Convention

So the closest thing I have to a job involves installing water slides. The guy who allegedly pays me said I should go to this IAAPA (International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions) convention in Orlando. I have family in Orlando (A sister, brother-in-law, 4 yo nice, and 2 yo nephew/godson). So I thought "Yeah. Convention sounds pretty cool. And I can see my fams." He offered to pay for my hotel room (not plane tickets) and get me a free (to me) pass to the convention. So I took him up on it. The convention is pretty good. Pretty much what you'd expect from an amusement park convention. Lots of ride demos, game demos, food vendor demos (including a never ending supply of free samples). Displays for pamphlet printers, guest photo systems/printers and merchandise, bench, trash can, ride seat, railing, etc manufacturers.

Lots of kids running around playing on the inflatable play structures, with the arcade games, etc. Lots of adults playing the arcade games, etc.

Lots of foreign water slide knock-off companies stealing patented designs from the US and Canadian water slide companies. A Russian company had 2 reps there - neither spoke much English, but they had an interpreter who didn't speak very comprehensible English or understand the Russian's products or business very well.

So it's pretty cool. Get to spend some time with my fams anyhow.

Humanity i love you

Here's some ee cummings for you. I just started reading some of his poetry. I like it.

Humanity i love you
because you would rather black the boots of
sucess than enquire whose soul dangles from his
watch-chain which would be embarassing for both
parties and because you
unflinchingly applaud all
songs containing the words country home and
mother when sung at the old howard
Humanity i love you because
when you're hard up you pawn your
intelligence to buy a drink and when
you're flush your pride keeps
you from the pawn shop and
because you are continually commitings
nuisances but more
especially in your own house

Humanity i love you because you
are perpetually putting the secret of
lifer in your pants and forgetting
it's there and sitting down
on it
and because you are
always making poems in the lap
of death Humanity
i hate you

meme tag (a reason to update my blog thanks to John)

John has tagged me with a meme. PZ Myers started this on Pharyngula a while ago.

Here are the rules:

There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is...". Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:

You can leave them exactly as is.
You can delete any one question.
You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question. For instance, you could change "The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is..." to "The best time travel novel in Westerns is...", or "The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is...", or "The best romance novel in SF/Fantasy is...".
You can add a completely new question of your choice to the end of the list, as long as it is still in the form "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is...".

You must have at least one question in your set, or you've gone extinct, and you must be able to answer it yourself, or you're not viable.

Then answer your possibly mutant set of questions. Please do include a link back to the blog you got them from, to simplify tracing the ancestry, and include these instructions. Finally, pass it along to any number of your fellow bloggers. Remember, though, your success as a Darwinian replicator is going to be measured by the propagation of your variants, which is going to be a function of both the interest your well-honed questions generate and the number of successful attempts at reproducing them.

My Ancestors:

My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Flying Trilobite
My great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is A Blog Around the Clock
My great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is The Anterior Commissure
My great-great-great-great-grandparent is Laelaps
My great-great-great-grandparent is Quintessence of Dust
My great-great-grandparent is An Evangelical Dialogue On Evolution
My great-grandparent is Exploring Our Matrix
My grandparent is Sporadic Maunderings
My parent is Signs of Insanity

The Questions (and Answers):

1. The best scary movie in children's movies is:

The Never Ending Story. The wolf always scared me. Especially in the scene just before they kill it - when it jumps out.

2. The best song that moves me inexplicably in 80s pop is:

Against All Odds by Phil Collins. People like to trash talk Phil Collins. I think he might have been a musical genius. Anyhow, the song can just about make me cry. I don't know why.

3. The best adventure movie in Historical Fiction is:

The Patriot with Mel Gibson. I would have said Road Warrior, but that's not Historical Fiction and I don't have enough changes left to change that. The Patriot will do. It has Mel in it and it wasn't bad.

4. The best book appealing to both children and adults in Fantasy is:

Nothing hard about this one. It's A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. I've read a few comparisons between this book and Harry Potter (Ged goes to a school for wizards). But there is no comparison. Earthsea is a true work of art. Too bad the Sci-Fi channel had to make that piece of crap allegedly based on it. I recommend this book to everyone.

5. The most fantastic melody of all time is found in:

Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album. You can listen to just one track, but it's best to experience the album as a single piece - or two pieces if you consider the gap between sides on the LP. I don't know which part, specifically, contains the best melody.

6. The best Coming of age movie in Comedy is:

Rushmore directed by Wes Anderson and written by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson. I believe that Wes Anderson is one of the few film makers still making films that are worth watching. hmm. more on this thought in a future post?

So now I tag Becca.