Trivia win

My team won one of the trivia contests tonight!

Rod was not at trivia night tonight. Apparently one of his aunts died. Alan was there (clean shaven) and was sitting with Darrel and Mona's team so I joined them. With Alan and I, our team numbered 8 people. I arrived during the 3rd question of the first contest.

The team changed their name from "SOL" to "3 Dog Night". The reason for this is last week Darrel got confused and verbally answered "3 Dog Night" to the question, "Who had a hit with the song 'Joy to the World'?" The question was a written question and not a 'quarters' question to be answered verbally. Ooopps. So the team decided to change the team name until we win a contest as it has been a long time since they last won. It worked as we won tonight.

In the first contest our team didn't do well as we only got 13 correct to be just above the middle of the pack of about 10 or so teams. The winning team (the lawyers/judge) won with 16 answers correct. They got applause for winning tonight, as so did we when we won.

For the second contest we tied with the lawyer/judge team with 19 correct. Because they won the first contest, we then won the second contest without having to go through a tie-breaker question with them. This was good as Darrel's team always loses the tie-breaker question.

Sample questions from the first contest:

1. What were Maude and Walter's last name on the TV show, Maude?
2. What was burnt at the beginning of the TV show, Bonanza?
3. What TV show featured the June Taylor Dancers?
4. Who was the "It" girl?
5. What animal is on the symbol for medicine?
6. What are the two items used for Frosty the Snowman's eyes and nose?
7. What continent has the world's second largest desert?
8. Which pirate has a parrot named Captain Flint?
9. What is the name of the swamp in the comic strip, Pogo?
10. Lieutenant generals have how many stars?
    

Answers:

1. Findlay
2. A map
3. Jackie Gleason show
4. Clara Bow
5. Snake
6. Coal and button
7. Antarctica
8. Long John Silver
9. Okefenokee Swamp
10. Three
    

Ed had the wrong answer for the world's second largest desert. He said it was in Australia. Our team guessed Antarctica and I had lobbied for Asia the home of the Gobi Desert. We all thought the Sahara Desert is the world's largest desert. Checking on the internet I find Antarctica is the world's largest desert and the Sahara is the second largest. The Gobi is the fourth largest. (Link to list of largest deserts)

In the second contest the questions were:

1. Porn star Marilyn Chambers appeared on what household product?
2. What was James Dean's last movie?
3. In Orson Welles' version of 'War of the Worlds', in what U.S. state did it occur?
4. Captain Howdy is the imaginary playmate and demon in what scary movie?
5. Who did Christ raise from the dead?
   
6. ___ and the Dreamers had what dance named after them?
7. Name the artist who had a hit with the song, "Eat It"
8. Mason Williams had what huge instrumental hit song?
9. What do oviparous animals do?
10. Pennies are 97.6% of what metal?
11. What is comedian Charley Weaver's real last name?
12. Who was Bison Bill's friend?
13. In the Beverly Hillbillies TV show, what was the name of the bank where they put their money?
14. What camera did Paul Simon mention in his hit song, Kodachrome?
15. Whose first hit song was, "It's Not Unusual"?
16. In the nursery rhyme, who did the chimp marry in June?
17. Joey Stivic was whose grandson?
18. Who played Daniel Boone on TV?
19. Barnabas Collins was on what TV show?
20. What was the Beverly Hillbillies hometown?
    

Answers:

1. Ivory soap
2. Giant
3. New Jersey
4. The Exorcist
5. Lazurus
   
6. Freddie and the Dreamers ("The Freddie")
7. Weird Al Yankovic
8. Classical Gas
9. Lay eggs
10. Zinc
11. Arquette
12. Buffalo Bob
13. Commerce Bank
14. Nikon
15. Tom Jones
16. The Baboon
17. Archie and Edith Bunker
18. Fess Parker
19. Dark Shadows
20. Bugtussle

The only question we got wrong was number 11. Then once I heard the correct answer I remembered he was the grandfather of actors Patricia, Rosanna, Alexis, Richmond and David Arquette. I knew a number of correct answers, but for questions number 4 and 10 I convinced the team to use my answers even though they had doubts.

The prize for winning is a $20 drink certificate which we will use later.

A member of our team won one of the 'quarters' questions and got as a prize a nice metal shot glass with a head and antlers on one end - or we think it is a shot glass. At the end of the last contest I couldn't remember the question and answer for which he won the shot glass, and neither could he.

Mona won the final 'quarters' question and won $24 in the bucket. The question was, "what rank in size is the country of Indonesia?" Answer: 15th. Wikipedia says 16th. An earlier question as to how many islands make up Indonesia comes up with "five large islands and 13,677 smaller islands" to "17,508". Ed said 17,000 approximately.

One of our team members brought home made sausage and crackers to go with it. Yum!

Washing machine

When I am not helping mom recover I am fixing stuff around her house. Her washing machine is the latest item to break. It has started to leak.

Mom's washing machine is a Frigidaire, model WC-6B. This is an old model as mom got it in the early 1980s. It is so old that parts are pretty much unavailable. Mom has a service contract for appliance repairs and they couldn't fix the washing machine and could not find parts for it. My internet search only came up with replacement timer for this model.

The agitator in this model moves up and down and not side to side like most models. This is great for getting the laundry clean but the service company's repairmen had never seen a model like this and had no idea how to fix it. I imagine it didn't help when the washing machine was as old or older than he was. I found another (old) repairman in town and he knew of agitators like this but hadn't seen or worked on one in years - and had no interest in doing so.

So, a new washing machine is needed.

Now the washing machine went bad a little while ago. Until I got mom home and things settled I continued to use the leaky washing machine. All I needed to do is have a bucket underneath to catch the water that leaked. Not pretty, but it worked. My brother was unhappy with this arrangement so I washed the clothes until I could check out what was being sold in town and research different machines on the internet.

Reading about washing machines I found that the government had mandated an increase in energy efficiency starting January 2007. Apparently how all the companies met the increase was by using less water and not using as much hot water, even when the setting was for hot. Not a good way to do this. *Apparently* the 2008 models have been modified, else more people are using cold water detergents as it seems the complaints on the internet about this have been less for 2008 models.

I settled on another top load machine and didn't go for a front load model. I weighed the extra cost for a front load model versus the amount of laundry that would be washed.

I also decided on either a Whirlpool machine or a Sears Kenmore machine. If all were equal I would have bought the Whirlpool but the Sears Kenmore went on sale first and at a lower price.

The Sears sale with the sale price and 12% rebate ended Friday so my brother and I bought the new washing machine late Friday afternoon. Snow flurries were falling so the bottom of the box was wet by the time we got it home.

We moved the old washing machine and the dryer in order to install the new washing machine. However once we got the box off the machine we discovered on the machine a large dent halfway down in the left side back corner. *sigh* The cardboard box was fine so someone must have boxed it up like that. Maybe the machine could have been dented without harming the box but I don't know how.

We boxed the machine back up, carried it back up the stairs, and hauled it across town back to Sears. The shipping and receiving guys took the machine back without any problems. They gave me a receipt to take back to the appliance department. The salesman who sold us the machine handled the return though he didn't seen happy about it.

When I bought the machine the salesman really pushed me to buy the Sears service agreement and I refused. He told me that I could cancel the policy within 12 months and get a full refund and that I should buy the agreement in order to get a free service checkup at 11 months and after that cancel the agreement. When I turned the 5 year service plan down he tried to sell me a 3 year plan. No again.

I shouldn't be surprised by his pushiness as even though I had my sights on a model 500 he earlier pushed me to buy the 600 model for $100 more. For the extra $100 I would be able to wash 17 towels instead of 16, and I would get four water level settings and not three.

Anyway... he processed my return through what appeared to be gritted teeth. Then I found out the dented machine was their last machine in stock and they now had to order another one for me. It is suppose to arrive late Tuesday. Here is hoping I don't have to wash clothes before then.

All this capped a day that had not been going well.

Obesity in America

Here are a couple of illustrations I came across showing state-by-state and county-by-county how overweight people are in America.

For Montana the two maps seem not to be in sync with one another. I don't know for what year the data was used for the county-by-county map, but if they are same years as the state-by-state map then I believe the difference between the state data and county data may be because the counties in Montana with a higher obesity rate are less populous counties. Flathead County looks to be in the 19.1 - 20% obese rate. As a whole Montana comes out pretty good compared to most other U.S. states.

Over the past year my BMI has ranged from a little over 22.1 this past summer (when I was hiking a lot) to 23.7 right now with my winter fat. All in the normal range. In fact, never in my life has my BMI been in the overweight stage.

--

New feeling in an old land

Wednesday afternoon I drove around town on errands.

• I dropped off a form for mom's doctor to fill out. Hopefully he is right person so mom can finally order a power wheelchair. Earlier the wheelchair store told me wrong, else I didn't understand, as I tried to have mom's physical therapist fill the form out. That would make sense. But.. the therapist is suppose to give her report to the doctor who then fills the form out. *sigh* Prescriptions, doctors, physical therapists, home evaluations, etc. Government paperwork as Medicare picks up the cost.
• The second place I visited closed 5 minutes before I arrived. *argh!*
• I went to Menards to check on parts for the bathroom,
• Finally Wal-mart to get miscellaneous items.

As I did the errands I drove my brother's old Ford pickup on the highway bypass SE of town. 55 mph. 4 lane divided highway. The sun was still high in the western sky and was bright and warm. A Spring day with possibilities.

As I drove I had a feeling of "newness". Strange, as this was a familiar place. By a "new" feeling, I mean a feeling I have gotten when I have moved to a new town, or else visited a new city for a period of time. Things seem new, fresh, interesting, alive. One notices things instead of being lost in thought as the familiar passes by. But this is Minot - my hometown. How could I have a "new" feeling in my old hometown? Sure, I don't often visit the SE part of town, but I still shouldn't have this feeling of "newness". Maybe I felt this way because it was a nice Spring day.

Anyway, no big deal, I rather like the "newness" feeling. With this feeling there is the promise of tomorrow and of new things. To me it is a pleasurable feeling, a happy feeling.

As I drove I listened to an oldies radio station on AM radio. Familiar songs from the 1960s I hadn't heard in a long while on a radio whose call letters (KRRZ) I remember from my time in Minot decades ago, but whose radio announcers were unfamiliar (naturally). Familiar though was the inane upbeat happy talk with lame humor these radio programs practice. All in all... another mixture of old and familiar with the new.

At Wal-mart I met Takeesha. Or I should say, she came over to say "Hi" to me as I was engrossed with comparing different brands and styles of absorbing pads. Takeesha is a CNA aide at Manor Care. I hadn't seen her since January when she left to complete National Guard training in South Dakota. Takeesha was at Walmart with her 2 year old son. He insisted on holding a small broom instead of letting it lay in the shopping cart.

Takeesha's husband is in the Air Force and recently left for a 1 year assignment in Korea. Being in the military she is not a Minot native and her circle of friends isn't large. Originally from the South she has no family close by. My friend Mark - in the Navy - and I recently communicated about how hard it is on young women when their husbands are on a long tour of duty overseas. With no family or close friends nearby these women get lonely and bored, especially when they have an infant or small child that must care for.

Takeesha is an attractive woman and she was asking about activities I did in Minot. Fortunately her interests are different than mine. She is not into hiking but likes to gamble at the casinos. So I was able to gracefully be non-committal. I felt sympathy for her as it is hard to be far from home in a strange place. Minot is fine, but it is not an exciting place with many activities, and living here is hard on a young person without many friends. Now if she wasn't married I would have made an effort to find out if we had some common interests.

Trivia on a windy day

Tonight I attended trivia night after missing last week's contest. The first contest of the night was half over by the time I arrived.

The wind was howling and pushed me hard during my walk to the bar. Rod just arrived shortly before the trivia contest had started, as with the strong wind, the fastest his Speed Dee delivery truck would travel back from Devils Lake was 55 mph into the wind. Rod said he had the 'pedal to the metal' to get up to 55 mph. Our team's name this night was: Blown Away.

Rod and Alan were with three other people they knew. One of them, Dan, was good at answers and provided over half our team's correct answers in the first contest before he had to leave to pick up his daughter. Still we did poorly as we only got 10 of 20 answers correct. We were still in the middle of the groups in scoring. The winning team only had 15 correct.

We did better in the second contest as we got 15 answers correct. Three winning teams tied with 18 correct. The tie breaker question was: "In what year did the FDA approve the Pill?" The lawyers/judge team (boo!) won as they were closest with a guess of 1962. The correct answer was 1960.

After the first contest, the losing teams applauded the winning team after they won. No one applauded the lawyers/judges team when they won the second contest.

Some of the questions:

1. What is the only word with three consecutive double pair of letters?
2. Elizabeth Blackwell was the first female of what profession?
3. Brown Beauty was ridden by what famous rider?
4. What was the prior name of Hoover Dam?
5. Which mountains divide Europe from Asia?
6. Where was the first oil well drilled?
7. What is the largest grocery store chain?
8. Francisco Goya painted a portrait of what type of maja?
9. In the Stars Wars movie, who found and sold used robots?
10. Who starred in and directed, "Play Misty For Me"?
11. Jimmy Gilmer sang about the Sugar ____?
12. What initialed company is the largest producer of aluminum?
13. Which company is the largest grocery chain in the world?
    

Answers:

1. Bookkeeper
2. Doctor (I knew this having recently watched a western where a young woman wanted to be a doctor like Elizabeth Blackwell)
   
3. Paul Revere
4. Boulder Dam
5. Ural
6. Pennsylvania
7. Safeway
8. Nude. Though someone in the audience knew this answer and also knew he painted a clothed version of the maja.
9. Jawas (after seeing Stars Wars how many times, you'd think I'd remember their name. Instead the best I could come up with were Sand Raiders. Close, but no cigar.
   
10. Clint Eastwood
11. Shack
12. Ed said: Alcoa. I just found out he is wrong as Alcoa is the third largest producer of aluminum.
13. Ed said: Safeway (and so did our team). Rod was certain the correct answer was Wal-mart and just now he sent me a list confirming he was right. Safeway is number three.
    

The "quarters" trivia questions had better prizes this night. Neither I, nor anyone I knew, correctly answered any of them. For the final "quarters" trivia question, "How many times did Bill Withers repeat "I know" in the song "Ain't No Sunshine"?

Answer: 26

My first turkey

Saturday I cooked my first turkey all by myself. I have helped mom cook a turkey in the past, but this year, other than having her give me suggestions, I cooked the turkey and made the dressing.

And the turkey came out well. I was pleased. The only problem was that I didn't start the process until after 2 pm and therefore it was not ready to eat until 9:30 pm. For me, that is not too late for supper. For mom, as she had eaten part of her supper earlier, she had some turkey, etc. for the rest of her supper. For my brother, he didn't have any turkey as he ate his entire supper earlier.

In addition to cooking a 13.5 lb turkey and making dressing, I opened a can of sweet potatoes. I had my hands full and did not cook potatoes and other traditional accompanying dishes.

Now... why did I cook a turkey now? Because I'm never at my mother's place over Thanksgiving, our tradition is to have the "Thanksgiving turkey" on New Year's Day. Because Mom was in Manor Care rehab over New Years, we didn't have the turkey she and my brother had gotten and stored in the freezer. Now that it was the weekend, and none of the nurses and therapists from Home Health would be visiting, and the contractor was (except for one thing) done, now was a quiet time to make the turkey. And it would be nice for mom to have a special meal after eating Manor Care's meals for months.

In addition to making a turkey dinner on Saturday, I:

• shoveled the snow off the sidewalk in front of mom's house
• fixed the handle on the toilet
• washed clothes and bedding
• made rice crispie bars
• washed the pots and pans that didn't fit in the dishwasher
• helped mom
  
• And other odds and ends

By the time I got mom into bed that night I was very tired. So much for taking it easy on a Saturday.

March snow

Saturday it snowed. Well... it is March and is North Dakota so I shouldn't be too surprised. The morning went back and forth between snow and sunshine until later in the afternoon when the sun finally came out to warm enough to melt much of the snow it shone on.

Photo 1 was taken before photos 2 and 3.

Stair lift

Mom's stair lift is installed. I also installed a grab bar to hold onto when moving from the wheelchair to standing for getting on the lift.

The 70s shag carpet will go someday soon. When installing the three mounts that hold the lift beam in place I found the stair steps are actually very good, thick, nice looking wood. But they are not stained and now was not the time to rip up and remove the carpet and stain the wood. The last remodel of the house was done in the 70s before Mom bought the house. The style back then was to carpet everything.

The stair lift was very heavy and it took me, the contractor, and his helper a lot of effort to hold and place the lift in place. At one point the helper moved/set the lift down and smushed the contractor's wrist. His wrist was pretty sore the next day.

Mom actually hasn't used the lift yet. More about that later.

Mom is home

Mom came home from rehab yesterday, Thursday March 13, after 100 days in rehab. She is very happy to be home. The wheelchair ramp is complete, the stair-lift is installed, but there is still work to be done with the trim and sheet rock around the widened doors. Plus some other stuff to get done by the contractor.

Lots of work to be done in establishing a new routine for mom being home so this post will be short (for me).

Trivia Earth

Monday I attended trivia night again. Now that it is Daylight Savings Time there was plenty of daylight as I walked to the bar holding the trivia contests. With our recent warm (near 50 F) temperatures the snow is rapidly melting and I had step around or hop over large water puddles on the roads and sidewalks on my way to the bar. It is feeling more like Spring.

Rod didn't attend. I believe he is busy remodeling his downstairs bathroom. It was just Alan and I for our team.

Alan and I did respectable for only two people on a team. In the first contest we started out well as we only had 1 of the first 10 questions wrong. But it went downhill as we ended up with a score of only 13 of 20 correct. That was good enough for the middle of the pack. First place was a tie between the lawyers/judges team and a team of women. This women team numbered three this night instead of the two who won last week.

The tiebreaker question was:

"In what year was the first photo taken of Earth from space?"

In my mind I was thinking of the famous photo showing the entire view of Earth. "The Blue Marble". I thought the photo was taken in 1967 before man landed on the moon when NASA had one of their spaceflights travel away from Earth and circle the moon. I was wrong in two ways. This photograph was taken in 1972. It didn't matter - I was not part of the tie breaker question.

According to Ed (the host) the correct answer was 1959. Huh? I researched the question on the internet and found that even 1959 is wrong. That was the first photo of the far side of the moon. Apparently the first photo of Earth was taken in 1946 from a V2 missile at an altitude of 65 miles.

The women team won beating the lawyers/judges team as the lawyers/judges guessed 1968 and the women guessed 1962. Hooray.

Alan and I did better in the second trivia contest as we got 16 correct. That was good enough for third place as the winning team had 19 correct. The lawyers/judges team was in second place and were shut out for once. The team that won was a team that didn't win often so people felt good about that.

One of the question we got wrong:

"Who piloted the 'Flying Laboratory'?"

Amelia Earhart. She was delighted when Purdue University, where she had served as aviation consultant and counselor on careers for women since 1935, presented her with a Lockheed Electra so advanced she dubbed it "the flying laboratory." Now she could fulfill her ambition to fly around the world.

Another wrong answer:

"Who was John Reid's secret identity in the comics and on TV?"

The Lone Ranger. We had guessed the Green Hornet.

The mystery bags for correctly answering the 'quarters' questions were pretty lame as usual. I didn't pay attention to half the prizes when people opened the bags and announced what they had gotten. T-shirts, padlocks, glue, altoids, etc.

Initially people weren't smoking too much as the smoke in the bar was tolerable. However by the end of the second contest more people were smoking away. Must have been the stress of the second contest, else they could last any longer without a cigarette.

Mom's house is being remodeled to make it more handicap accessible so I returned home right after the trivia contests were over in order to apply a second coat of stain to one of the new doors.

Lightning map

Here is an interesting map I stumbled across. It shows where lighting strikes over the world. A NASA web site has more information on why lighting strikes where it does, and a few other interesting tidbits about lightning.

No couple needed for marriage in Montana

Montana is the only state that allows a double-proxy wedding, meaning both sides can be no-shows. Kalispell began taking advantage of this quirk about five years ago, when a soldier from Montana, serving in Iraq, wanted to marry his pregnant Italian girlfriend. The soldier’s family asked a lawyer to research a rumor that Montana allowed double-proxy weddings. The answer, to his surprise, was yes.

The law had been on Montana's books for several decades, perhaps to accommodate soldiers during World War II, some theorize.

The law requires that one party in a double-proxy marriage be either a Montana resident or a member of the armed forces on active duty. These marriages are recognized in every state but Iowa.

The cost to the real, albeit absent, bride and groom: $900, of which $50 apiece goes to the proxies, $100 to the judge, $150 to the lawyer-witness; $53 for court fees; $14 for two certified copies of the marriage certificate. The rest goes to a Pennsylvania couple who run a business facilitating proxy marriages.

For the full article, click here.

Who pays on dates

Here is an interesting MSNBC article on date etiquette and paying.

Nearly 74,000 people took this year’s Elle/msnbc.com online survey over three weeks. The respondents were 40 percent female and 60 percent male. The survey sample was large and diverse, but it is not considered nationally representative because it was mainly restricted to msnbc.com readers.

Our Money, Sex and Love survey illustrates that the question of who pays has gotten complicated.

• Almost two-thirds of men, especially younger ones, said they want women to chip in after a few dates.
• Forty-four percent of women are bothered if a man expects them to help pay.
• Fifty-seven percent of women, especially younger ones, always offer to pay (even on the first date), but 34 percent of them are bothered if a man accepts — and 46 percent are bothered if he refuses.

“There are many more pitfalls for males than females,” said Janet Lever, a sociologist at California State University in Los Angeles who helped write and interpret the study.

That’s because some gals who make the modern effort just do it to be polite.

My 2 cents are, unless an arrangement is agreed to before hand, the person who initiates the date and makes the plans would primarily be the payer. If the other person offers to split or cover part of the cost, I usually won't argue. I take her at her word that she is making a sincere offer. To refuse her request could come off as being too controlling.

Either way, as the survey shows, it is a lose/lose situation for guys as the survey find 34% of women get offended if the guy accepts the women's offer to pay and 46% percent get offended if the guy doesn't take them up on her offer. I don't understand why some women get offended when the guy accepts their offer to pay. If the woman is not sincere in her offer to pay, then just say "Thank you" when he pays. It is not polite to offer if you don't mean it.

And what's up with the 44% of women bothered if a man expects them to help pay? Quite a number of women make as much or more as men, and what about equality between the sexes?

“Some women are really feminist in all parts of life — and then revert to the '50s kind of would-be housewife model,” McGuire said.

Plenty of women these days make more than the men they date. Who earns more is starting to matter. A fair amount, a third, of gals believe they should pay more of the dating expenses if they earn more than a guy. But it remains a double standard, since more women, about half, believe a man should pay more if he makes more.

“It’s a totally different world, and it’s an expensive world,” Lever, the sociologist, said. “You can’t go around being a little princess on the pedestal.”

Smokers by state

Here is a list showing for 2006 the percent of people who smoke in each U.S. state.

I was surprised to see there was not too much difference between Minnesota (18.3), Montana (19), and North Dakota (19.6). I thought Minnesota had a lower percent of smokers. For Heaven's sake, Texas has a lower percentage of smokers than Minnesota.

Thinking about it, my view of Minnesota may have been colored in that I lived in Rochester, MN. I have noticed that the higher the income and education level people have, the smaller number of people who smoke. I've noticed that blue collar workers tend to smoke more. Rochester is an abnormal town in that between all the doctors and IBM engineers, the education and income levels are well above normal.

I also was surprised to find California and Idaho ranked second and third lowest. Utah, being the lowest, is no surprise.

Minnesota smokers

If you want to smoke in Minnesota... pretend to be an actor.

A new state ban on smoking in restaurants and other nightspots contains an exception for performers in theatrical productions. So some bars are getting around the ban by printing up playbills, encouraging customers to come in costume, and pronouncing them "actors."

The customers are playing right along, merrily puffing away — and sometimes speaking in funny accents and doing a little improvisation, too.

The smoking ban, passed by the Legislature last year, allows actors to light up in character during theatrical performances as long as patrons are notified in advance.

About 30 bars in Minnesota have been exploiting the loophole by staging the faux theater productions and pronouncing cigarettes props, according to an anti-smoking group.

Why would the Minnesota legislature allow this loophole? Dumb. Dumb. Dumb! If the actors need a cigarette as part of their character, they could act with an unlit cigarette. Here is the full story.

Trivia tie

Monday I attended the trivia night contests again. Alan was already there at a table. Darrel from the SOL team was talking with Al when I arrived. Before the first contest began Rod appeared. Darrel went back to his table to join his SOL team while Rod, Al, and I made up our own team: Bicycle Built for Three.

Rod, Al, and I were in good form and we did relatively well in the first contest. While we only answered 14 of the 20 questions correctly, this was good enough for a first place tie. Still, it was a little disappointing as among the 20 questions was:

"Name the ABC countries of South America."

Initially I answered: Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. Then I thought of Columbia. Hmm.. which one? I decided because Columbia was a larger country we should go with Columbia. Wrong! If we would have answered it correctly - and with my first choice - we would have won that game. *argh!*

The tie breaker question was:

"What year did the first American women, Sally Ride, go into space?"

I knew the answer was 1983 and my team accepted it. My team, and a team of two women, were the only teams with the correct answer. That team and my team had to answer another tie breaker question.

"How fast can a barracuda swim?"

I did not have a clue. Rod thought it was pretty fast and he answered 40 mph. I felt that was too fast but I couldn't come up with any other speed, and since Rod deferred to my Sally Ride answer I deferred to his answer. So we went with 40 mph. The other team answered 33 mph. The correct answer was 30 mph. The other team's answer was closer so they won. Darn! So close!

In the second contest we felt good about our answers. In the end we got 16 correct but this was good enough for only second place. The lawyer/judge team won with 17 correct. They hadn't done well in the first contest but then the judge showed up in time to play the second game and they did much better.

All the prizes for the 'quarters' contests were mystery bags. The contents were lame (how many anti-freeze testers does a person need?) so I didn't put any effort into answering any of the 'quarters' questions.

I stayed around after the trivia contests were over to socialize. Karaoke started and the first singer was very good. He could hit the high notes in the song and had the phrasing down just right. He sang a favorite song of mine, "Wicked Game", originally sung by Chris Isack. The video to the song is also a favorite of mine - it's so sexy!

Most of the karaoke singers this night were good. The Captain wasn't there but another old man sang well. And his song choices were surprising. This old bland looking retired man with short hair and glasses (a pudgy grandfather look) sang southern rock songs by Lynard Skynard ("Gimme Three Steps") and the Almond Brothers ("Whipping Post"). He knew the songs' histories and did pretty good at singing the songs. It was just there was a disconnect between his look and the songs he was singing. Wasn't it a requirement that only young long haired skinny guys be able to sing these songs?

When I couldn't take the smoky atmosphere in the bar any more I left. When I stepped outside I discovered light snow was falling.

Geek test

Here is a Geek Test (http://www.innergeek.us/geek-test.html) to see how much of a geek you are. It has a wide range list of questions related geek behavior.

I did note that "have you ever.." style of questions doesn't pinpoint how much of a geek you are now. One can grow out of geekness. Things I did when younger, and in college, I no longer do. I think the cumulative nature of answers make a person rank higher than they may be. My total of 21.89% is higher than what I think I am now. Oh well...

Wicked Witch

This morning I found another photo from the "Tin Man" TV mini-series I recently watched. The photo is of Azkadellia, the Wicked Witch of the West. She was another reason I liked the Tin Man mini-series. She was an excellent villain.

Azkadellia is a sexy looking bad girl. I liked her golden corset look. It shows off her "ample assets". By the way, her tattoos come alive as flying monkeys.


Anyone know where I can find this golden corset, and a women who would model it for me? heh, heh. She doesn't necessarily have to be 'bad'.

Here are some movie quotes she could practice to get into character for playing at being bad:

• "That little bitch has gone to see the wizard."
• "A little older, a lot smarter, and most definitely still in charge."
• "Do you know how long I've waited to see that look on your face? No phony smile, no brave front... just pure and utter shock. It's probably the most honest gift you've ever given me *mother*. "
• "Learn to love me, mother. Learn to trust me, and I will give you back your throne. Put the crown upon your head and kneel at your feet. The loyal daughter you always wanted."
• [to the Mystic Man] "Well, if it isn't the great and terrible blah blah blah himself."
• [to the Mystic Man] "Not so Great and Terrible now, are you?"
• "Your adventures have a way of getting me into trouble."
  

Science fiction, then and now

I grew up reading science fiction stories and watching science fiction and fantasy movies. Once I graduated from college and went off to work I can't remember reading any more science fiction stories. On the other hand as science fiction has moved more and more into mainstream Hollywood movies I have watched plenty of science fiction movies since then.

Last night I finished watching "Tin Man", a six hour TV mini-series that is a contemporary retelling of the "Wizard of OZ" story. "Tin Man" is a strong blend of science fiction and fantasy that has only a few elements from the original movie. Since the mini-series is six hours long there was more to the story than what was shown in the old movie. Apparently the book's author wrote sequels; and I remember reading some graphic novels that may have been based on those novels. I think elements from those novels made their way into the mini-series as some elements, not from the movie, seem familiar. There was no singing in this mini-series.

As you can see Dorthy, or DG as she is called here, isn't dressed in a dress. This Dorthy is not that feminine. This is a reflection how society has changed between 1939 and now. Other than her long hair, with her clothes and huskier voice, this Dorthy seems more masculine.

I've noticed in TV science fiction movies and shows a number of the scenes are out in nature. This is probably because these shows don't have a huge budget for special effects. But it may also be a conscious attempt to balance the sterile futuristic images. In "Tin Man" there are a number of scenes that take place in forests. As I watched these scenes I liked them. I started thinking, outside of science fiction and fantasy movies, I seldom see extended movie scenes in forests with tall trees. Seems kind of odd, doesn't it? Here I am watching a science fiction movie and the forest scenes are reminding me of my hiking trips. I sit there thinking, "I'd like to hike there" as I watch the movie and forget about the science fiction/fantasy part of the movie.

Another thing I notice now about science fiction is my attitude to it has changed from my younger days. I think that is partly because science fiction has changed over the years, and partly because I have changed.

Science fiction has changed. It has always changed over the years. I remember that I could roughly tell the decade when a science fiction story was written due to its style and subject matter as both changed drastically over time, at least up until the 1980s when I fell away from reading science fiction stories. Still, while the style of science fiction has changed, the underpinning of science fiction being an imagining of the future and of fantastic things does not change.

So my thoughts about and attraction to science fiction shouldn't have changed. But it has. I watch science fiction today and it is now with a detached interest instead of with a 'fanboy' enthusiasm and obsession. I suppose that is good as a 'fanboy' enthusiasm can be labeled 'geek' or 'nerd', and one has to grow up sometime. But, you know, enthusiasm is a good thing. And when I remember my enthusiasm for science fiction and now recognize its absence, I feel as if I lost something.

It is all part of growing and moving through life. A person evolves and their interests change over time. I have passions today, hiking especially. But that is a physical and spiritual enthusiasm, not an intellectual one. I wonder if I have lost my ability to dream and wonder. That ability allows one to think differently and 'outside the box' (to use a cliche). It also enables a person to embrace the future.

Nothing day

Welcome to March. Here it is, coming in like a lamb. I guess that means it will go out like a lion.

The temperature, in the mid 40s F, is one of the warmest days of the year so far. With this warm of a temperature it should feel warm. But it doesn't feel warm. It feels cold. My mind and body are in conflict over this.

Today is a 'nothing' day. I just returned from a 15 mile bicycle ride. The sky is featureless. Officially the weather service claims the sky is clear. Really? Why don't I see blue sky? Where is the sun? No, the sky is cloudy in that no blue sky can be seen, but I'd be hard pressed to identify the clouds. Instead the sky is various hues of colors. The color of the sky is a blue/gray to a kind of white. The color depends on where one looks. The sky is a dull Spring sky. It is nothing.

Today is one of those 'filler' Spring days. It is not Winter, and it is not Summer. It is not even nice enough to be an uplifting Spring day with promises of warmth and greenery ahead. On days like this one feels nothing. It is not good or bad, happy or sad. This is a day that will be forgotten as it is just marking time to better days. It is a 'do nothing' day.

With nothing to do on days like this the best thing is to stay in bed. ...with the one you love. All day. Ahh.... that is how I should pass the day. Keep the curtains closed and ignore the weather. Let her distract me. With her smile. With her laugh. With her smell. With her touch. Let life be a mix of skin, and lingerie, and pillows, and bedsheets, and smiles. Physical activity divided by rest. Talk of what we have done; what we want to do; and what we should do next. Do something different.

• "What do you want to do next?"
• "How about...?"
• "Do you like...?"
• "Would you like to ...?"
• "How does that feel?"
• "How about this?"

Smile. Laugh. Love. Look into her eyes which are filled with light and joy and see her reactions and see the truth; and it is good. It is happy.

See her close her eyes. But her smile remains as she concentrates on my touch.

When it gets dark marvel how the day has quickly passed. "What about food?" Scrounge the cupboards for food and drink, and then return to bed. To eat and share the food we found. To kiss. To love.

What's the hurry? This is how one should spend a day like today. I have, and the memories are good.