blast from the past: Evel Knievel
I used to have this game on our old Apple IIe that used to entertain me endlessly. It was a frighteningly dull game by today’s standards — no graphics whatsoever — just a cursor flashing on the text entry line:
Choose number of buses (0-99)? 99 (duh!)
Choose ramp angle (0-180 degrees) ummmm how about 45
Choose speed (0-100mph): okay, 100?
You were then invited to press the spacebar, which would compel our intrepid hero, Evel Kneivel, to race at whatever breakneck speed towards a ramp positioned just so, with a hope that he and his motorcycle would clear the 99 buses that you set up in his way.
Regardless of what combination of buses, speed, and ramp angle I chose, I would invariably crash and burn. So what exactly made this game so much fun? Why, the MEDICAL REPORT, of course! After every failed attempt, the program would calculate the extent of your injuries:
You have broken both arms, both legs, fractured your skull, cracked 5 ribs, and crushed your pelvis.
Would you like to try again?
For all of you out there who always answered a resounding YES!!, have I got some great news for you. Evel Knievel did not go the way of the Apple IIe. He still exists in collectible form, and is waiting to perform whatever cunning stunts you can contrive for him, in full 3 dimensional plastic glory.
Check it out: Â Evel Knievel
signs shmines — i goes where i likes
So these guys are up to something interesting. Having recently entered the world of nanotechnology and quantum physics, the sudden awareness of this verbotensphere does’t really surprise me — I’ve been primed for alternate universes.
the high art of scavenging
I have an enormous respect for using things outside of their intended purpose. I get so much satisfaction from seeing things for what they are, rather than just what they are made for. Example: using a treadmill to run upon vs doing what these folks have done. This video is absolutely superb.
Seeing RED
Here’s another gem that I received via email. Aah the ubiquitous forward.. I am constantly astounded by the number of these bloody things that I receive. This one deserves a place in the bad rhetoric hall of fame:
From the daughter of a Soldier…
Last week I was in Trenton, Ontario, attending a conference [presumably the National Rifle Association, Canadian Branch]. While I was in the airport, returning home [to Alberta, where I own a Humvee dealership] , I heard several people behind me beginning to clap and cheer. I immediately turned around and witnessed one of the greatest acts of patriotism I have ever seen. Moving through the terminal was a group of soldiers in their camo’s, as they began heading to their gate everyone (well almost everyone) [except for those filthy peaceniks] was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering.
Oh CanaDUH
Since returning to the frozen homeland I have been floored by the kind of unbelievably closed-minded discourse that I’ve been blundering into. It actually started loooong before I got here, in the form of this forwarded email:
IMMIGRANTS, NOT Canadians, MUST ADAPT.
