date would be July 6th. Welcome the "YES" tag, for when I score a certain victory, am vindicated, win the lottery, or something I really approve of happens. You know how my tags go; sometime there'll be a "NO" tag. Actually, "Dammit" probably does it.

Last Friday, we brought home the kittens, Lyndon (after the President, I don't know yet why I chose it) and Popo. We're not sure if we'll spell it Poepoe, or Popoe, or just Popo. I like Popoe more- sounds less stupid.

Anyway, onto the point of this post. We had the first rain in, according to FOX 10 News, 74 days! Yay!!!



It was a thunderstorm. It moved it very quickly once it got started, and darkened the sky. Below is the first picture, taken right around 6:20 PM, looking directly east...you know, the side of the sky the sun rises from, dude.

Here the storm is just making its way over to us- I had just noticed it. It is picking up speed and getting fuller. Below is another picture, taken at 6:35 or so PM facing south-west.

If you can't grasp directions, north is "forward," west is left, east is right, and south is "backwards." That means...oh, if you can't grasp it, you're too stupid. MORON!

As you can see, it has a likeness to Death Mountain from the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time. Great, right? I'll take a picture of that mountain some day. It's basically a rather large mountain with a ring of menacingly dark, harrowing clouds winding around it. Get it? Winding? Cloud humor! Laugh, man!

By the way, if you haven't figured it out, the pictures are much bigger when you open them up in another window. They are much easier to see that way, as well. Oh, but look at me, carrying on like a school girl.

It's clear that it isn't as bad to the west as it is the east. So the storm was blowing in from New Mexico or some such. Taken directly after this, likely the same minute, is this photo below of a dust storm forming! I like dust storms! One of two things I like about summer. One, winter is soon. Two, dust storms.

So, we called my Dad and warned him. He got to covering things up. Good too, because it did hit. Below is a photo taken at our gate, facing directly west at the sun. I was right, and the picture did look pretty. My Mom didn't think it would. Not that she is any expert, like I are.


Yes, I think that pointy cloud is the Death Mountain cloud again (now it looks roughly like a hookshot). I like this picture. Anyway, once we got most of the food inside (we got stuff to make gumbo, broccoli casserole, chicken casserole, and coconut chicken- not necessarily all at the same time, recipes sometime), the dust hit.

It hit hard. The air filled with it- it being dust. It had sand in it as well, apparently, because it hurt my eyes. It was thick. One of the thickest dust storms we've had; it didn't last long, however. Maybe 5 minutes. It was so terrible, I did not take pictures. I will when we have the new camera. Below is a picture of the sky at 7:15 to 7:25 PM. Not sure. Anyway, it is juuust about to rain.


I could post pictures of "blurry lights"- or drops of rain, but that is not a feast for the eyes, or a low blow to purpose. So I won't. It began raining shortly after this, and rained until 7:45, I think. It probably sprinkled throughout the night. Below is the highlight!

See? I actually got a shot of lightning! Isn't that awesome? Here is a closeup, in which I messed with the contrast/brightness levels:

Hah! Take that, Napoleon! My Dad thought it was hopeless. "Kev, you'll never get a picture of a lightning bolt! Those things are faster than your slothlike reflexes! Give up! Loser! Poser! Idiot!" the next thing he hears, "I got it!" followed by "IN YOUR FACE! HAH! WHO'S THE LIBERAL NOW, LIBERAL?! OH, WE SHOULD JUST CALL YOU LIBBY FROM NOW ON!"

The three bolts flashed for a second or so. The average start of the monsoon is July 7th. I will catalog every storm we have this year, both on-blog and on-computer. I will then make a post with this years storms, with links, with some storms nicknamed or named. Anyway, time to go. It is 9:47 PM on July 9th.

The kittens both are in my room. I soon call them, will, "furry alarm clocks." Shudderingly.

Dear Diary: Water Day, June 27

Dear diary,
Today I went to the well and got 1,000 gallons of water. I had gone yesterday and gotten 500 gallons, as well as 500 gallons for my neighbor, Thirsty Wolf. He was running very low- haha, not to the ground! He isn't really a wolf! So, I went a day early. I got him another 500 gallons today. It appears he has a 500-gallon-a-day leak. Poor fellow; we need to contact him about it.

The people who lost their keys last Monday (June 25th) still haven't found them- or at least, have not pulled down their signs. They have a lot of them up. I guess they really want to find them? They are on a yellow keyring. I looked a bit around the well, but I assume they have already been found, probably on Monday, and the people who found them will go back next Monday and things will be straightened out. I feel bad for them!

As for me, I almost left my keys at the well only once, and I've gotten water over 145 times! And that was a long shot at losing my keys. Lately, it's starting to heat up, so the well trips are getting more dramatic. In Phoenix it's 112. Very hot, right? Kind of. Out here, it's 116. There are huge differences in heat between 112 and 113, and 114, etc., thermometers do not capture it. I long for winter. Oh, thy frozen lips, sweet Lady Winter...


Sadly, my computer continues to spiral in its pattern of slowness, much like a turtle missing both of its right-hand legs, continues in circles, unpreventable without intervention. I can't say I exactly know why, or even that I have a "draft" idea; it seems possible I downloaded something harmful. I don't recall visiting any new websites, bar news sites. I did download quite a bit, but that was whilst trying to fix the problem in the first place.

Even switching tabs in Firefox causes slowdown occasionally. Ironically, it does not have CPU usage problems anymore. Switching windows really causes slowdown; I am beginning to propagate a "burn" folder. I will copy all my programs, hand-picked ones which I an enamored of, such as Celtx, Firefox, OpenOffice, TextTally, Audacity, BiblePro...among other such instances. My Documents contains all text and pictures, so I am clear in that respect.

Chiefly, I am selecting programs such as OpenOffice, which is about 90 MBs. I do not want to download that again. And music- especially Portable Sounds by tobyMac, as the album is terridly scratched, not by me of course. Speaking of which, I have not copied dc Talk's album Jesus Freak to my computer yet...and terrid is a mix of the words terrible and horrid, which I made up, but turns out is an unofficial word, or better known as "slang" term. Hehe. Come to think of it, Music is in My Documents.

I attempted to create backup discs again, to no avail. It says "error 20." It burns the disc, then whilst checking it something goes wrong. I believe I can circumvent making the discs- that they are just if I want the extra hard drive space. I will do a "destructive" reinstallation. I do not like the idea of a "ghost" copy of my old system on my new system- what is the point, bar mental clutter? One of my concerns is saving my Firefox history- I don't know if it's possible, but I know I can save bookmarks, and I will be saving those, of course.


The gleaming, silver lining under this cloud of computer troubles and heat, or, the good news, is that last night, I downloaded the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Wii's Virtual Console. It is so beautiful! It just shines; not in a biased way. It looks great...not terrific. I suppose my main problem with playing "old" N64 games is not graphics (rare instances), but the paddle. I am disturbed by how loose the analog stick is- frankly, I am astonished it allows control of any sort!

I opt to play with the Gamecube controller over the Classic Controller; I have had that controller since the start, since I first played Super Mario Sunshine. It is black, along with my old black, now-bricked (I assume) Gamecube. I am going to use it as a bookshelf end if I ever get a bookshelf. I need one.

I recall I proposed I would download a Metroid game for the Virtual Console's maiden download, but the next Metroid game will most likely be Super Metroid, and I do not want to play that until after I play Metroid Prime: Corruption and Metroid Prime: Hunters, as Hunters takes place betwixt Metroid Prime 1 and 2, and Super Metroid takes place after Metroid Prime: Corruption.

My heart sinks considering just what comes after Metroid Prime: Corruption. I hope for another 3D game in the same design, and truth be told I do not see another way it can be done, but there was a 10-or-so year gap between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. I am working off of memory, here, diary, I may be wrong about that order and duration.

My fear is, of course, another pause. I suppose they could recreate the Prime series as 2D platformers, or even switch the series exclusively to handhelds for a duration...either option I would prefer over a complete shutoff of the Metroid series spigot. Also, they could recreate the 2D platformers into 3D. Wouldn't that be something, diary- the 2D games coming into 3D, and the 3D games going 2D!

I am not barring the possibility that they will translate all the Metroid series titles into 4D.


Some more bad news, I have a sore throat. You know how these things go, diary. It will either clear up, or I'll die. Or wish I was dead.