Obviously no relation to me

99.1

It's both my anxiety level as The Trip approaches, and The Wife's first year grade average.

Ninety nine. Point one.

Oddly enough, if you apply the Fahrenheit-to-Celsius conversion formula to her average, you get mine.

I'm so proud.

I Think I'll Keep Her

True life story:

Her: In Charlie's Angels, what do they call the computer?

My: The computer?

Her: Yeah, the box with the speaker that talks to them.

Me: Charlie.

It's at 12:30am, and the last paper of the semester is finally done. Maybe you had to be there.

Check it out - an Iron Man movie!

Not many details anywhere, but the suit looks pretty neat!

It's WonderCon time again!

Yep, ah shore loves me some Con. I get so excited before the Con, and so bummed and empty when it's over. But by the time I get to a computer and try to blog all I've gone through in the previous days, I can't find the words or even clearly remember my feelings. There was something about a feeling of belonging, and the freedom of being as geeky as I want to be. There was something of the joy of meeting nice people, mixed with the frustration of being too much of a nutless introverted idiot to actually talk to any of them. Ooh, and Ali Larter. Let's not forget Ali Larter.

<save doc, then go away for a week>

Let's get busy already.

Childhood dream come true #17: Making friends with Sergio Aragones. Me and Sergio is real tight.


Q&A with Richard Hatch, Apollo in the original Galactica, Zarek in the new one.


You'll never guess who this is.
Give up? It's Elvira! I know!


Turns out the her real name is Cassandra Peterson, not Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (who would have believed?), and she appears to be a totally respectable person. How can this be? You used to be so, so, so prefect, and now you're telling me it wasn't your real hair? I feel so decieved. Just tell me you really did that thing with the tassels at the end of the movie.


What's hotter than an Elvira? A Linda Tran. Way hotter. I mean, he-llo there.



Not great shots, but I was too weak in the knees to ask her to look up for a photo, so I had to wait for a TV interviewer to stop by.

From the nice-people-who-played-small-parts-in-Star-Wars corner, I bring you:

Ray Park (Darth Maul, and also Toad from X-Men)


And Bonnie Piesse, who played (not yet Aunt) Beru in Attack of the Clones. Did I ever tell you how much the Beru and Owen thing pissed me off when I saw Clones? Well it thoroughly did. She seemed very nice, though.


The main actors from 300. I don't know if I'm really going to like it, but it looks like clean, thought-free fun.

Frank Miller broke his leg (or something) so he wasn't able to attend in person. He sent a video clip saying hello and hoping we'll like 300. So far, I hear everyone has, so maybe there's hope.



Gotta go read Marina's paper. Continue later.

Noriko Nakagawa

Japanese girls. Pretty, little Japanese schoolgirls. Pretty, little Japanese schoolgirls, butchering the shit out of each other. Japanese schoolgirls are like donuts - all covered in sugar, and they make Homer go "Mmmm..."

Have you seen Battle Royale yet? You should: 20 sugar-coated Japanese school girls, 20 other characters who were not Japanese school girls (who cares, right?), Takeshi Kitano (Zatoichi, and more importantly Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence), one island, three days. Last one alive is allowed to go back home.

On second thought, maybe it isn't for everyone.

I watched the movie, and I kept thinking, damn, you Japanese are so messed up. Why do you scream all the time? Why can't your movies have proper endings? For that matter, why can't the stories make any sense? What's with the "explanatory" flashbacks at the end, that only make things weirder? Why do your girls stop wearing those hot school outfits when the finally reach legal age?

Anyway, I give it 4 stars on the iDoc scale. The fourth star is not for strong plot, if you get my meaning, but they earned it. Apparently there's an American remake coming out next year. What are they going to do? Put the Olson twins in it? Ooh, maybe they will bring the original actresses. They should be about 20 years old by now.

Oh, Noriko, I would totally save you for last.


But if that Mitsuko chick shows up, we're history, you know?


I've been postponing the Hawaii pictures for three weeks, but as soon as I see a minor covered in blood, I can't wait to post it. I'm sure this surprises no-one who knows me.

Penn Jillette

Neil asked, and I must obey:
Penn Jillette

We're going on vacation!

It's been over four years since we had anything more than a long weekend. Where would we go that would be worth the long wait? I don't know, but I hear that
Hula dancers
Are
Wild
And
Ideally,
In the buff.

Leaving tomorrow morning for two week. Yeah.

Potential

It will probably be crap. Everything ends up being.
But there's potential here:
http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/transformers/

Sick is me

Though wool hats make everything better. It's the pompom.



Also of interest are the tea with milk and cookies. Maybe I could get used to this.

I still can't come up with anything funny to say with "balls" in it

Has it been a year already? I must have, because it's time to post pictures of the last ever Company annual ball.

People didn't feel like tuxedos this year, and Macy's has great deals on suits, which we really should start owning, being grown-ups and all, so we went to buy fancy ball clothes. I actually had to pick a suit for myself, a thoroughly terrifying experience for someone of my taste and experience in such matters. Luckily, the Macy's guy was very helpful and quite used to people whose only instructions are "I don't want to look like my grandfather." I did pick the shirt color by myself.

The result, I think you'll agree, was worth it.
Although the official photographer was right when he said "It's OK if you want to hold her, but if the camera sees your fingers, you're grabbing her." Live and learn.
Marina looks gorgeous in her new dress, but we're here to talk about me, right?


Oh, speaking of "gorgeous". Laarni wanted to know how to say it in Hebrew. But there's no direct translation, right? And the meaning she was looking for was "a very beautiful women", so we taught her to say "kusit". And when she learned to pronounce it, we explained what it means. Ex-Catholic girls are so much fun.

It's freezing out here. When do we see some drinks?



Beyond the switch from tuxedos to suits, it was exactly the same party. Same place, same food, same inspiring speeches, even the same band. None of it was really bad, though


Everybody was so pretty! I don't normally like events where my Joker shirt is inappropriate, but it's worth it once a year.

Right, everybody, look cool! David, can you do drunk?


OK, take two, for everybody who didn't have time to make a cool face. Nobody's blocking Orly now, so can someone raise their arm or something? Thanks, Derek, that's perfect. I can hardly see her. Ready? 3...2...1... LOOK COOL. David, just try not to pass out.


The organizers of the party put canes and beads and various pimpy items on the tables, including this hat, whihc would cover your entire face if you didn't hold it up.


Ziv and Raffi and that other guy.



Ziv and Raffi, sans other guy.


Nothing funny comes to mind. I guess you guys just look cute.


No, David, we can't tell you've been drinking. Not at all.


I know, I know. I made my tie to short and I forgot to buy a black belt to go with the suit. It's my first time in a suit, so give me a fucking break.
Look how well I made the tie knot! Fifth try ever.


Da lay-deez.



Most of the people stayed in The City for the night. We who have to get up early in the morning to study drove back home. Good thing we did, cause the next morning I woke up all sick and feverish. I knew I shouldn't have danced without getting drunk first. It's unnatural.

And the moon rose over an open field (Arizona day liu)

Short day today, but I have to warn you, there's gonna be a picture or two in this post.

Temperatures dropped to freezing on my last camping night. Maybe even a bit below freezing. I was sleeping in the Jeep again (People have asked, so I'll clarify - there was plenty of room to stretch in there. Next time I'm not even bringing a tent), and at some point I had to start the engine and let the heating work for 15 minutes before I could go back to sleep. That cold.

But nothing a hot cup of tea and waking up to desert views couldn't fix.

One last, very nicely composed, if you don't mind my saying, goodbye to Catalina State Park.


And it's plane time!

I originally left the area in a hurry, so I would have time for Monument Valley, but MV turned out to be way too far, so I suddenly had time to go back to the Pima Air & Space Museum, where they took the best corpses from plane graveyard, added some original Air Force loaners, and let us geeks run around freely.

It starts small, with the tiniest jet in the world. It will be familiar to fans of the movie Octopussy (are there such people anywhere?) and to people who owned the Acroject flight simulator on the Commodore 64 (which would be me).


Ah, 1985 graphics... This is the first time I see this in color, BTW.


My parents actually have slides of this thing flying in their basement. The slides are in their basement, not the flying.

It gets warmer with this B-26.


And moves STRAIGHT to the main attraction! An F-14. Right there. With me. For real. And my pants suddenly feel tight.
This is the first F-14 ever produced, which is very symbolic, with the last F-14 making its last flight a few weeks ago.


Prowler.


The Black Bird of Sexiness.


Classics: Beautifully restored B-24 and B-29, complete with dummies in flight suits manning the guns. Awesome, as in awe-inspiring.



Another meeting that's been a long time coming. With trembling hands, iDoc finally feels up the A-10 Thunderbolt II.

Interestingly I wasn't the only nut in that place. A guy was taking (what appeared to be) his grandson through the museum, explaining how this here A-10 was built around that big in the front. He could have been reading it from the sign next to the plane, but I sensed his insanity from as far as the F-4. He proved me right when he paused in mid-explanation and suddenly asked me "I can't remember. Is that gun 30 or 36 milimeters?" What the hell kind of a question is that? Of course it's 30mm, idiot. 30mm depleted uranium projectiles, specially designed for the Avenger, which you will only find on the A-10. Everybody knows that.

But how did he know I would know the answer? Was it because I was licking the gun at the time?


I never noticed the Starlifter had such an artsy tail.


He hey! Remember watching Bailey's Bird three times a year in the early 80's?
Oh, you missed growing up in Israel in the 80's? You didn't miss much. Anyway, Baily's Bird was a show about this guy (Bailey), living in some shithole in South-East Asia with his plane and his pansy blond son, and every episode he would get into a new adventure with his plane, which was an Albatross, just like this plane. And there were always smugglers of some sort, wanting to smuggle their smuggables on Baily's Bird. But he wouldn't let them. Cause he's Bailey. I also seem to recall a hot blond doctor, but I'm no longer sure. It was that age when planes were more interesting than women. I'll let you know when it ends. Was he Australian?




Update: Got it! After giving up hope of ever finding any real Bailey's Bird material on the net, it turns out that nothing is too old or too obscure for Google. Check it out! Pansy kid and everything. And an episode list!



Update2: Yes its Australian. And the show was known as Flugboot 121 in Germany. Silly Germans. Anyway.



Where did all the cool planes of the 60's go, huh?


Look at this Hustler, with that huge double drop-off fuel tank. That is the most pimped out fighter plane ever.


Crouching under a B-52G. Holly shit.


What are doing tonight, Brain? Same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world. Isn't it, like, the spitting image?
A Hercules, converted to carry moon rocket engines.


I got this F-111 aligned so perfectly, you can see right down that tube.


Turns out this isn't a Nord.


But this is, of course, a Harrier.


That's me, setting the tripod up on a bench. Muy artistico.


And that's me, hugging the F-14 goodbye. I can't believe they decommissioned it for that butt-ugly F/A-18. Feh.


After a few intimate minutes with the F-14, I looked up and noticed there was nobody left in the museum - it was closing time. But time for one last shot.
It was supposed to be a tiny me in the middle of the museum, but I couldn't get far enough before the timer took the picture, so here's a cool me with the sun behind me. Just like my hero, Josey Wales.



And that was it. My flight left at 8am, and I couldn't camp and get up early enough to pack my gear and drive to the airport, so I had to spend the night in the airport Best Western. How bourgeoisie. After a tearful 5am goodbye from Pedro, my loayl mule, I headed back to reality.