Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand Back again

We're back. After a long car ride, a hike up to a double-waterfall, and an afternoon of admiring Mount Hood from a distance, the GF and I have finally returned.

And dang, we're tired.

We had a lot of trouble staying awake on the way back, thanks to the intensity of the previously mentioned hike.

So... overall? Portland is definately a town worth visiting. We had a lot of fun once we got downtown and poked around. Oh, and the Rose Gardens are fantastic.

However, be forewarned: Driving in Portland is a living nightmare. The highways are not marked very well at all, and the street layout was designed by a drunken chipmunk. Kansas City, MO is easier to navigate than Portland. And that's saying a LOT (especially for those of you who know me and have driven with me down to the plaza - you know how much I despise driving there). It isn't Cape Cod scary or anything like that... it's just... well... buy a map. A GOOD one. And highlight every route. Twice. Drunken chipmunk. Not kidding. It's that bad.

The mass transit system is well conceived and FREE if you're bustling about mostly in the downtown area. Oh, did I mention that there's no sales tax? And about eleventy billion shopping malls?

But anyway, apart from snagging a slick suit for Bugzie's wedding for less than $350, I picked up some collections of stories by H.P. Lovecraft. If you're at all in to his work, I highly reccomend reading the short story titled Pickman's Model. Good stuff, I tell you.

Well, that's enough for now. The GF should be processing some photos of Mount Hood soon, and I have some killer pictures of the waterfall. I'll post them when I get more energy... and after my meeting with my advisor tomorrow.

Until then, I'm going to go answer the Call of Chthulu, then get some sleep.

The Trip Thus Far -or- OMG RAIN LOL WTF

Rain.

Clouds.

Fog.

That has been our experience of Portland so far. As a result, we have been completely unable to do ANY of the outdoor activities we had planned. So, yesterday, we shopped. A lot. For lots of stuff. And I'm tired. And my feet hurt.

Today, it's still cloudy with some rain, so we're just going to go to the very cool looking city center and... shop. If it clears up, the rose gardens are nearby.

There are a LOT of beautiful bridges and hills and more trees than the law allows out here... but things have been so rainy and dreary we haven't been able to snap any pictures.

Anyway, we gotta get going. More later.

We Made It

I'm writing from the hotel in Portland. We are here. And we are tired. The GF is plotting out the activities for tomorrow which may or may not include a trip to the Rose Garden, the Japanese Gardens, the weekend Market, and the Portland Zoo. All of them sound fun, but we'll see how far we get tomorrow. :)

More to come...

Portland, HO!

We're off to Portland today for a much needed getaway. We're supposed to have wireless internet at the hotel, so we'll post pictures... maybe... if we get a chance.

In the meantime, I have submitted my first abstract (a brief summary of my data) to Psychonomics, and it looks like I'll be headed there this fall!

Oh, and for all you comic book types people out there, I have a strong reccomendation: Pick up a copy of The Ultimates or The Ultimates 2 from Marvel. Awesome stuff.

McFarlane gets "LOST"

It looks like Todd McFarlane landed the license to make figures from the hit T.V. show LOST.

*EDIT*: The first image of the figure for Charlie has been released.

I normally wouldn't post something like this here, but you have to understand - this is MASSIVELY BIG NEWS in the action figure world right now. I mean, MASSIVELY BIG.

And, of course, this is so for several reasons.

1. They're freaking LOST action figures
2. Being made by Todd McFarlane (which means they will look AMAZING - you can see more pictures of the kind of products they produce here, here, and here, and that's just a sample.)
3. See #1 and #2
4. Todd hasn't done a drama show like this before
5. Nobody has made figures from a show THIS INSANELY POPULAR before.

So, yes, it's big, BIG news.

The major upside, of course, is that my favorite toy company is continuing to innovate and produce fun, interesting products (the reason I collect their merchandise in the first place). With this upcoming line, I think they're going to do quite well for themselves and continue to get their name out there. Oh, and did I mention they will also continue to give good exposure to my favorite little hobby?

Of course, comic book hero fans and horror geeks on the Spawn.com forums right now are railing and moaning about this announcement. They don't want LOST figures... they want more things wrapped in black leather or bleeding or tortured or warped or whatever other horrible thing they can think of. But this, of course, is the typical fanboy response. It will largely be drowned out when the massive number of LOST viewers who have a background in Star Trek fandom (which does include a sizeable amount of action figure collectors) find out about this, freak out in excitement, and start pre-ordering the figures by the case.

I'm gonna call it now, I think these figures are going to be very, very hot collectibles and would be a good investment to pretty much any action figure collector (that is, if any do actually read my blog besides myself, of course!), as I'm sure that the show will continue to have a strong following long after its final episode has aired.

For those interested, Spawn.com will be revealing images of the first of the six figures they have prepared for series 1 sometime tomorrow. Sadly, there is no figure of Saheed (am I spelling that right?), who is the only character I would be interested in getting... especially if he came with a car battery as an accessory.

If you don't know why a car battery would be a good accessory for Saheed, then you haven't been watching the show and I'm not going to explain it to you... but I'm sure Vivaquijote will. :)

Why I did NOT get up at 8:00 A.M. This morning

I went to bed around 12:40. It was hot. Really hot. I tossed. I turned. Too hot. Can't sleep.

Well, there's a window. Let's open that. I got up, shuffled over to it, and opened it up.

That helped a bit, but there wasn't much circulation in the room. Dang, I wish I had a fan.

I tossed. I turned. Hot, but not so bad. I started to drift.

Then, the neighbors turned on their radio. At. Two. In. The. Morning.

Vile things entered my mind. I pictured myself eating their hearts, turning off the radio, and falling asleep blisfully. Then I remembered that murder was illegal, among other things, so I would probably have to find another way to resolve the problem.

It came down to the choice of trying to habituate to the music or shutting the window. I figured I could just pluck up and deal with it. I continued to try and sleep, and began to doze.

Then I heard the flute.

No, really.

Some stupid bastard was practicing the flute. At. Three. In. The. Morning.

Images of the flute shoved up a certain orifice crept in to my head. I seriously had murder on my mind. Who wouldn't? I mean, come on. Who the hell practices a flute at THREE A.M.?!?

I made a quick calculation in my mind regarding the distance of the sound of the flute to my currrent position. It was much, much too far away to get up and go kill the midnight flautist. I had no choice but to shut the window.

Then it got hot. Again. Really hot.

I tossed. I turned. But I couldn't hear the flute any more, and that made me happy. I still wish that I had a fan, though. I contorted into some absurd position and started to doze.

Then the sky started to get light. And the birds noticed. Especially the really, really, really loud one just outside my window. It decided to start singing to everyone and everything that it was the early bird and it was going to get the worm. In. Loud. Piercing. Squaks.

Right. Outside. The. Window.

That didn't last long. I got up and bolted outside in my boxers (and in the red haze of bloodlust) and chased off the stupid bird.

It felt so cool outside. I wanted to fall asleep on the pavement. But I didn't. It was too hard. And I wanted something soft.

I stormed back inside. Freaking hot. I wish I had a flipping fan.

Just as I was about to lie back down, I noticed that not two feet from my pillow was an oscillating fan.

It had been sitting right there the entire time.

I felt a combination of rage and stupidity mixed with relief. I plugged the fan in, and collapsed.

It was now about four in the morning.

I think I finally fell asleep around five.

OMG BEARS!!!

These are the Grizzly Bears that live just down the street from my appartment in WSU's hibernation research unit. They work in conjunction with Yellowstone National Park to study the sleeping patterns of these bears during their hibernation cycle. Cool stuff.

And yes, one of the bears in the photos above is acting just like a certain Conan O' Brian character. You can figure out which one if you think hard enough.

Weird. Now I kinda want some honey.

More Pictures

Yes, that is the Jolly Green Giant. On a hillside. In Washington.

No, I have no idea what in hell it's up there for.

I should have turned left at Walla Walla Washington...

Pictures of our trips. The top few are from our Walla Walla trip, and are mostly of the schoolhouse winery. The lower few starting with the abstract wind chimes are from around the WSU campus.

And yes, that is me standing next to the bell. And the hotness to the right is the GF.

The other two people are my parents.

By the way, plus 100 points to the first person who can tell me who I'm quoting in this post title.

Metaphors/Realities

To what can I be likened in my current state of mind?

A phantom haunting the hills of the Palouse.

A monster clambering over the cliffs and crags of the Blue Mountains.

A lone rider descending into the snake river valley at night.

A fallen colossus among toppled towers of notebooks and articles.

A weary warrior making the long journey home.

A grouchy bear disturbed from a deep slumber.

What have I been in reality today?

A son spending time with his parents.

A man cherishing his woman.

A dreamer haunted by waking nightmares.

A weary soul adrift in unconsciousness.

A driver upon the undulating Washington highways.

A broken sinner kneeling before God.

The End

My first year of Graduate School is finally over. Thank God.

Now, I get to start reading articles and planning some lab creations over the summer without having class to get in the way of my work! Huzzah!

I've been too frazzled and, surprisingly, busy, to really sit down and update the blog for a while... so, lo and behold, here I am doing it now.

Just a brief update today, though. I have to go in to the office and get some reading done before a meeting tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'd like to give a shout-out to all my amigos from the Goat Herd who are at E3 right now, getting to watch the trailers for Halo 3, Too Human, and all the brand new Nintendo products firsthand: Mothergoat, Fragmental, Ryckert, and Jack Burton. Have a blast, and keep us posted!

Desire The End

I desire the end
The touch of armageddon
This world encased in flames
Bodies lie beneath fallen kingdoms
I walk on fallen kingdoms
I desire the end
I desire the new beginning

ZAO
from Liberate Ex Inferis