And We Shall Call It This Land
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And We Shall Call It This Land

Goodbye to a great lady

Majel Barrett Roddenberry, wife of the late Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry died yesterday. Known as the first lady of Star Trek, she did manage to record her lines as the Enterprise's computer for the new movie, a role she always voiced in the original TV series and most of the others.  (via ToplessRobot)

I've recently been rewatching all the Star Trek series lately.  Currently on the last series "Enterprise".  Star Trek will not be the same without her voicing the computer and playing the flamboyant mother of Diana Troy.  We will miss you. :(

Happy Holidays - 360 Style

Weekend in Lubbock



Was in Lubbock this weekend for Natalie's graduation.  Despite all the driving it was actually a good weekend. It wasn't too cold unlike last year.  Also, it was the afternoon ceremony which meant we didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn to get seats.  The graduation speaker was actually funny (and concise).  Natalie's parents treated us to a wonderful dinner at a local Italian food resteraunt.  Then we all went over their house for snacks and games until about midnight.  Got packed up Sunday morning and headed back to DFW admist one of Lubbock's famous sandstorm.  Now I'm back in the metroplex, back at work, and making lists of all the stuff I've got to do to get ready for christmas next week.

Achievement Whore

Yes, I admit it I'm an xbox 360 achievement whore.  I love seeing those little gray spheres pop up in the corner of the screen as I'm playing the game.  Until today, however, I have not even gotten remotely close to getting all the achievements for an individual game.  As of right now I am only 2 achievements away from getting all the Lost Odyssey achievements.  Woot!

The easy one is going to be beating the boss in the DLC extra dungeon.  The more annoying one is going to be finding the treasure chest(s) I missed in the world.  It'll just take some time and patience.  Plus, I'm just stubborn enough to see it through to the end.  I'm so close I can taste it.

$6,000 Real American Dollars = 1 Golden Virtual Halo

You've got to be kidding me.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/technology/internet/08virtual.html?_r=1&ref=technology

Now I'm as guilty as the next person about spending an extra dollar here or there to get something extra extra for my WoW character.  But $6,000 dollars for a yellow ring of pixels to put on your gaiaonline avatar.  WTF is up with that.  o_O

WoW Withdrawal

I've been seriously neglecting my 71 Hunter, Jadera.  Unfortunately I probably will not be able to give her much attention until after christmas except for a random Monday here and there.  Last weekend was dedicated to cleaning house and spending some time with Rohan (and a little bit of xbox gaming here and there).  This weekend is my Natalie's graduation in Lubbock.  Next week is going to be spent getting ready for christmas and then the week after that is the actual christmas holiday. 

I'm sure by the time I get on again everybody in my guild will be way ahead of me.  Oh well, that's the way it goes sometimes.

I had a Dream

Last night I was dreaming.  I had booked a vacation to some wonderful super-inclusive resort in the South America region.  Getting to the place was interesting and took all terrain vehicles and many anti-motionsickness pills on my part.  Finally arrived in one piece.  It was a really nice resort settled in the middle of big canyon with mountains on all sides and only one path in or out.

Days progress and I'm having a fairly decent time, reading books, swimming, drinking, the usual resort stuff.  When the next batch of guests arrived I was in for a surprise.  Ellana, Xorin, and and old friend of mine from high school showed up, Sarah.  That evening we all sat together drinking margaritas on the patio and discussing the oddities of how small a world it could be sometimes.  Went to bed slightly tipsy, fuzzy, and full of good conversation and food.

That's the point where the dream started going awry.  During the night there was a huge landslide and there was no way for anybody to get in or out of the resort.  They had crews start working on digging out the road but it was going to take weeks to get it cleared.  At first no one was especially concerened.  We went about the usual resort activities.

Then people started disappearing.  We started noticing that there were less and less people around.  It started getting creepy.  Talked to the management and they acted like nothing was wrong.  A couple of days later Sarah dissapeared.  We looked everywhere for her.  No sign of struggle in her room or evidence of where she could be. 

The next night I was trying to sleep in my room.  There was a loud noise and glowing hole appeared along one wall.  I screamed and started banging on the wall.  The light slowly covered all the walls and then there was this twisting sensation and it felt like everything popped.  I looked around and I was a room exactly the same size as my hotel room.  The view out the window was the same.  But that was where the similarities ended.

The room was more like a cell.  It was solid concrete on all sides, thick iron cell bars on the window, shower head sticking out of a corner of the room, and a pile of rags and straw in another corner.  There was a only a closed eye slit on the solid bound iron door.  After trying all the various routes of possible escape I sat down on the pile of rags and waited.

A couple of hours later the door was opened and a completely robed and hooded figure came in the room.  The robes were a dark ichor green color and the creature wearing the robes appeared to be human sized and shaped.  At that point my memory gets a bit hazy as to what actually happened but needless to say it was your typical type alien queen wants to take over the universe and is starting with earth type scenario. 

The resort guests were being used for all types of work.  Some were being brainwashed (not a pleasant process from the sounds I heard over there in the area that used to be the gym).  Some I think were being eaten as evidenced from the somewhat shorter but more instense wailing in the dining hall area.  I'm assuming some were being used for heavy labor purposes and then the last bit were being used as incubators.  Fairly run of the mill sci fi horror.  This part of the dream went on for a while but it was kind of blurry and I don't remember much of it.  The parts I do remember were definetly not safe for public consumption.

Wanna know what saved us from world domination?  Either Ellana or Xorin's mom had packed a little suprise in their suitcases.  A jar of glowing bugs.  They were suppossedly a new natural alternative to using a flashlight.  Apparently when I was being taken, my yelling and pounding had penetrated the room next door where Ellana and Xorin were sleeping.  When they jerked out of bed the jar of bugs fell to the ground and broke.  They didn't think much of it since they were trying to see if I was reallly gone.

The bugs scattered into corners and began eating.  From the normal side of the world it meerly looked like they were just congregating and slightly multiplying but in the alternate world a glowing ooze was slowly showing up all over the place and disintigrating everything. Eventually the alternate world completely collapsed and the world was once again safe from world domination. This part of the dream was also a bit muddled and didn't make complete sense.  Through it all Xorin and Ellana never got taken to the other side.  The glowing bugs kept them safe.

Moral of the story.  If you go vacationing at a secluded resort in South America be sure and take a bottle of glowing bugs with you.

Life according to Rohan - part 1

Did you know that Santa Claus doesn't have a sled and reindeer anymore?  Apparently he is using an airplane these days.

Going to the Chapel

Actually to an airplane hanger and it's most definetly not me getting married.  It's actually my brother who's tying the knot.  The weekend before thanksgiving I helped him design his save the date stuff.  He's doing a magnet that people can put on the fridge.  It's an idea that's getting more popular.   Here's the design.


Corby and Natalie's wedding is definetly going to be uncoventional but that's okay.  That's all good though.  Be who you wanna be.  Casey and I are gonna be groomsmen.  It should be fun.  If this doesn't prove how much I love my family nothing will.  I'm even going to be wearing a yellow dress for him.  :P  Although I'm seriously thinking about getting some white knee high converse tennis shoes to go with it. 

It's actually a pretty good song

Was reading my former bosses blog (www.toplessrobot.com) and he posted this interesting music video.  At first I kind of rolled my eyes and wondered how a song about Mario Cart could be anything but cheesy.  It was a pleasant suprise and just what I needed in order to make it to quiting time (that and the lovely christmas chocolate someone was passing around).  The tune is not half bad and the guy has a good voice.  Enjoy.