I am so glad that I mastered the Mystical Ninja Art of Meknowsleep, which gave me the super power of being able to go a long time on very little sleep. Because I can't sleep.

Normally I would be sleeping by now. Normally I get home around 7:30 and am in bed by 8. So, as I said I should be asleep dreaming about taking over the world by now. Instead I am awake typing this.

Why am I typing this you ask? Do I suffer from Insomnia?

First of all, I don't suffer from insomnia. I enjoy it. that is part of the reason I became a master of the Mystical Ninja Art of Meknowsleep; so that I wouldn't have to sleep as much as a normal person.

Second of all, the reason I can't sleep is because of the stupid construction crew that is remodeling my building. They are outside, working away at the windows on the apartment right above me. Pounding away at nails and tearing up siding. Pounding hard enough to make the walls shake. In fact Superion just fell off the AC (or rather the cheap knock off of him that Casey found for me.) It's only a matter of time before Defensor and the Oust fan I have up there falls too.

Needless to say that it is next to impossible to fall asleep right now. I have slept through louder noises, including a branch that was about 6 inches around falling about 20 feet and landing less then a foot from my head while camping. but falling asleep is a little harder when it is noisy.

Sounds like they are mostly done (I hope) So I'm going to try to get some sleep. hope I'm catching Zs before 10.

On a quick side note that has noting to do with this, while the Defensor figure is a horrible knock off color wise, the Superion is actually pretty close to the real thing. of course they are both made of rather low quality plastic and don't fit together the best, which is rather common with knock offs, but I have been very impressed appearance wise with him.

Also, just because I am a Transformers fan and have to get my nerd on, Obviously the reason why Superion fell first, despite being made up of jets, he fell because Silverbolts fear of heights was too strong and disrupted the thrusters they use to stay up there all this time, causing them to go crashing to the ground.

Also, in the time it took me to type this, they have apparently finished, and Defensor did fall as well, but the Christmas Tree caught him. Looks like it's a good thing I didn't take it down yet. Sure he could have used his force field, but why use something that takes a huge amount of energy when you can just fall into a tree?

So True It's Scary

I think this explains why I am still in the Deli

Holy Crap its cold out!

I just got back from Walmart, and not only is it cold temp wise, it's also ultra windy.

It's cold enough to give you brain freeze just by walking out the door.

Castro Resigns

From the Star Tribune

Fidel Castro resigns Cuban presidency after nearly half-century in power

Updated: 02/19/08 - 5:15 AM

An ailing Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba's president Tuesday after nearly a half-century in power, saying he was retiring and will not accept a new term when the new parliament meets Sunday.
rule

Does this mean I'm going to have to retake the "What Dictator Are You?" quiz on face book?

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!

Apparently I'm not supposed to spend a day relaxing. it seems that ever day over the last few weeks I've been doing something. First I had to empty out the cabinets so they could put new ones in. As a result I've spent the last few weeks sleeping on the futon in my living room because most of that crap in on my bed. I could have moved it all off, but my schedule has forced me to keep it in the boxes and dig out what I need as I need it. I can't put it all back yet because they are supposed to be putting my stove in today, so I figured I would wait until it was in.

Guess not.

The next thing blocking me from doing that is the fact that they were supposed to put in the new closet doors, so I had to clear out room for them to get them in and installed. Much like the cabinets, they showed up late and took longer then predicted. So I can put stuff back in the cabinets now, right?

Think again.

Finally had a couple of days where no work was being done on my apartment, but instead I spent them making Beef and Chicken Jerky or going to a movie and hanging out with Rae. Not that I am complaining about either of those. I got to conduct some experiments with different flavors of Jerky and spend time with Rae. How could I complain.

So I finally had a couple of days where, except for the No Reservations marathon, I had nothing planned. I figured that, since my stove is (was?) supposed to be here today I would make room for that and if they showed up to do my windows, I would ask them to come back on Wednesday, when I am at work. that way I won't be in there way and they won't be in mine. No problem, right?

Wrong.

Turns out the only time they can do it is "tomorrow afternoon," which for them means it will be late tomorrow after noon or Wednesday. But since they want to do it tomorrow, I have to get stuff moved around to make room for them tonight and tomorrow. Which of course means that instead of moving stuff into my cabinets tonight and tomorrow, I will be making room for them to do work in my apartment. I will have to clean out one box, since it is the one my Christmas Tree came in and I will need to take that down to make room for them, but a lot of the crap in the way will have to go on my bed.

I might get to sleep in my bed by the end of the month.

Toy Fair is going on and Alterd States has pics. Looks like there will be some cool looking G.I. Joe toys coming out, and a Build-A-Figure like thing where you can build the MASS Device from the cartoon. always cool. And I might finally be able to replace Serpentor's Chariot, which I had when it first came out, but lost most of it. That original one is now just a Green Goblinesq glider, so Serpentor will finally be able to fly around in all his regal glory I must have this toy, THIS I COMMAND!

Sorry. Had to have a Fanboy Moment there.

Marvel's upcoming toys look pretty good too. Lots of Iron man stuff (big shock there) But they look cool. They even have some Superhero Squad figures that look cool and (as far as I can tell from the pics) doesn't have the stupid grin! I also like the N.R.F. 425 Blaster simply because of the name. They could have hidden the fact that it is a Nerf gun, but instead they hid the fact in the toys name. Don't know about anyone else, but I thought that was kind of cool.

Of course there is new Legends figures, including World War 2 Captain America! Looks like Electra will also be in the line, but I have no idea who that black and yellow ninja guy is. And in case anyone is wondering (and I'm sure no one is) the Build-A-Figure this year is Fin Fang Foom.

They also have pics of Marvel Transformers, which apparently are the same concept of the Star Wars Transformers. Can't wait to get those,especially since the last ones, made by Toybiz, rather sucked. Also pictured were pics of figured from the upcoming Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon. They look pretty cool, although I'm not sure about the cartoon version of Doctor Octopus, and from the looks of the pics, Peter Parker takes hair tips from Jimmy Neutron.

The only real disappointing part (so far) is the lack of Transformers pics. They had plenty of pics of the Universe and Classics yoys, but that is about it. And while they look cool (Powerglide needs more red, but still looks cool), I was hopping for more Animated toys. Atleast there was a bunch of new Robot Heroes figures, which includes Beast Wars! And since there are (hopefully) more pics to come, there still might be some Animated pics to come.

If this is any indication of the things to come, it will be a good year for toy fans :)

YAY!

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations marathon all day today on Travel Channel!

Only way it could be better is if it was a Good Eats marathon.

Now mack to your normal surfing.

Darkness Descends

This story is part 2 of The Sacrifice, a 5 part series that is a sequel to The Siege and started in A New Day Dawns.

Darkness Descends

Two months had passed since that horrific night, and though the memory of the battle loomed heavy in our minds, we knew that we had to get on with our lives. The spring celebration drew near, a time when we celebrate the return of life after the long winter and ask the Dagda to bless the seed that we plant in the fields, that they may produce an abundance. Preparations began in earnest and despite the sorrow that still lingered over Caer Flaunys, we all began to laugh again as the day of the celebration approached.

The day arrived and the Great King opened the celebration with a prayer. Games were played, races run, and as night fell, the feast. And while the dead were missed, as were the Knights, we began to forget out sadness. We began to laugh again.

I was a look out that first alerted us to the problem. Not by sounding a horn or shouting a warning, but by his body crashing though a table filled with food, and arrow in his neck. The laughter and music died as I ran towards him. One look at the arrow was all I needed to see as I sounded the call to arms.

My men sprang into action, most gathering their weapons and donning armor as the rest hurried the women, children, and elderly to what we hoped as the safety of the king’s hall. As I stood with my men, memories of that night rushed back to my mind as I saw them.

In a scene eerily reminiscent of the last battle, I saw the same black armor, the same twisted swords, the same glowing red eyes as the army of darkness tried to enter, to once again foul this place with their presence.

My men gathered in the courtyard, ready for battle. As important as the last battle was, this one was more so.

We could not fail.

Mushroom Kingdom

This story is part 1 of Final Level, an 8 part series. it is a sequel to Pine Creak Murders

Mushroom Kingdom

Helen Parker opened her eyes and couldn’t believe what she saw. She was in a land she knew well from her childhood. A land she would recognize anywhere. Despite it was in 3D, there was no denying where she was.

She was in the Mushroom Kingdom.

World 1-1 of the first Super Mario Brothers game to be exact. She had played the game so many times when she was younger. She could probably play this level blind folded.

As she looked around the brightly colored 8-bit world, she tried to think of how she got here. The last thing she remembered was being stabbed. As she fell to the ground, holding the wound in her stomach, she recognized the face of her attacker as her boyfriend knocked its hood off. It was Wendy Landis, someone she worked at the bank with. She remembered hearing screams as Peter called 911 and him holding her, telling her to hang in there as everything faded to black.

She didn’t know how she ended up in the Mushroom Kingdom, but figured it must be a dream. And while she didn’t know much about dreams, Helen figured she might as well see where it went. She knew enough to know that even if she fell down a pit, she would wake up before she hit the bottom.

She jumped on top of the first Goomba she saw, feeling it flatten beneath her feet. She jumped up and hit a question mark block with her fist. It hurt a bit, but she heard e familiar “ding” and was rewarded with a coin.

Helen continued through the level, stomping on enemies and gathering coins. She was a bit disappointed that none of the power ups she found had an effect on her, but she was having too much fun to worry about it too much.

About half way through the level, she stopped and looked around. As she did, she felt the ground beneath her Helen looked around and saw why; a giant version of Bowser was heading her way, destroying everything in his path. But what was he doing here? Bowser wasn’t supposed to show up until world 1-4 and he wasn’t nearly this big. This Bowser reminded her of a small Godzilla.

She ran as he gave chase. She saw the flag pole getting closer, knowing that she was close to the end, hoping she could seek shelter in the castle.

At the top of the stairs she jumped for the flagpole but missed, landing between the stairs and a large wall. It was too big to jump out of.

Panicked she tried desperately to find some way out. This wasn’t part of the level. She had played this level millions of times and there was nothing like this here.
Before she could do anything else, she saw a shadow fall over her. Helen looked up ad saw Bowser standing at the top of the stairs. He fell down towards her and she barely avoided him. He was smaller now, but just as fearsome.

Bowser swatted at her, knocking Helen against the stairs. As she lay on the ground she saw him jump into the air, flames escaping from his closed mouth. The last thing she saw was him plummeting towards her.



The nurse checking on Helen screamed as her body shook as if a heavy weight had been dropped on her. As her head hit the pillow, blood sprayed out of her mouth and she flat lined.

Other nurses ran into the room and the three were horrified as they watched a symbol appear to be burned onto Helen’s forehead.

The symbol was one they all recognized.

It was the Ullrich family crest.

I have achieved a first on Face Book. I am the only person on Facebook with the job of Megalomaniac! Everyone else probably have boring ones like lawyer, neural surgeon, test pilot, or president of the united states. But I'm the only Megalomaniac :)

This just sounds fun. I want to do it. Not so much to protect me from a world of idiots. I rather enjoy mocking them. I just want to roll myself up in bubble wrap and then roll down a hill listing to the bubbles pop as I go.

If nothing else I want that much Bubble Wrap just to play with :)
(on a side note)

A friend sent this as a MySpace bulletin the other day. I was never a big fan of the guy's, so that isn't why I am posting this. It's because of the last paragraph.

Is he going to need a bigger casket? Okay, sorry, bad joke at a time like this.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Roy Scheider, the actor best known for his role as a police chief in the blockbuster movie "Jaws," has died. He was 75.

Scheider died Sunday at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital in Little Rock, hospital spokesman David Robinson said. The hospital did not release his cause of death.

However, hospital spokeswoman Leslie Taylor said Scheider had been treated for multiple myeloma at the hospital's Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy for the past two years.

Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss starred in the 1975 movie, "Jaws," which was widely hailed as the film that launched the era of the Hollywood blockbuster. It was the first film to earn $100 million at the box office.

In 2005, one of Scheider's most famous lines in the movie — "You're gonna need a bigger boat" — was voted No. 35 on the American Film Institute's list of best quotes from U.S. movies.

That year, some 30 years after "Jaws" premiered, hundreds of movie buffs flocked to Martha's Vineyard, off the southeastern coast of Massachusetts, to celebrate the great white shark that terrified millions of moviegoers.

The island's JawsFest '05 also brought back some of the cast and crew, including screenwriter Carl Gottlieb and Peter Benchley, who wrote the novel that inspired Steven Spielberg's enduring classic.

Spielberg, Scheider, who played a police chief, and Dreyfuss, who played an oceanographer, were absent from Jawsfest '05. Co-star Robert Shaw, who played Quint, died in 1978.

Scheider also participated in rallies protesting U.S. military action in Iraq, including a massive New York demonstration in March 2003 that police said drew 125,000 chanting activists.

I would like to point out that this is the official Associated Press pres release about his death. The fact that they chose to end it with a paragraph about him protesting the war in Iraq says a lot. They could have said something about the other movies he has been in, any awards he has won or the roles he played over the course of his career. They could have talked about the family he leaves behind.

Instead they chose to go with a paragraph about how he participated in an anti war rally. If he had dedicated his life after Jaws to protesting war, then I could understand it. But the way it is written almost seems like that is the only other thing he did. He was in Jaws, and then he protested the war. and like I said, the fact that they chose to use that as the last paragraph of the press release says a lot.

It tells you exactly what the AP thinks about the war, and that they are trying to ram their anti-war agenda down our throats, which shouldn't be a surprise by this point.

We have new owners in the apartment complex I live in. And with the new owners came remodeling. This includes new cabinets and counter tops, as well as sinks. This is good because the old ones had been there since the place was built in 1974 and not much had been done to them since (I took some before pics and will be taking some after pics. Will post them sometime in the next week or so. There is some other stuff that is going to be done, but for now all that has been done in my apartment is that.

So why am I posting about this now instead of when I have the after pics and am ready to post all those? Simple. Because I have to complain about the people putting them in. Last night, shortly after getting back from dinner with Rae, they knocked on my door and asked when a good time to put them in would be. I said when ever they wanted to. After doing some checking they said that they would be in to do them around 9 AM and that it wouldn't take to long.

So I woke up early with the thought that I would go to the Fiend for Breakfast while they put them in. 9 passed and while I knew they were there (I could hear them banging around in the hallways) they hadn't arrived. Noon came and went and still nothing. I know cable installation guys who are better then this. They might say they will be there some time that morning, but at least they will be there that morning.

Finally the guys showed up around 3 and said it would take about two hours. So I decided to head out, run some errands, get something to eat (all my stuff is packed away so they can put in the new cabinets, so I can't even make a sandwich.) I was gone for a little over an hour (it was 4:14 when I walked in) and they were still working on them. No big deal. They still have 45 minutes.

Here's the problem though. As I am typing this, it is 5:54. They still aren’t done (the counter tops are either not in here or not attached.) The door to my apartment, as well as the building is wide open, (I'm guessing it is somewhere between 10 and 15 degrees out) and they have been standing around talking since about 5:30!



They finally started working again, or at least I can hear them working outside, and one of them just walked in to take some measurements, but this is ridiculous. I'm glad I ate a late lunch, because I doubt I will even beagle to start on supper before 6:30 (good thing I got some Pizza.) You can tell these guys are getting paid by the hour.

The cabinets look nice, even in their unfinished state. Much better then the old ones. But they are doing a terrible job of time management and scheduling.






Update: 6:15: They are finally done and out of here. The new cabinets and counter tops look nice and I love the new sinks and the counter top in the bathroom. It is much better then the old one. After pics have been taken and will be up later this week.

I haven't checked the contests on the Check Mii Out channel on the Wii for a while, so I decided to see what people have come up with. The one for three weeks ago was "The Over Bearing Boss Who Asks You To Come To Work On Your Day Off.". Not surpisingly (in the to 50) there were 7 that were obviously based on Mr Burns. I was a bt surpised that there were none based on Pointy-Haired Boss or Lumbergh, although there was one that looked like it was based on Milton, who isn't a boss.