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Saturday, March 29, 2014

Hologram Time Traveler - The Revolution That Wasn't

At the September, 1982 JAA show in Japan, Sega had had introduced Astron Belt, often cited at the first laserdisc game (though Electro-Sport’s Quarter Horse had actually preceded it). The game’s actual release, however, didn’t occur until late 1983 allowing Cinematronics to beat them to market with the Rick Dyer-designed Dragon’s Lair. Laserdisc games ultimately proved not to be the savior of the industry that many predicted (or at least hoped) they would be, but they were an interesting side note to video game history that made use of an innovative new technology.

            At the ACME show in March 1991, Sega would try again with another new technology – holography – when they introduced Time Traveler, billed as the first game to make use of hologram technology (it also used a laserdisc). Sega coin-op president Tom Petit called the game the “most radical departure in coin-op technology in 15 years” and said the game represented an entirely new class of machine “as different from conventional video games as pinball and redemption”. And this time, Sega knew that Rick Dyer wouldn’t beat them to market since he designed the game. Dyer was, if anything, more enthusiastic than Petit, predicting that the game would spark a degree of interest not seen since Pac-Man. As with the laserdisc game, however, the “hologame” (as Sega called it) failed to take the industry by storm – and for many of the same reasons. But before discussing the details, let’s take a quick look back.

A (Very) Brief History of Coin-Op Holography

Holography was nothing new in the coin-op world. It had been tried before, but had never really caught on (despite being proclaimed a key technology in the future of the industry since at least the early 80s). Perhaps the first holographic coin-op game was Kasco’s Gun Smoke, a western-themed gun game with a “holographic” target that debuted in late 1975 (though the game actually used a non-laser “hologram” rather than a true hologram – which involves shining a laser through special film or other recording media). The game was licensed to Taito America for U.S. distribution, who showed it at the 1975 MOA show. While the unit was a hit in Japan (reportedly selling 6,000 units), it flopped in the U.S. (with just 750 sold). Nonetheless, Kasco followed up with Samurai and Bank Robber (the latter, which used 8 different “holograms”, was shown at the ATE in London in January, 1977)

            Around July of 1976 came another holographic gun game – Midway’s Top Gun (which used a true laser “drum” hologram). Once again, however, the unit failed to sell. Some sources claim that artist Peter Claudius created the first X-rated holographic game in the 1970s (they may be referring to the erotic holograms created by Claudius shown at the New York Museum of Holography in 1978). At the 1977 IAAPA show, a Dallas-based company called Bacchus Games showed a machine called Morgana in which a holographic, floating face dispensed fortunes.

            What about video games? While a number of companies looked into the technology in the late '70s and early '80s, none were able to release a game (at least not an arcade game), and it is not certain if they even developed one. In 1978, Meadows Games was purchased by Holosonics, a Washington-based company that had bought up 90% of the patents in the field of holography. Not long after the deal, Meadows announced plans to produce a holographic video game, which was slated for release in early 1979, but Holosonics went bankrupt, Meadows Games folded, and the game was never produced. After producing the 3D game Dark Planet, Stern was reportedly at work on a holographic game, but it too was never released an no other information on it has ever surfaced. On the consumer front, of course, Atari produced Cosmos – a console that made use of holographic technology, but neither Atari nor anyone else is known to have produced a holographic coin-op video game. About the closest thing came in 1980 when a company called Lazeworld (founded by John Foy) produced a holographic overlay for Asteroids that produced multi-colored special effects when an enemy was destroyed (Foy also produced “pinball glasses” – a pair of glasses with holographic lenses that a player was supposed to wear while playing pinball to enhance the experience).

The Creation of Time Traveler

It would be 1991 before a holographic game finally made its way into arcades. The genesis of the game came when Rick Dyer read a story in the February, 1990 issue of RePlay about a product called the Del Vision Micro-Theater that created 3D “holographic” images. The Del Vision was made by company in Chatsworth, California called With Design In Mind , though the technology had actually been invented (and patented) in Japan by Dentsu, Inc. – an advertising and PR firm that had been founded in 1906 and had produced the first newspaper ads and TV commercials in Japan. Dentsu used its holographic technology for advertising and point-of-purchase displays. It licensed the technology to With Design In Mind, who used it to create the Del Vision Micro-Theater (invented by Steve Zuloff and Barry Benjamin). The Micro-Theater debuted at the 1990 winter CES, where it wowed the audience with a demo that included multi-colored fish and jellyfish floating in space and a tiny ballerina that seemed to dance across a glass surface (RePlay said that the product “could almost be called the hit of the show”).

At the time, Dyer was working for a company called Allen Design in Carlsbad, California. After reading the article, he immediately contacted With Design In Mind and within a week, had inked a deal with the company (Capcom and Leland also tried to license the technology for use in video games, but Dyer beat them to the punch). Allen Design and With Design In Mind formed a partnership called Hologram Ventures and began designing a video game using the Micro-Theater technology. In truth, the Micro-Theater (and Time Traveller) did not use true hologram technology. Instead, it used a parabolic mirror shaped like a quarter sphere to project an image from a video monitor into space.
Unlike a true laser-based hologram (which allowed viewers to see an image from different perspectives as they walked around it), the mirror technique produced the same perspective from every viewing angle. One issue that Dyer’s team had to solve was the mirror, which, according to Dyer, had cost $7,600 per unit when used in Japan (a prohibitive cost for an arcade video game). To solve the problem, Dyer subcontracted the creation of the mirror to an aviation firm that made canopies for fighter jet cockpits who was able to produce the mirror at a much lower cost. Nevertheless, development of the game was still expensive. Dyer’s team worked 24-hour shifts for the last 10 months to get the game ready for the ACME show (Dyer claimed it was one of the biggest R&D commitments in the history of the industry). Meanwhile, in late 1990, Sega had signed on as a partner to manufacture and promote the game. While Time Traveler used a laserdisc to store the game’s footage, unlike Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace, the game used live action rather than animation. 1,000 actors auditioned or the game’s 36 speaking parts. Actor and professional Hollywood stunt coordinator Steve Wilbur landed the role of the game’s hero Marshal Gram. Las Vegas aerobics instructor LeAnn McVicker played Princess Kyia-La and Robert Mannigan (a struggling actor who was producing a cable access show in San Diego) was cast as the game’s villain Vulcor. Filming in San Diego, a crew of about five people headed by producer director Mark E. Watson, created about 30 minutes of footage for use in the game, complete with full digital soundtrack.
Time Traveler  on display at the ACME show in 1991

The Game

In the game, Kyia-La, Princess of the Galactic Federation, travels back in time from the 26th century to the wild west to recruit the hero Marshal Gram (a sutble pun on “hologram”) to track down the renegade scientist Vulcor, who has “disrupted the time continuum of the universe”. To stop the dastardly Vulcor, Gram has to travel through 12 different eras of time (though from YouTube videos, there appear to be only 7), from 50,000 BC to 2552, squaring off against a host of enemies including ninjas, knights, cavemen, punk rockers, archers, the devil, and a 300-pound Amazon queen (played by actor Kevin Mein in drag). The action consisted of a series of short segments in which the Marshal used a joystick and buttons to either outdraw his enemies, or duck and jump to avoid their deadly weapons. To aid him on his quest, Gram had a limited supply of “time reversal cubes”, which would turn back the hands of time after the Marshal’s untimely death to give him a second chance (additional cubes could be purchased from a sultry female "trader" by inserting more quarters). While the game may sound interesting, generated a lot of buzz, and met with initial success (grossing a reported $18 million), it ultimately failed to deliver on its promise and disappeared even more quickly than Dragons's Lair and Space Ace. Part of the problem was its insane level of difficulty, which frustrated a number of players. A bigger issue, however, was that many felt the game itself just wasn’t very good. Like Dragon’s Lair and the other laser disc games of the 1980s, it was little more than a reaction meter/memory test in which the player merely had to learn the correct sequence of moves and then repeat them. Likely in an effort to alleviate this problem, the game chose randomly from five different scenes per era and also included a few additional elements (like a scene in which the player gambled with the devil for his life) but the basic gameplay was sparse. The various scenes largely consisted of an enemy or two running in from the left or right to attack the Marshal, who then had to shoot them (sometimes jumping or ducking a few times first). Most were less that 30 seconds in length. Once the novelty wore off, there wasn't much of a game left. In addition, the game was soon overshadowed by the genre-defining megahit Street Fighter II, which debuted around the same time. In an attempt to cash in on the fighting game craze, Sega produced a follow-up to Time Traveler called Holosseum in 1992 that combined a fighting game with hologram technology but it lacked real interactivity and fared even worse than Time Traveler and holographic arcade games died an even quicker death than laserdisc games had. Nonetheless, Time Traveler stands as a fascinating sidebar in video game history.

Saturday, March 22, 2014

The Ultimate (So Far) History of Allied Leisure/Centuri - Part 10

 Today's post is the final part of my history of Allied Leisure/Centuri

            In 1983, Centuri’s licensing arrangement with Konami began to bear fruit in a major way. In prior years, Konami’s games were primarily known to U.S. gamers via the licensed versions produced by Stern, including Astro Invaders, Scramble, Super Coba, Tutankham, Amidar, and others. Centuri’s first Konami-licensed game, Loco-Motion, had not been a major success. That would change in 1983 when the two companies teamed up to produce a string of hits that are among the most well-remembered games of the mid-80s. As part of the deal, Centuri usually produced the dedicated version of the games while Konami released the conversion kit.

Time Pilot

Centuri’s second Konami license would feature much more traditional gameplay, and prove to be one of its biggest hits - the free-form air combat game Time Pilot. The concept was fairly straightforward. The player piloted a plane through give different eras, each with its own distinctive enemies: 1910 (biplanes), 1940 (fighters and bombers), 1970 (helicopters), 1982[1] (jets), and 2001 (UFOs). Each era also featured a boss “mother ship” that appeared after a specific number of enemies were destroyed (a blimp, a B-25, a CH-47 helicopter, a B-52). The player could also fly over parachutists for bonus points.

Time Pilot was designed by Yoshiki Okamoto, who would go on to become one of the most prolific game designers in Japanese gaming history, working on games like Street Fighter II. Like Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, Okamoto started out as a graphic artist. When he took the job, in fact, Okamoto didn’t even know that Konami made video games, and certainly had no desire to work on them. Instead, he chose to work there for a much more practical reason.

[Yoshiki Okamoto] The truth is my wife at the time had something to do with it. I got a job after graduating from school, and the place where I had to work was far away from where…she lived. She told me that it was too far away and that we should break it all off. I didn’t want to do this, so I looked for another job close to where she was living, and it just happened to be a game company.

If Okamoto took the job to save his marriage, it didn’t work. He and his wife were divorced shortly after he arrived. In addition to his design skills, Okamoto was known for his zany sense of humor. He always loved a good prank and wasn’t above pulling a fellow employee’s pants down in the street. When he later moved to Capcom, he pulled a more original prank. When a coworker fell asleep during a meeting, Okamoto pulled down the shades, turned off the lights, ushered everyone out of the room, and set the clock to 3 A.M. At Konami, Okamoto started off doing art for posters and flyers used to advertise Konami’s game. He then moved on to designing characters before he was finally asked to design a game of his own (he suspects that this was why Konami had hired him in the first place). Konami wanted him to design a driving game in which a player had to earn their driver’s license by navigating through roads and traffic. Okamoto didn’t want to design a game at all, but if he did, he wanted to create a game that someone like him, a non-video game fan, would want to play. He asked to be allowed to design a flying game based on Namco’s Bosconian. When his boss refused, Okamoto created the game anyway, surreptitiously slipping his code to a data-entry person while showing his boss the “progress” he was making on the driving game he was supposed to be working on. Perhaps Okamoto’s boss should have listened to him. Okamoto’s flying game, Time Pilot, went to be one of the company’s biggest hits, reaching #1 on Play Meter’s charts. Konami also released a sequel to the game, Time Pilot ’84, as a conversion kit for the original (though a few hundred dedicated cabinets were made) and scored another #1 Play Meter hit.

While Time Pilot was a hit, Yoshiki Okamoto didn’t get a chance to bask in its success. After refusing to let him work on the game, Okamoto’s pass pulled a “Larry Tate” (Darren’s boss on Bewitched), claiming he’d like the idea all along and taking credit for the game himself. Despite Time Pilot’s success, Okamoto still didn’t want to make video games.
[Yoshiki Okamoto] "I don't want to make games," I told them, "but fine, I will make another one. But after that I want to make a poster." I mean, I was hired as an illustrator, and that's what I was hoping I could do there. So they said I could work on a poster when the game [Gyruss] was finished.

In addition to promising to allow Okamoto to return to poste work, Konami also gave him carte blanche to create whatever kind of game he wanted (though at least two sources claim the game was developed by Ultimate Play the Game/Rare[1a]). Despite his reluctance, Okamoto came up with another winner - the classic shoot-em-up Gyruss, a game that has often been described as a combination of Galaga and Tempest. The description is accurate (though it’s more of the former than the latter). The player controlled a ship that moved in a circle around the edge of the screen, firing at a host of enemies that moved outward from the center. The goal was to fight your way through a series of planets: Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and finally Earth. Each planet featured a number of “warps” (levels) that had to be completed before reaching the planet. There were “2 warps to Neptune” and 3 to the remaining planets. After reaching each planet, the player faced a “chance stage” that was essentially the same as the “challenge stage” in Galaga. Other similarities to the Namco/Midway classic included enemies that flew into formation from off-screen and bonus enemies that appeared in groups of three. Similarities aside, the game was a classic. The pulse-pounding gameplay was supplemented by a driving, rock version of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue. Gyruss provided Centuri with another hit, but due to the decline in the video game industry, it didn't sell as well as Time Pilot. Despite this, Osaka left the company shortly after the game was released. There are varying accounts as to why. In an interview with VideoGameSpot, Okamoto claimed that he asked the company for a raise, vowing to quit if they didn’t meet his demands. The next day, he said, they fired him. In his 1Up interview, however, he tells a different story, claiming that he left because Konami broke their promise to let him go back to designing posters.

[Yoshiki Okamoto] But after it [Gyruss] was done, they didn't keep their promise. They wanted me to continue to make more games. That's when I quit working at Konami.

 After leaving Konami, Okamoto moved to Capcom where he designed the classic shooter 1942

Track and Field/Hyper Olympic

            Meanwhile, the industry downturn had begun in earnest and many were pinning their hopes on laserdisc games to pull the industry out of its doldrums. The 1983 AMOA show was jam-packed with laserdisc games, including Konami’s own Badlands (more on that one later). To the surprise of the industry, however, the hit game of the show turned out not to be a laserdisc game, but another Konami offering – the sports-themed Track & Field. The game was known as Hyper Olympic in Japan (Centuri supposedly changed the name because Atari owned exclusive rights to use the word "Olympics" in a video game in the U.S.)  According to RePlay magazine[2], the idea for the game had come from Centuri president Arnold Kaminkow during a January dinner meeting. With the Olympics approaching, Kaminkow suggested that Konami create a sports-themed a game that put the player in the role of an Olympic athlete.

            That’s just what Konami did. The game featured six Olympic events: 100-meter dash, long jump, javelin, 110-meter hurdles, hammer throw, and high jump. Controls consisted of a pair of “run” buttons and a “jump/throw” button that controlled the timing and angle of jumps and throws. The player had to qualify in each event to move on to the next. While the game featured a score, it also tracked the top three “world record” times or distances for each event.  Each event had an Easter egg that could earn a 1,000-point bonus (throw a javelin at maximum angle, for example, and you spear a bird). What most people remember about the game is its adrenaline-pumping action. Track & Field was a real button-pounder. To build up speed (as most events required), the player had to alternately pound (and pound, and pound…) the run buttons as fast as was humanly possible. Top players had a variety of techniques to accomplish this exhausting task. Some used the "double tap", hitting the buttons alternately with their index and middle fingers. Others placed a pencil across the two buttons, over one finger and under another creating a kind of see-saw that they could hammer rapidly on one end. In the documentary Chasing Ghosts, two players reveal an ingenious method that involved the use of disassembled electric knife. While Centuri had a major hit in the U.S. with the game, Konami did even better. By January of 1984 they had sold 38,000 Hyper Olympic boards in Japan[3].
Hyper Sports/Hyper Olympic ’84, Circus Charlie, and Mikie

            Konami followed up Track & Field/Hyper Olympic with Hyper Sports (Hyper Olympic ’84 in Japan). While it used the same basic concept as Track & Field, Hyper Sports featured a much more eclectic lineup of events, some of which relied on timing rather than button-mashing: 100m freestyle swimming, skeet shooting, long horse (vaulting), archery, triple jump, weight lifting, and pole vault. A less successful (though still fun) variant on the Track & Field theme was 1984’s Circus Charlie, which replaced the track and field events with circus-themed competitions: fire rings (jump through flaming hoops riding a lion), tightrope (jump over monkeys while walking a tightrope), ball walk (hop from one rolling ball to the next), horseback (leap from a moving horse to a springboard and back to the horse), trampoline (bounce across a series of trampolines while avoiding jugglers and fire-breathers), and flying trapeze.

            The final Centuri/Konami game was Mikie (aka Mikie: High School Graffiti). The player took the role of an “average high school boy” named Mike who moved through a school collecting messages (hearts) from his girlfriend. Action started in home room class, where Mikie had to bump his classmates out of their chairs with his butt while avoiding, or head-butting, the teacher, all to a bouncy version of “A Hard Day’s Night”. The action then moved to a locker room, where Mikie had to head-butt open lockers to collect more hearts. In the cafeteria, Mikie had to avoid pies tossed by angry cooks. Mikie finally found his true love in the girls’ gym class where the gym teacher was none too pleased by his intrusion. Finally, hand-in-hand, the two lovers made their way through the courtyard to Mikie’s car while avoiding football players. While Mikie was a (very) minor hit, by the time of its release, Centuri was on its last legs and much of their inventory of boards ended up being sold off to other companies.
Centuri 1983 and 1984

             Thanks in part to their profitable relationship with Konami, Centuri rebounded in 1983. Revenues for the year were $141.8 million and the company turned a profit of $2.6 million. While over 2/3 of revenues came from Outdoor Sports, video games accounted for 40% of net income and 93% of operating income. Of the $32.5 million in revenue generated by video games, 72.3% came from just two games: Gyruss and Track & Field (and the latter was still going strong at the end of the year). The company even won in the courts. In October, the company won a $5.25 million settlement from Atari in a case involving the 1982 licensing deal they had struck with the company.
                 Once again it seemed that Centuri had turned a corner. And once again, it didn’t last. 1984 revenues were $124.8 million, but the company lost $2.2 million. While Track & Field and Hypersports did well (accounting for 87% of video game revenues), the video games division lost $3 million – more than the company overall (the other divisions were profitable). By fall, with their long and lucrative relationship with Konami coming to an end, things looked bleak. At the 1984 AMOA convention Centuri dropped a bombshell when they announced their new "Direct Connections" marketing program – an attempt to sell directly to operators, bypassing the distributor. The announcement was the talk of the show and drew heated commentary pro and con. Some distributors were outraged. Others didn't like the move but understood why Centuri felt they had do it. Still others felt it was a desperation move by a company on its last legs trying to unload its inventory before they went under. In an interview in the December 31, 1984 issue of Play Meter, Centuri president Arnold Kaminkow denied this, claiming that the idea had come up in February and the decision to go ahead with it had been made in July. In Kaminkow's view, the distributor just didn't fit into the video game picture anymore – especially with the rise of conversion kits and system games. Operators and location owners didn't need a middle man. Service could be handled via UPS or over the phone (unlike pinball games and jukeboxes). Kaminkow also pointed out that direct sales were more the norm in Europe and Japan.

In any event, distributors didn’t have long to stew on their outrage. In December (just as Kaminkow's interview war appearing in operator mailboxes) Centuri’s board of directors voted to discontinue the video games division entirely. The company's video game assets were snapped up by other companies. Wico, the joystick and control manufacturer, got the customer service stock and some complete games. Jon Daugherty of United Artists Theater Amusements got the 50 remaining Badlands (with plans to put them in theater lobbies). The rest of the stock - 540 Mikie boards plus around 700 older kits - went to Video Ware, Inc., a company founded by John Hibbs that billed itself as "America's largest PC board dealer".

By the time of the decision, Centuri was already on its way out of the coin-op biz. Outdoor Sports Headquarters was the company’s leading revenue generator and they had begun expanding into other areas as well. In 1981 they had invested in a contract electronics firm called IEC. In 1984, they purchased the Virginia Capes Seafood Company and in 1985 they acquired Poloron Homes of Pennsylvania Inc. – a manufacturer of modular housing[4].These new investments would take Centuri into the 1990s, by which time video games were a distant memory.

[1] 1983 in the Centuri version, as it was released in 1983 in the U.S.
[1a] The two sources are the book The Complete History of Video and Computer Games, published in the U.K. by Video & Computer Games magazine in 1996 and The Digital Antiquarian website.
[2] RePlay, December, 1983
[3] RePlay, January, 1984.
[4] They also owned a boat repair company, but that was sold off in 1984.

Here are two pictures of Allied's facilities in 1974 (sorry for the poor quality)

A photo of the wives of Atari executives, ca November, 1976

Speaking of Konami, here's a picture of the Mega Zone kit, produced by Konami and Interlogic.

Finally, some more undocumented games

Saturday, March 15, 2014

The Ultimate (So Far) History of Allied Leisure/Centuri - Part 9

Munch Mobile and Guzzler

            In 1983, Centuri continued to plumb the licensing market with a pair of games from Japan. Munch Mobile (SNK) was one of the 1980’s strangest driving games. The player controlled am anthropomorphic car with eyes and a long, rainbow-colored arm that it could use collect trash and money bags from the side of the road (it could also grab fish from the occasional river that appeared). In addition, the player had to avoid oncoming cars (usually by pulling off the one-lane road into one of the small pullouts located along the side of the road). Bonus points could be earned by depositing trash such as apple cores and fish bones in roadside garbage cans. Guzzler (Tehkan) was another Pac-Man variant featuring fire-based enemies like fireballs, flashes, and demons. Rather than energizer dots, the player slurped up water from puddles then vomited on his enemies to extinguish them (he more water the player had, the slower they moved). Water may not have been the only things guzzler was guzzling. Intermissions showed the character drunkenly gulping down bottles of liquor, bringing shame to his family. Released as a conversion kit, the game made it to #8 on RePlay’s software charts.

Aztarac (October) was Centuri’s sole entry into the color vector market and their last game designed in-house (or at least their last non-licensed game). In the game, the player defended a series of starbases from alien invaders. The most memorable feature was the round, bubble window in front of the monitor. Perhaps more interesting than the game is its designer - computer visionary Tim Stryker. Stryker graduated from Brown University in 1977 with a bachelor's degree in Physics. That same year, a friend and fellow student named Ken Wasserman bought a Commodore PET computer and when Stryker saw it, he ordered one for himself and the two began writing games in BASIC. Before long they were hooking their two computers together and began writing multiplayer games. Since BASIC was too slow for the task, they created their own language called RPL and used it to write a real-time combat game called Flash Attack that allowed two computers to be linked together via a cable. In late 1979, they penned an article about the game and sent it to Byte magazine. Meanwhile, they tried to find a publisher for Flash Attack but no one was interested (Scott Adams of Adventure International sent them a copy of TRS80 modem game Comm*Bat). Puzzled, they decided to sell the game themselves, formed a company called Mach 2 Software[1] in Danbury, CT, and convinced Byte to include a small ad alongside their article when it was published in the December, 1980 issue. After selling only a handful of copies of the game (and even less of their other titles) Stryker moved to Florida and continued to work on games, including his time working for Centuri.

Aztarac was a space combat game set in the year 4031. After a thousand years of peace, robot drones from beyond the Swan Nebula have launched an attack against the 12 Zodiac Starbases. The player controlled a “space tank” using a joystick to control the tank and a spinner to control the gun turret. The goal was to defend each of the starbases in turn from alien attack while collecting energy and power pods to increase the tank’s speed and firepower. While the game featured excellent graphics, including one of the best titles screens in golden age history, it proved another flop. While a number of sources (including the website claim that 500 cabinets were built, from the numbers in Centuri’s annual report, it looks like they may have made 200 or fewer.

After leaving Centuri[2], Tim Stryker served as a consultant for the Florida Solar Energy Center, G.E. and other companies. In 1985 he founded Galacticomm in Fort Lauderdale, FL, which released his most well-known creation, the seminal bulletin board software program MajorBBS (a version of Flash Attack was ported to MS-DOS that allowed users to play via modem). Stryker also began to pursue his goal of creating a society based on compassion and love. Disdaining traditional politics, Stryker began the Superdemocracy movement, an effort to allow citizens to vote and participate in the political process in cyberspace. In 1995 Stryker moved to Utah with his wife and four children. Stryker also suffered from clinical depression. In August of 1996, he pulled off a road in the Colorado hills and shot himself. He was 41.
             While Munch Mobile and Aztarac flopped and Guzzler did only marginally better, 1983 was not a repeat of 1982. This was due almost entirely to Centuri’s other licensing partner, Konami. But that will have to wait for part 10.

[1] While a number of sources, including Wikipedia, refer to the company as “Mach 1” software, the 1980 Byte magazine by Stryker and Wasserman and an interview with Wasserman refer to it as “Mach 2.
[2] It is unclear if Stryker ever actually worked for Centuri or if he did contract work.

In an earlier post, I mentioned Centuri's connection with Leisure Time Electronics. Here's a newspaper ad for one of Leisure Time's scams, from January 12, 1981

A few more undocumented games:

Demon Castle (from Play Meter, 9/1/83)

Two games from Diversified Entertainment (from Replay, March 1976)

An ad for an Asteroids kit that I found interesting (from Play Meter, 1/15/81)

From Play Meter, 5/15/82

First part of a review of the game from the January 1982 Replay

Another CGI ad from 10/1/81 Play Meter

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

More Bronze Age Video Game Popularity Charts

Several months back, I posted what may have been the first coin-op video game popularity chart, from the March, 1976 issue of RePlay. Today, I thought I'd post some other charts from the 1970s

First, for those who missed the earlier post, here's the March, 1976 chart:

The next chart I have was published in RePlay's October , 1976 issue as part of its annual operators' poll.

Here's the chart from the November, 1977 issue of RePlay

Play Meter published its first chart in November, 1977 (also as part of its operators' poll):

The 1978 charts from RePlay and Play Meter

Finally, the 1979 charts. Note that by this time, Play Meter had started publishing its monthly charts (the first was in June 1979). RePlay would publish its first monthly chart in April, 1980.

If there is interest in these, I could post some from the 1980s (the 1980s charts had a lot more data. Some of the Play Meter  charts, for instance, included average weekly earnings per machine).


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Anna University TNPCEE 2011 Results

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Baahubali 2 Trailer Officially Released! Graphics, War Scenes And BGM Will Give You Goosebumps! [WATCH VIDEO]

In the history of astonishing Indian cinema, the country’s popular director SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali has undoubtedly set a trademark of perfection and brought the glory, which none has ever achieved in the Socio-Fantasy genre.

Ahead of the highly anticipated trailer launch of ‘Baahubali: The Conclusion’ a sneak peek of the trailer released by the makers raised the expectation to the next level. The whole country is curious about is the upcoming Baahubali movie, which is quoted as the conclusion of the former one.

The movie is all set to hit the theaters on April 28th of this year and movie buffs are quite intriguing about finding their answers. The trailer screened in 250 to 300 cinema halls across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on 16 March.

As leaked videos were circulated in social media, team and crew decided to launch the video on youtube even before. Check here

Watch The Theatrical Trailer Here:

Excited? Goosebumps? We would like to hear from you. Share your views after watching Baahubali – The Conclusion Trailer. Do let us know through the comment section below.


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Thursday, 9 March 2017

The Three Muses challenge
for this week is....Wheels.

This is my digital page and if you wonder about the umbrella,
its because he doesn't want to get  the paintwork on his bike fading in the sunshine,
while he poses for the winners photo shoot.

Thank you for stopping by your visit is always welcomed and appreciated.

See my side bar for
digital information.

Monday, 6 March 2017

A digital page for this weeks  theme at the
Take a Word Challenge
 the word this time  is.... Flowers.

Thank you for calling in today,
 your visit is appreciated and you are most welcome here.

For digital information.
please see notes in my sidebar.


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Call (877) 342-6134

  • Keep it cool and save #3

    The summer months are usually full of all types of wonderful cookouts.  We normally kick off late spring with Memorial Day and then roll right on through early fall with Labor Day.  The heat element is always a factor and most times folk stay inside and the cook is left outside to contend with the grill and the sun’s rays.  Today I’d like to offer a few tips on how you can save and keep it cool while cooking out.

    Be Sociable, Share!
    This entry was posted in all my sons, All My Sons Moving and Storage, How To's, Tips and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.


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Tax hike before "fiscal cliff" deal - page 3

President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that Republicans would have to agree to raise taxes on the wealthy as the first step in a budget deal that would prevent a dysfunctional Washington from... Read More

  1. by   tewdles
    I am cool with spending cuts...I just object to the definition of "entitlements" being so narrowly limited to those benefits for the mddle and lower classes when talking about those expenditures.

    When I look at my friends who have put off retirement because of the economic collapse that ate large portions of their asset value I am concerned. I am concerned for my friends slightly younger than me who have paid into those "entitlements" but will see a reduction in their benefits...even after their own savings plans were also devastated by the financial decline. We won't even talk about the people who are near retirement/SS/Medicare age and no longer have retirement or personal savings because of health costs, job losses, etc., and their benefits will be reduced.

    There is not an easy fix for our deficit...but the pain of the repair should not be borne by the most vulnerable in the least IMHO.

    Firing Big Bird, raising taxes on the wealthy, closing Gitmo; none of these alone will cure our budget woes, but they are all a worthwhile piece of the puzzle to pursue...again, IMHO

    Of course, the people who got us into this unacceptable economic mess are not held to the same standards or requirements as the general public...they create the problem, give themselves raises, improve their own health care and retirement programs and throw the common man to the wolves.


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Pre-employment cytology screening- What's involved??

  1. Hi, I've just been offered a job on an oncology floor and I'm super excited! I am going in for a pre-employment cytology screening soon. Does anyone know what's involved in this? Apparently its to make sure I'm healthy and can hang chemo. Is this just a CBC? LFTs? Lipid profile? Is it a urine cytology? I'll have to have all of the labs repeated every 2 years. I just want to know what to expect before I go in. Thanks!!!!
  2. 2 Comments

  3. by   KelRN215
    I have never heard of checking labs on oncology nurses to make sure they are "fit" to give chemo. The only labs I've ever had drawn that relate to being a nurse was a varicella titer. I gave chemo in the hospital and I give it now as a home care nurse and no one has ever inquired about my personal health because of it.
  4. by   AugustRain
    I know they drew a CBC in addition to titers when I started at my current facility. I don't think there were any other labs, just a PPD and physical.


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Two Choices Book Review Summary

Detailed plot synopsis reviews of Two Choices

"Two Choices" follows the senior year of Meghan, Karyn, and their two boyfriends. Both Meghan and Karyn realize they are pregnant, and they each make different decisions on how to deal with the situations. Their boyfriends both have drug addictions, and they also make different decisions on how to handle their futures.
Click here to see the rest of this review

Near the end of the story, time fast forwards through the next four years, and how each characters' high school decisions have affected their adult life. Karyn is dealing with a sick baby, an incomplete education, and a lower class job. Meghan has graduated college and tries to make a future for herself. Josh and Brad are dealing with consequences resulting from their drug addictions.
The review of this Book prepared by Sarah V. Richard

Get your copy of the book

Chapter Analysis of Two Choices

Click on a plot link to find similar books!

Plot & Themes

Tone of book?    -   thoughtful Time/era of story    -   2000+ (Present Day) Kids growing up/acting up?    -   Yes Is this an adult or child's book?    -   Adult or Young Adult Book Age group of kid(s) in story:    -   high school Loving/sexing?    -   bun/oven

Main Character

Gender    -   Female Profession/status:    -   student Age:    -   a teen

How much descriptions of surroundings?    -   4 () United States    -   Yes

Writing Style

Amount of dialog    -   roughly even amounts of descript and dialog

Books with storylines, themes & endings like Two Choices

Sarah V. Richard Books Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Levi & Tori Hague

Donna G. Hashman Yesterday at 7:43am

Heaven just opened to let a big angel in heaven,, Randy passed this morning. He will be missed by all that knew him. His humor was as big as he was. Love you big brother. RIP

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Brett early baseball in Kansas project

Brett is my grandson. I'm sending you this for the pictures. The info was geared toward my grandson who is doing a research paper on early baseball in Kansas.
Begin forwarded message:
On Sunday, October 2, 2016, 3:48 PM, Vicki Bever Doze wrote:
For Brett,
I did the best I could to get a decent picture. Will you be able to save these to your computer and do some cropping, etc? Ole was your great great grand uncle, the brother to your great great grandfather, Cub Doze. (John Claude) For the rest of you, except Stan, Ole would be great grand uncle! Stan, I'll have to figure your relationship when I can open up my genealogy program! Ole was from Norwich, KS. The son of Peter P. and Rebecca I. Wood Doze. Ashland, KS was not close to travel back and forth from Norwich. The picture was taken in 1909. He could have owned a car by then. I think Brett is going to try to find out if Ashland was a farm team for some major league team. Ole played baseball in Kansas City later and lived there with his wife Bessie Randolph Doze. Ole's brother Cub Doze played for Ashland several years after Ole did. Then Cub played for the Lone Star League. He was a paid pitcher and traveled from team to team. He always claimed he had a million dollar arm and a ten cent brain! He played around the 1910's and 1920's. I'm hoping Brett can find more info! Cub's son, Richard Claude "Dick" Doze, was Brett's great great grandfather. He played ball through out his high school years and was recruited to play for a farm team The Oklahoma Indians. This was around 1934. I don't know what major team he would have played for but I imagine it would be a team called ________ Indians! Lol! He was in love with a girl and didn't stay with the farm team very long. He came back home and married Naomi Ravenstien. I figure Pop, as I called him, might have had a ten cent brain to give up a possible chance to become a minor or Major League Baseball player for a girl! I do have a newspaper article about him signing on with the OK Indians. I just don't know if I can find it before Brett needs it. I don't have a picture of Grandpa Cub in a uniform. I'll look for more pictures and info. Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone


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Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Saturday was Worldwide Knit in Public Day, and the events continue through this week. I went out on Saturday afternoon to join a group of fellow knitters and spinners and do our thing. There were about 18 of us altogether, enjoying a beautiful BC afternoon. We found a spot in the shade, and attempted to share our craft with the public. Unfortunately there wasn't a whole lot of "public" around to share with, but we had fun anyway. I got to watch several spinners with there wheels up close. It is mesmerizing, and I want one! Spinning wheels and spinning have held an alure for me for quite a while now. Maybe it was watching Sleeping Beauty too much as a child, I don't know. It is definitely an art I would like to pursue. I was quite relieved to discover that the wheels are much smaller and more portable than those from days gone by - this means there would be room in my living room for a wheel! This just means twice as much as there is in knitting. First you get to pick your fiber, then you spin it, then you knit with it, and then you get to wear or use whatever it is you make. Hence the few dollars spent on fiber go a lot farther than those spent on spun yarn. Did I mention that is much cheaper to buy fiber (roving) than it is to buy prespun yarn? This is definitely a hobby worth pursuing.


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Mike Isaac

Recent Posts by Mike Isaac

On Facebook, There’s No Privacy Setting for Your Friends’ Bad Judgment

zuckerberg_family_pokeHappy holidays, and welcome to the new Facebook, everyone! With the company’s recent privacy changes and updates rolling out to all users, it’ll now be easier to get a handle on all those confusing settings you’ve tried to figure out over the years.

One problem, though — the discretion of all the friends in your network. Case in point, Randi Zuckerberg’s intimate family photo being shared out publicly on Christmas Day.

Here’s the deal in a nutshell: Randi took a picture of members of the Zuckerberg family reacting to the new Poke app that Facebook released last Friday. Mouths agape, sisters Zuckerberg are seen laughing at the new app while brother Mark stands sheepishly in the background, looking a bit confused (or amused).

It was supposed to be a private moment, shared with only the friends inside of the networks of the few Zuckerbergs who shared it. And, good on them, they used Facebook’s privacy settings correctly.

Problem is, there are no privacy settings to keep friends of friends from making bad judgment calls in sharing. Callie Schweitzer, a Vox Media marketing director, saw the photo inside her Facebook feed and decided to tweet it out to her nearly 40,000 followers on Twitter. Obviously, the photo went viral.

Randi Zuckerberg was none too pleased. “Not sure where you got this photo,” Zuckerberg tweeted to Schweitzer on Christmas. “I posted it to friends only on FB. You reposting it to Twitter is way uncool.”

I’ve emailed Zuckerberg to see if she has a further response. Ms. Schweitzer very politely declined my request to comment via e-mail.

Schweitzer backpedaled, eventually taking down the tweet with the photo and apologizing publicly. But her parting note to Zuckerberg said it all: “i loved the photo bc it seemed so fun and normal. You should make it public!” (She added a winky face for good measure.)

This is the crux of the issue. No matter how many privacy settings you tweak, no matter what you consider proper “digital etiquette,” there is no accounting for the taste and discretion of your friends. Like Schweitzer, anyone could see a photo you’ve shared inside your network and, on a whim, decide to tweet it out in a manner of seconds.

Think on this — the average Facebook user, like you or me, shares content on the “friends of friends” setting, which could have been how Schweitzer ended up seeing Zuckerberg’s photo (as Schweitzer is friends with one of Randi’s sisters). And according to Pew Research, the median Facebook user reaches upward of 31,000 people using the “friends of friends” setting. Now that’s pretty “friendly.”

And this setting in particular provides an interesting counterargument. Schweitzer’s re-sharing of the photo isn’t necessarily in the wrong. As she’s a “friend of a friend,” that picture popped up in her news feed. There wasn’t an immediate way of knowing that this sort of photo wasn’t one the Zuckerbergs wanted to be kept private.

After all, perhaps Randi (of all people) should know by now, that what happens on Facebook certainly does not always stay on Facebook.

The great irony of all of this: The very app the family is checking out in the notorious photo could have been used to keep Zuckerberg’s photo from circulating widely across Facebook, Twitter and other networks.

Next time, just use the Poke app, Randi.

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There’s a lot of attention and PR around Marissa, but their product lineup just kind of blows.

— Om Malik on Bloomberg TV, talking about Yahoo, the September issue of Vogue Magazine, and our overdependence on Google


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John Paczkowski

Recent Posts by John Paczkowski

Will This Be The Year Android Topples Apple in Tablet Market?

android_trhoneGiven the steady onslaught of challengers, it was only a matter for time before Apple’s iPad ceded dominance of the market it created. And now it seems that time is nearly up.

A new report from IDC claims that tablets running Google’s Android operating system will finally knock the iPad from its throne by year’s end. The market research outfit expects global tablet shipments to rise to 190.9 million in 2013, up from an earlier forecast of 172.4 million. Of those, it predicts that 48.8 percent will be Android tablets. And it believes the iPad will relinquish a portion of the 51 percent market share it claimed last year, slipping to 46 percent. (Caveat 1: IDC’s forecast is based on shipments into the channel, not sales; Apple sells pretty much every iPad it ships. The same cannot be said of Android tablet vendors.)
IDC_Tablet_ forecast_2013

IDC says that trend of iPad ceding market share to rivals will continue in the ensuing years, with the tablet’s share slipping to 43.5 percent by 2017. Android will have begun to see declines by this time, as well, with its share slipping a few percentage points to 46 percent, as tablets running Microsoft’s Windows OS begin to gain traction (Caveat 2: The number of Android tablets on the market far, far outnumber the iPad of which there are essentially three models).

Of course, by 2017 global tablet shipments will be upward of 350 million, so while Apple may have a smaller share of the tablet market than it does today, it will be selling more tablets than ever before. Same thing for OEMs peddling Android tablets. At that point, what does it matter who’s king of the mountain, when two players are nearly splitting a market of 350 million down the middle? (Caveat 3: Usage metrics — A, B, C, D — suggests Android’s tablet ascendancy may not be all that meaningful)

Twitter’s Tanking

December 30, 2013 at 6:49 am PT

2013 Was a Good Year for Chromebooks

December 29, 2013 at 2:12 pm PT

BlackBerry Pulls Latest Twitter for BB10 Update

December 29, 2013 at 5:58 am PT

Apple CEO Tim Cook Made $4.25 Million This Year

December 28, 2013 at 12:05 pm PT

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The problem with the Billionaire Savior phase of the newspaper collapse has always been that billionaires don’t tend to like the kind of authority-questioning journalism that upsets the status quo.

— Ryan Chittum, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review about the promise of Pierre Omidyar’s new media venture with Glenn Greenwald


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Happy Feast Day Pope Saint Leo the Great!!

Today is the Feast Day of Pope Saint Leo the Great - Leo's namesake.

(Raphael's The Meeting between Leo the Great and Attila depicts Leo, escorted by Saint Peter and Saint Paul, meeting with the Hun king outside Rome)

Mere minutes after Jason and I found out we were expecting our first baby, Jason ran into his office (a thing of the past - all rooms are bedrooms now) and started rattling off names of past Popes for our baby.  This was before he even knew Leo was a boy.  Jason thought he was funny always insisting he had some sort of divine knowledge that the baby was a boy.  I was shocked when he was right :)

He threw names out like Sixtus, Hyginus, Dionysius, Simplicius, Hilarius, Cletus, Linus, etc.  Oh no you don't.  While these names may have been all the rage in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, I don't want my kid getting beat up by the other newborns in the nursery.

Well, when we found out Leo was a boy, we got serious about names.  I even considered "Mnason" and other classic names of the bible.  (Not really, but we had fun researching some of those old names.)

One night at dinner with my entire family, my mom announced, "Jason and Lisa are going to tell us the baby's name tonight!" with a big smile on her face.  Well, that sent the room into an uproar!  Everyone started shouting their own name in the hopes that we would name our child after them.  Jason and I were no where NEAR narrowing down names yet!  We were having a lot of trouble actually.

Then, my mom suggested the name of her brother, Leo, who passed away in his early 20s in a car accident.  Jason and I looked at each other and just knew that was it!  Not only was this a family name, but it also was the name of a great Saint.  SOLD!

Leo and I actually made a german chocolate cake this morning.  It was to celebrate his cousin's birthday, but we're going to celebrate his feast day with it as well!

(He's trying to be cool about how proud he is of himself.
The raised eyebrows is a picture I've been trying to capture for MONTHS!)

Happy Feast Day Leo!!

  1. What you passed on Sixtus? Hee, hee. I love names with meaning.

  2. I knew a guy named Sixtus. He was really nice. My father in law is named Leo. I din't really want to name any of my kids after anyone living since I thought it would get confusing---yet my youngest son shares his own fathers name---and YES its CONFUSING! Leo is a nice name. I think its becoming more popular these days since I am hearing it a lot more these days...at least among Catholics. Anyway, I love hearing how people get their names. Thanks for sharing your story.

  3. Belated happy feast day to Leo. May God grant him many years!

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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

President visits exhibition of Anatoly Haydamaka's works

President Victor Yushchenko visited the exhibition of National Shevchenko Prize winner, National artist of Ukraine Anatoly Haydamaka. The exhibition of artist’s works was opened on his birthday - June 9 - at the National Museum of Taras Shevchenko in Kiev and will last until the end of July.


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Listen to Led Zeppelin on iHeartRadio

Robert Plant is giving himself a chance to test his soccer skill in a professional arena.

Britain's "Express & Star" says the Led Zeppelin frontman took part in charity auction last Thursday, and placed the winning bid to have a spot on the team for a Wolverhampton Wanderers exhibition match next year.

Plant dropped nearly $1,500 for the prize.  Plant is a longtime fan of the Wolves, and has been the football club's vice president since 2009.  The upcoming game is in honor of the team's recently retired player Jody Craddock.

The auction was part of an event also honoring Craddock, and raised nearly $13,000 for the Birmingham Children's Hospital in Birmingham, England.  Craddock's son received treatment for leukemia at the medical facility.

Photo Credit Getty Images


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Alternate History

Janzi (Washington Shot at Murdering Town!)

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JANZI Emperor, the Son of Heaven, Emperor of All China, President of the East Asian Confederation.

Preceded by:
Hongzhou Emperor
Flag of the Qing dynasty (1889-1912)
Emperor of China
Succeded by:
Qianfeng Emperor
President of the East-Asian Confederation

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Monday, 30 May 2016

The Twillicks 2016 Birdathon - Part I

On Friday, May 27th, Catherine Barrett and I began our effort to see as many species of bird as possible on the Avalon peninsula in a 24-hour period. This is an annual event we do as part of the "Great Canadian Birdathon" to raise money for Bird Studies Canada & Nature Newfoundland & Labrador.

Check out our team page here: "The Twillicks"

Last year we saw a record 92 species on this count along with several great rarities! That was the number to beat this year, but we had two major factors against us: the weather was miserable at best, and there were relatively fewer rarities staked out this year. So we made a modest goal of 75 species for the day and started the clock at 17:30 on Friday evening.

Our strategy in both years has been to tick all the local rarities or city birds on the first evening and start the next day half way down the Southern shore by sunrise.

We started on Friday in the Goulds, just South of St. John's where Catherine had found a stunning male Ruff the day before. Last year we had a Ruff within the first 5 minutes of the count, so we were hoping to repeat that this year. We searched the entire area very thoroughly but dipped. We did see this beautiful male Northern Pintail in a small pool of water:

We continued on to Third Pond where we saw our first species that we missed last year... Canada Goose! By the end of this count we saw 15 individuals.

Nearby, Catherine picked out a small flock of White-winged Crossbills! A small flock leftover from this past winters invasion. A great bird for the count as I hadn't seen any for over 2 weeks!

While scanning the pond we noticed a large flock of swallows milling around on the far side of the pond near a dairy farm so we decided to check out the area in hopes of finding a few species of swallow for our list.

Our best bird at this location was a single Bank Swallow with the 100+ Tree Swallows:

After sifting through the large flock of swallows we headed straight for the Murphy's pond area where there is a known pair of Rusty Blackbirds and a family of Great Horned Owls. Last year we ticked both of these species without even getting out of the car! This year we dipped on both so felt a little defeated.

We did find some of the common breeders here including Hermit Thrush, and Wilson's Warbler:

By the time we finished there it was already 19:30 and we had hoped to get to Lundrigan's Marsh in town by 20:00 to listen for Sora. We swung by Kenny's Pond on the way but dipped again on our target bird - a Greater Scaup that Catherine had seen there earlier in the day. Our chances of beating last years record were looking dim but we pressed on to Lundrigan's Marsh.

Immediately upon arriving at the marsh we spotted one of the pairs of Northern Shoveler:

A few minutes later we heard the distinctive whinny call of a Sora!

We spent the next 50 minutes searching in vain for the American Coot that had been there for almost a week.
Finally, when we were about to pack up and leave it showed its face on the far side of the "car wreck" pond:

With the sun well below the horizon and a dark sky overhead we zipped over to Quidi Vidi to tick the American Wigeon that had been there throughout the month. It was right where it was supposed to be so we decided to rush back to Kenny's Pond to see if we could find the Greater Scaup. Amazingly it was right there and we were able to find it no problem :)

We finished the first part of the day with 47 species on our list! Remarkably, this was 2 species ahead of our list from the previous year after the first portion so maybe we weren't doing so bad after all ;)

Part II to come shortly!
EDIT: .... Here it is :)

Saturday, 28 May 2016

Euro Golden-Plover

Catherine Barrett and I did our annual birdathon today.
With literally, and I mean literally, two minutes before our 24 hours were up we zipped by a largish shorebird in Biscay Bay. Thinking it was almost certainly a Greater Yellowlegs we were reluctant to turn back and be sure... wow were we thankful we did!

Only the second Euro GP seen on the island this year - and the first on the Avalon since the major invasion of 2014.

A summary of our birdathon to come within the next couple days :)

Monday, 16 May 2016

Gull, Flatfish, Lichen, & Caribou

Some randoms from this past weekend in Terra Nova:

First up, the Great Black-backed Gull and flatfish (flounder) fiasco.
Barry Day and I were walking along Buckley Trail (I didn't name it!!) when we noticed this GBBG perched up on a rock preparing its lunch. It didn't take long for it to finish its meal:

In the old burn site in the park the ground was covered in Labrador Tea plants and these matchstick-like lichen:

Turns out that they're called Cladonia cristatella - also known as British Soldiers.

They're an important food source for woodland caribou of Newfoundland.

Sunday, 15 May 2016

Weekend in Terra Nova

Some photos from this past weekend in Terra Nova National Park (3hr drive West of St. John's).

Gray Jay:

My lifer Newfoundland Spruce Grouse (they aren't found on the Avalon peninsula):

One spot I've been eyeing for a while in the park is a section of previously burned forest. Apparently the fire burned about 15 years ago. It didn't take us long to find a Black-backed Woodpecker working the trees for grub:

These fungi were covering the ground in the burned area. I've seen them before, but not this widespread. I'll have to try to figure out what species they are.

This Great Black-backed Gull swallowed a flounder (flatfish) whole after stabbing it repeatedly. I'll get the video uploaded soon!

Another Black-backed Woodpecker in another are of the park:

Hermit Thrushes are widespread breeders on the island:

Their flute-like song is one of my favourites:

I had about 10 Palm Warblers over the weekend in the park. Despite being so common in this area I've yet to find any singing on the Avalon:

Shorebird migration barely exists in the Spring in Newfoundland (unless you count vagrants from Europe!) - so seeing a small flock of 8 Least Sandpipers was nice:

Red-breasted Merganser:

Another Spruce Grouse - I had 5 in total over the weekend! All of them were very tame.

Only my second warbler species so far this year:

This Yellow-rumped Warbler stood out with its golden hues over the back. I assume this is a second year bird (hatched last year) based on these brownish feathers:

2 Redheads found just over a week ago in nearby Gander were still around so I stopped by to have a look at them myself. These are only the 9th record for the island!

The other highlight was a minimum of 3, probably up to 6, Northern Saw-whet Owls singing in the park. Here is a recording from one of them:

Tuesday, 10 May 2016

The Twillicks - 2016 Birdathon

In just under a few weeks time Catherine Barrett and I will be participating in the "Great Canadian Birdathon". Our team, "The Twillicks" will do the birdathon on the last weekend of May in an effort to see as many bird species as possible in 24 hours on the Avalon peninsula. The event is a way to promote awareness about our environment and help raise money to conserve birds and biodiversity across our country!

Please help us reach our fundraising goals. You can click on this link and then click the name of the person you would like to support to see our personal fundraising pages and make a donation.

Donations can be made as a flat fee (e.g. $20), or you can donate per species! We already have commitments of $2 for each species we see - which gives us extra incentive to make every effort to see as many species as possible :)

A tax receipt will be generated automatically via email. If you prefer you can give your donation to Catherine or myself directly (cash or cheque) and we will forward it to Bird Studies Canada.

A portion of the funds we raise will be returned to this province to Nature NL.

Thank you for your support!

"Twillicks" is a name used by Newfoundlanders for Greater Yellowlegs - a species I will guarantee that we see on the birdathon!

Surely there'll be some surprises, but what will it be this year?

Sunday, 8 May 2016

Gray Heron - Bonavista

Yesterday evening photos were posted on the local Facebook group of a heron that was very suggestive of a Gray Heron. The photos were a little distant and blurry so left some details to be desired. Today, Ken Knowles and I arrived in Bonavista in the late morning and spent 3 hours searching for the bird before finding it where it was originally found: Beaver Pond - which is right in the centre of Bonavista town.

This is Newfoundlands third or fourth record, depending on how you look at it. The first record is from Oct 1996 of a bird that was collected and originally identified as a Great Blue Heron only to be re-identified by a keen grad student at MUN as a Gray Heron! A ship-assisted bird arrived in Sept 2002. And a widely seen bird was in Little Hearts Ease from at least March to June of 2013.

Todays bird was fairly easily identified as a Gray Heron based on the white thighs and white "shoulders". Studying the bird in the scope revealed a bill that was a brighter orange than what I can remember for Great Blue Herons. The sides of the necks were a pale gray and the streaking on the front of the neck was quite distinct from what I've ever seen for GBHEs: the streaking consisted of a few long dark vertical stripes.

I was surprised to see some cinnamon/rufous colouration mixed in with the gray of the covert feathers - although this was very limited.

The cap seemed to have a base colour of white - but had several "splotches" of dark markings throughout giving a pale gray appearance to the cap from a distance.

Based on these and other features I would identify this bird as a second year bird. Adult plumage is attained in the 3rd year of life for Great Blue & Gray Herons.

Below are a number of photos and a short video clip of the bird feeding. Note that all of these are taken with my Samsung S7 phone through a Swarovski Scope. The quality far surpassed any of the photos I got with my "real" camera.


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Representation and Generalization of Bi-Manual Skills from Kinesthetic Teaching

Conference Presentation

Speaker(s) : Felix Reinhart

Event : IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots

Place : Osaka

Date and Time : 12/01/2012, 11:20 am

Abstract : The talk presents a modular architecture for bi-manual skill
acquisition from kinesthetic teaching. Skills are learned and embedded over
several representational levels comprising a compact movement representation
by means of movement primitives, a task space description of the bi-manual
tool constraint, and the particular redundancy resolution of the inverse
kinematics. A comparative evaluation of different architectural
configurations identifies a specific modulation scheme for skill execution to
achieve optimal spatial generalization from few training samples. Based on
this architectural layout together with a novel stabilization approach for
dynamical movement primitives, the robust teaching and execution of complex
skill sequences is demonstrated on the humanoid robot iCub.

Partners : Bielefeld University - CoR-Lab

Felix Reinhart

12/01/2012, 11:20 am

Osaka, Japan

Scientific Community

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Dead Man Over Worms

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Mike and I first saw this recipe while watching a Halloween special on The Food Network. What impressed me most about the dish was its uniqueness; it wasn't like many of the Halloween recipes out there which are just variations of each other. The original recipe calls for 3/4 cup milk and 1 cup cheddar cheese. I eliminated these when I made the recipe to account for some diet restriction but I am sure it will be just as delicious if you added them back. After all, it did win Emeril's Halloween Contest.

Serves: 4
Start to Finish: 2 hours
Recipe By: Nan Slaughter

1 1/2 eggs (be creative, I know eggs don't come in 1/2 a portion; but it was the only way to get it to serve 4 people)
1 slice French bread, torn into small pieces (the french bread gives it nice character but you could use stale white bread if you needed to)
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup grated carrot
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 TBSP chopped fresh Italian parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dried parsley
1/4 tsp black pepper
pinch of dried thyme
pinch of dried bay leaves
1 lb lean ground beef
1 sausage link (mild Italian sausage)
1 (16-oz) pkg spaghetti noodles

1 cup ketchup
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tsp prepared mustard
1/4 cup maple syrup (I made the recipe with the maple syrup but it was a little too sweet for my tastes, next time I would omit it. However, I think children would love it!)
1/2 cup of your favorite bottled marinara sauce

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs.
3. Add bread and oatmeal.
4. Stir in carrots, onions, parsley, and seasonings.
5. Add beef and sausage and mix well.
6. In a shallow baking dish, shape beef mixture into the shape of a body. Round ball for head, oval shape for body, mounding up for tummy. Shape arms and place next to body (you don't want them sticking out or they will cook too quickly). Shape legs and place next to each other, not apart. Smooth meatloaf so the "seams" are not apparent.
7. Make topping by combining: ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, maple syrup, and marinara sauce into a bowl.
8. Bake meatloaf for 45 minutes.
9. Spoon half of the topping over meatloaf.
10. Return meatloaf to the oven and continue baking for an additional 45 minutes or until meatloaf is cooked thoroughly. (Total baking time about 1 1/2 hours. Cover with foil if it gets too brown.)
11. While meatloaf is baking, cook spaghetti noodles according to package directions.
12. Rinse noodles and set aside.
13. When meatloaf is done, remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes.
14. To serve: put spaghetti noodles on a tray and carefully place meatloaf on top of spaghetti noodles, using two spatulas. Don't worry if an arm or leg falls off, just "reattach" and cover with topping. Place a knife in the "heart" of the deadman and serve with remaining topping.

Haunted Ham and Cheese with Spiderweb Soup

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Haunted Ham and Cheese

A haunted twist on a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. This dinner is very simple but is sure to be a crowd-pleaser. Jack-o'-lantern faces cut out from bread add flare to these ham and cheese sandwiches. Dip them into some spicy Spiderweb Soup for a well-balanced and delicious Halloween dinner (Soup recipe to follow).

Serves: 4
Start to Finish:
Recipe By: Grilled ham and cheese is as old as peanut butter and jelly, I am not sure if anyone knows who invented them.

8 slices of bread
4 slice of cheddar cheese
4 slices of ham
Garlic salt

1. Butter one side of each piece of bread.
2. Using a sharp knife or cookie cutter, cut jack-o-lantern faces into four slices of bread.
3. Flip the bread over so it is butter side down.
4. Top the bread with ham and cheese.
5. Cover with the other four slices of bread to form a sandwich.
6. Sprinkle garlic salt over the sandwiches.
7. Place on skillet and cook until golden brown.
8. Flip sandwich and cook second side until golden brown
9. Serve with Spiderweb Soup

Spiderweb Soup

This Carrot-Ginger Soup has an incredible flavor that will warm you up on a cold October night. The flavor is strong and ginger can be spicy; so if you are worried your children won't eat it, you can always use a can of Campbell's Tomato Soup. Just make sure to add the spiderweb design for the full effect.

Serves: 6
Start to Finish: 2 hours
Recipe By: Janet Brunson (This recipe was given to me by my mother-in-law; she is an excellent cook. I would recommend trying any recipes I post that are from her. You won't be disappointed in the results.)

4 TBSP butter or margarine
1 medium onion, chopped (approx. 1 cup)
2 TBSP fresh ginger, finely minced
6 cups chicken broth
8 large carrots, peeled and finely chopped (approx. 2 lbs)
salt to taste
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup sour cream

Spiderweb Garnish:
3 TBSP sour cream
1 TBSP milk

1. In a stock pot, melt butter.
2. Chop onion and carrots; mince ginger.
3. Saute onion and ginger over medium heat until soft.
4. Stir in chicken broth and carrots.
5. Cover and cook over medium-low heat until the vegetables are very soft, about 1 hour.
6. Cool slightly and puree in batches in a blender or food processor.
(At this point the soup can be refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen. Sour cream will be added in the steps that follow, which can be neither frozen nor boiled without curdling. Note: the more time the flavors have to meld together, the stronger the ginger spice becomes.)
7. Add the pureed soup back to the pot and bring the soup to a simmer.
8. Season to taste with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and sugar.
9. Stir in sour cream.
10. Heat the soup gently but DO NOT ALLOW TO BOIL!
11. Ladle into soup bowls and add the spiderweb garnish.

For Spiderweb Garnish:
12. Mix together sour cream and milk in a Ziploc baggie (It should be thick).
13. Seal Ziploc baggie and snip a small hole in one bottom corner.
14. Using the Ziploc baggie like an icing bag, draw a swirl design onto the top of the soup.
15. Use a toothpick to drag the design from the center of the swirl out to create a spiderweb effect.

Monster Mouths

Monday, October 20, 2008

This meals comes together very quickly; which leaves you plenty of time to decorate your monsters. Their faces are made from carrots, olives, cheese, and pickles (or any other veggies you think would be fun). As for the meat mixture inside... think Hamburger Helper dressed up for a night on the town. The bacon and tomatoes help add that "grown-up taste", making the dish appealing to all ages.

Start to Finish: 60 minutes
Recipe By:

1 medium onion, chopped
4 slices bacon
1 lb ground beef
1 tomato, seeded and chopped (you can substitute 1 cup of diced, canned tomatoes)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
8 slices American Cheese Singles, chopped
1/2 package of jumbo pasta shells (about 18 shells), cooked and drained
Decorations: Baby carrots, olives, bell peppers, small pickles or cheese slices for decoration

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Lightly grease 9-in x 13-in baking dish.
3. Cook pasta shells according to package directions.
4. Meanwhile, fry bacon in large skillet until crisp.
5. Remove from pan and crumble.
6. Add onion to pan and cook until tender. (Cook in the bacon grease.)
7. Add beef; cook and stir about 5 minutes or until beef is no longer pink.
8. Stir in tomatoes, cheese, bacon, salt, and pepper.
9. Spoon mixture into cooked shells.
10. Place in prepared baking dish.
11. Bake 5 minutes or until hot; remove from oven.
12. Decorate as desired with olive and carrot eyes, bell pepper fangs, pickle tongue and cheese teeth.

Witches Hat Calzones

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Finding fun Halloween recipes that appeal to 5-year-old children, teenagers, and adults can be difficult. Because of this, I have found it necessary to adjust the recipes that are only geared towards young children. Let's face it: not too many adults would be happy eating hot dogs in mac-and-cheese for dinner but any child would be delighted at the prospect. Because of that, this recipe is a mix of two recipes. Also, this recipe uses a pre-made, crescent-roll dough (like Pillsbury). It is a wonderful time-saver because it is already made, rolled, and cut for you. However, I have found that crescent roll dough tastes better as crescent rolls than calzones. If you are feeling adventurous buy a pre-made calzone dough and roll it out and cut it into triangle shapes. The crescent-roll dough is still good but it only gets an 8/10, the calzone dough would get a 10/10.

Serves: 8 calzones (4 adult servings)
Start to Finish: 50 minutes
Recipe By: Witch hat idea came from Better Homes and Gardens but the actual calzone recipe came from

8 slices bacon
1/2 small red onion, chopped
3 cups chicken breast, cooked and shredded
2/3 cup barbecue sauce (plus additional for serving)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 TBSP chopped fresh cilantro (When reading reviews for this recipe, several people commented that the fresh cilantro really makes the filling. Well, I agree with them. So don't skip over this ingredient. It adds that extra flavor that seals the dish)
2 (8-oz) pkg refrigerated crescent roll dough
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon water

1. Preheat the oven to 425* F.
2. Grease an extra large baking sheet; set aside. (They stick so be sure you have really coated it.)
3. Fry bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat until crisp.
4. Remove from the pan to drain on paper towels; crumble.
5. Add the onion and shredded chicken to the hot bacon grease in the pan.
6. Fry over medium heat until onion is tender. (This happens fast, so be prepared for the next step.)
7. Stir in barbecue sauce and cooked bacon, remove from the heat and set aside.
8. On a lightly floured surface, unroll crescent-roll dough. (You don't need to further flatten the dough by rolling it out with a rolling pin, just unroll them. I tried it both ways and it didn't make a difference, so why add more work to the recipe.)
9. Separate dough into individual triangles.
10. Place half the dough triangles on the greased baking sheet.
11. Place approx 1 TBSP of the barbecue chicken mixture in the center of each triangle.
12. Sprinkle the cheese and cilantro over the top.
13. In a small bowl, stir together egg and water.
14. Brush edges of triangles with some of the egg mixture.
15. Top with remaining triangles and press triangle edges together to seal.
16. Brush the top of the triangles with egg mixture.
17. Fold short edges of the triangles up, forming a hat brim. (If you brush on the egg after you form the hat brim they will unfold slightly when cooking.)
18. Prick the dough a few times with a fork.
19. If desired, decorate the hats with additional mozzarella cheese, cilantro, and/or crushed red pepper. Brush on barbecue sauce to form designs and patterns. Or cut shapes from the red onion and press onto dough for decoration
20. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden. (I had to bake the full time, the dough is very soggy if you don't)
21. Serve with additional barbecue sauce.


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Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Give me the bad news first

Do I see a silver lining?
In my last post, I described my attempt to get Thyro-tabs into New Zealand for my dog. I called the ACVM contact person to see if they’d received the Application for Approval to Import a Veterinary Medicine I sent two weeks ago. The person called back and told me that the decision was mailed this week. I have a feeling of doom now, based on the lack of communication on the phone. If it were good news, wouldn’t they just tell me? To be fair, my question was answered and that should be enough. I will have the answer to my Application for Approval to Import a Veterinary Medicine by early next week. If it fails, this ordeal will have cost me about $200 dollars. And I will have to continue to pay $119 every 83 days to give my dog 12 pills a day for the rest of his life. Groan.
This feeling of gloom may be due to the recent consultation with my dentist. I was really bummed out to learn I have a cracked tooth. The dentist will clean the teeth, fix the cracked tooth with a partial crown, remove the other amalgam fillings with decay around them, laser out the bacteria, and fill in the holes with Cerec. The cost for this work is estimated to be $3800, and I’ve paid $200 for the diagnostic pictures and consultation already. There is no dental insurance coverage in New Zealand, so I’m absolutely floored by the cost. On the other hand, I really want to get my teeth fixed, and ultimately, $4000 is not that much when you consider it over the next 30 years. I get horribly stressed when going to the dentist for a cleaning, because of sensitivity. This dentist will do all the work in one sitting (3-4 hrs) and give me a benzodiazepine and halcyon prior to extensive dental work to relax me and give me a short-term memory loss, so I feel that he is rather considerate and kind. Also, this dentist is recognized as one of the best in his field. Still, this is a large, unexpected sum that means dramatic cutbacks in spending.
I have lots of opportunities to spend money this winter on things much more fun than dental work. My niece from Minnesota is visiting for 2 months, and a getaway to Wellington, the International Film Festival, and my birthday are all on the agenda in July. Our old house needs the roof replaced.

So that's enough whinging, I do have some good news. Today our vet called to tell us the application to import Fargo's thyroid medication was APPROVED!! Darin picked up the paperwork from the vet's office and is going to the MAF office at the airport tomorrow to pick it up. I had convinced myself that my try would fail. Wow, that was a learning experience. Now I will have to get a nice little present for my vet, Dr. Doogle at Swanson Road Vet, because I couldn't have done this without his help.
Darin finished his Dayskipper practical course. There was challenging weather, and uncomfortable sleeping conditions, so he was glad to come home to his own bed.
Last weekend, I took a free course on making compost. Rob, our teacher, has an organic orchard and garden in Riverhead, near Kumeu, north about 20 min. from our home. Here's a photo of what we piled into the 3-sided space to make "hot" compost. Ingredients included paper egg cartons, newspaper, wood chips, canna lily stalks, cow manure, hay and chicken poop from the henhouse, grass clippings, several wheelbarrows full of cold compost, and comfrey (the leaves on top). I came home enthused about compost and went to work on improving mine. My effort was half-assed, because I don't have the proper 1 meter square minimum space. We also learned about Bokashi, which seems like less work than worm farming, and could be utilized by every household in any climate.

The above photo shows Rob digging into the delicious plant food.


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'Northern Lights' © stateparks.com
Aurora Borealis - Thursday March 8th
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USA Parks
USA Parks
The Palouse Region
The Palouse Region
Fields Spring State Park
Fields Spring State Park
992 Park Road
Anatone, Washington   99401
Fields Spring State Park is a 792-acre forested camping park remotely located in the Blue Mountains of Southeastern Washington. A portion of the park sits at a height of 4,500 feet atop Puffer Butte and offers a spectacular view of three states and the Grande Ronde River. This forested park is located in the Blue Mountains with a high elevation of 4,500 feet on top of Puffer Butte. It offers spectacular views of three states and the Grande Ronde River. Spring and summer wildflower displays attract visitors, as do winter sport opportunities.

Park hours/updates:

Summer: 6:30 a.m. to dusk.Winter: 8 a.m. to dusk.

The park is open year round for camping and day use. A Sno-Park permit is needed from Nov. 15 through April 30.

Camping:Check-in time, 2:30 p.m.Check-out time, 1 p.m.Quiet hours: 10 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.
Nature of the Area
Wildlife Mammals Birds Fish & Sea Life? Badgers? Bears? Bobcats? Chipmunks? Coyotes? Deer or Elk? Rabbits? Sheep? Skunks? Squirrels? Weasels?Chukars? Crows or Ravens? Doves or Pigeons? Eagles? Grouse? Hawks? Hummingbirds? Jays? Ospreys? Owls? Pheasants? Quail? Turkeys? Woodpeckers? Wrens

Environmental Features Physical Features Plant Life

4500-foot-high Puffer Butte is of volcanic origin. As a result of the massive Grande Ronde volcanic flows, basalt is the dominant rock in the vicinity.? Douglas Fir? Ponderosa Pine? Spruce? Yew? Alder? Maple? Foxglove? Lupines? Orchids? Paintbrush? Rose? Berries
History of the Area
This volcanically originated park was named after Mr. Fields, an early settler who developed a spring used by himself and neighboring settlers. The park is set along one of the Nez Perce Indian seasonal migration routes.

Puffer Butte was named for Mr. and Mrs. Puffer, homesteaders who every morning climbed the neighboring Peterson Butte to watch for Indians passing in the canyon below. If Indians were spotted, the Puffers moved their livestock to the top of Puffer Butte and left them there until the Indians passed through.

In 1974, 70 percent of the park's Douglas fir and white fir were damaged by a Tussock Moth infestation and had to be removed.
The park has 20 tent spaces, all of which are suitable for tents or RVs. The park also provides one dump station, two restrooms (one ADA) and two showers. One kitchen shelter, with electricity, and a wood stove, is in the campground vicinity. All campsites are first-come, first-served. Maximum site length is 30 feet (may have limited availability).

Group Accommodations:Two teepees (each sleeps eight) may be reserved per night per teepee. To reserve, call the park office at (509) 256-3332.

More about park hours Check-in time is 2:30 p.m., and check-out time is 1 p.m.Quiet hours are from 10 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.Engine-driven electric generators may be operated only between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.Length of stay: You may stay up to ten consecutive days in any one park during the summer; the stay limit is extended to 20 days between Oct. 1 and March 31.

Get directions
to this park:

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The park offers two kitchen shelters with electricity, and 35 unsheltered picnic tables, all available first come, first served.
Area Attractions
Activities Trails Water Activities Other? 3 mi. Hiking Trails? 7 mi. Bike Trails? Bird Watching? 2 Fire Circles? 3 Horseshoe pits? Mountain Biking? 1 Softball Field? 2 Volleyball Fields? Wildlife Viewing

The park is a popular site for berry collecting.

Winter Recreation

? Cross-country Skiing? Snowshoeing? Snow Play
Visitor Comments, Memories and Reviews
September 27 Perfect for families, and gatherings by Montana gal
This campground was perfect for our family camping trip. The bathrooms were well kept, the camp sites were clean. The host and staff were very helpful. And the view from the trail was stunning!
June 24 Favorite place in WA! by BearNWolf
Went in May and absolutely stunning with the green from recent rains and all the wildflowers blooming. Very, very clean and well kept campground. Only 4 other campers on a Friday night the weekend before Memorial Day. Highly recommend to others!
May 25 Nice
Very nice and clean. Very quiet. No cell service with ATT. Have a lot of short trials and a long trail that leads out to Puffer Butte. It has an overnight lodge.

Located in the Blue Mountains on the southeastern tip of the state, 30 miles south of Clarkston, Wash.

From Clarkston: Take SR 129 south for 30 miles. Park is four miles south of Anatone. Turn left into main park entrance.

USA Parks
USA Parks
The Palouse Region
The Palouse Region
Fields Spring State Park
Fields Spring State Park


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Monday, December 30, 2013

Mom’s birthday

I’ve been trying for the past couple days to come up with something to say to mark today, what would have been my mother’s 97th birthday. As is often the case, the words just wouldn’t arrange themselves, no matter how much I begged them to. I kept at it.

I've mentioned my mother in several different posts, and if they were all pieced together, they'd make a reasonably complete picture. But her birthday is not about mere biography.

She was one of the earliest, most important influences in my life. My dad was important, too, but more so later on. Besides, he's not the subject of his post.

When I was a kid, my mother was a stay-at-home mother. Most of my friends’ mothers were the same, and I assumed that was the normal way of things. That wasn’t the only thing I thought was universal.

She was very creative, as I've mentioned several times before. But because she was so creative, I grew up thinking everyone was, or could be, creative, and trying creative things was just what people did. Of all the things I got from her, this is probably the one thing for which I'm most grateful. It led to this blog, my podcasts and all the other stuff I do.

Among other creative things, my mother was a poet. Originally, I wrote short stories because I didn't want to "compete" with her. I eventually moved on to writing non-fiction, something my dad influenced, actually (I'll talk about that another day).

Even so, over the years I've actually written a fair bit of poetry, but I don't share it with anyone, anywhere. I don't care if people don't like one of my blog posts, but poetry is so much more personal. And yet, every once in awhile I think about publishing some here. That's my mother's influence again.

That's a little more about my mother, her influence on me, and even a little bit about me. It seemed like a good way to observe her birthday.

This is also my 365th post this year, which means I’ve now hit my goal of an average of one post per day. So, I get the present, really.

Happy Birthday, Mom.

The photo above is of my mother and father on their wedding day in 1942.

Tears of a clown
– one of my favourite posts about my mother

Previous years’ birthday posts:
Mom’s treasure (2012)
Remembering birthdays (2011)
That time of year (2009)
Memories and words (2008)

rogerogreen said...

Yay, Arthur's mom! Nice piece. It gets harder to come up with a unique angle.

Arthur (AmeriNZ) said...

Thanks, Roger. Your posts on your parents have influenced me, helping me come up with new things to say. You're right—it does get harder to come up with unique things to say. But you helped with that, so thanks!


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Sunday, November 2, 2014

Monday Choon: Super8 & Tab feat. Julie Thompson - Let Go

The Finnish duo of Miika Eloranta and Janne Mansnerus better known as Super8 & Tab have recently released their second album, Unified. Signed onto record label Anjunabeats records and made popular by Amarda Music, in partuclar Armin Van Buuren on his A State Of Trance show, they've also toured with the ASOT live shows around the world. One of the songs featured on their new album is Let Go that has the vocals of Julie Thompson and is todays featued track.

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Sunday, October 18, 2015

Monday Choon: Ultra Miami 2015 Aftermovie

I've always been a big fan of the aftermovies produced by Final Kid for the Ultra festivals, they always seem to manage to blend the right amount of production, special effects and music to give one the feeling like they were present at the event. Which is why I was left a bit disappointed last year when they ditched their normal style and broke the movie up with interviews of people and DJ's. Don't get me wrong, I love to hear what they have to say about the festival but for me the Aftermovie is about experiencing what was Ultra in that 10 or so minutes, giving the viewer that sense of fomo and euphoria at the same time and I'm glad that they realised this as this years aftermovie they have reverted back to the usual style, just mind blowing production with some of the sickest beats merged into a video that will make you itch to fly to Miami for next years event. Final Kid are the geniuses again behind this epic video and they out did themselves again, you can view it in 4K and yes while it is bandwidth thirsty, trust me, it is worth it. Miami is the ultimate party, they can be Ultra's in many countries, tomorrowlands, electric carnivals you name but this still remains the number EDM party of the world and this video is proof of it. They used a wide range of electronic music in the video, starting off mellow and ending with the hard trance, it is nothing short of epic!

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Oak Island Ammunition - 40 S&W 180 gr FMJ - 50 rounds - Remanufactured

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Caliber: 40 S&W
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Thursday, June 25, 2015

Oregon Time

I am prepping. It is that time of the year again when my thoughts and my body turn toward the West and it hankers for the ocean. I have concluded that I cannot go a year without being at the sea. There is just something about it that soothes me. Inspires me. Makes me more creative.  I feel free and uninhibited. And I can see why all the Flower Children went to San Francisco instead of Des Moines.

We have been going to "The Condo" for 11 years now. No other place will do. From that point high over the rocky cliffs of Oregon, we travel out North and South. Seeing the same places, visiting our old haunts, but each year is different. Always new memories, new treasures, but because we know the area like our second home, there are no stresses or disagreements. The days just flow and each night we head back home to watch the sunset, enjoy a drink and each others company and just relax.

So this week will be filled with packing and getting this home ready for leaving. We are lucky to have our youngest who comes over and uses this place as her vacation home. She takes care of our aging cat, makes sure all my pots are watered and is a presence about the place to ward off evil...LOL

 It is going to be hot back here inland, but I will not need any A/C, I will have the ocean breezes. And I just may tuck a flower in my hair.  :) Always, Kit

Liz D said...

Have a wonderful beach trip! Enjoy every moment. I ll be thinking of you, from the other coast.

Susan said...

Oh yes, Kit, definitely tuck a flower in your hair. Enjoy each moment and wiggle your toes in the sandie beach! Have a blast! Susan

Pom Pom said...

Have a great time, Kit!

Diane said...

Kit, just remember - I'M JEALOUS! Diane

The Boston Lady said...

We have yet to explore up the West coast, so your pictures here and on FB inspire me. How lovely to go each year and find comfort and adventure!! Ann