John Browns and Aliens

Some people have nightmares about monsters, ghosts, murders or going to school naked. I have nightmares about aliens and this man.

Spooky isn't he. This is Old John Brown, the abolitionist or terrorist depending on your take. Here are some of his quotes.

"I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood."

"I want you to understand that I respect the rights of the poorest and weakest of colored people, oppressed by the slave system, just as much as I do those of the most wealthy and powerful. That is the idea that has moved me, and that alone."

Some of his action include hacking slave owners to death with broadswords and an unsuccessful slaver upriseing in Harper's Ferry that he began 150 years ago today.

I am as opposed to slavery as the next man, I just don't think killig people with swords as a workable solution.

Can you imagine how intense a nightmare about John Brown being an Alien would be? Or maybe John Brown, Clown, Aleins?

Things I don't Really Understand

This is a list of things I don't really "get" or understand.

1. Margarine - I know it supposed to be better for your heart, but butter is truly one the greatest inventions of mankind. Butter turns the boring and tasteless into a kaleidoscopes of pure joy.

2. Fat jokes - I am an Eagle Scout and to be honest the only thing I gained from the entire experience was a long list of fart jokes. Actually it is really only one joke with a number of subtle variations. No cleaver Jokes about Empire, Flags, Cakes, like the link below, just fart jokes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAOLOGGftTY

3. Why my 2 year old enjoys walking around with his pants around his ankles. Really, everyday I come home he come walking in with his pants around his ankles all smiling and happy to see me.

4. Why am I obsessed with Dylan Moran? I think I have seen him in everything he has done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1v5slCZj8A

While normal people watched football

Normal people, like my wife, watch football on Saturdays. Red, Smiley and I do not. Kat was actually listening to the game at our ward's "Super" Saturday. Honestly, I fail to see what is so super about it. I am sure they also fail to see why I spent my time and money on a reproduction of a 1812 boarding pike. By the way Kat did not take BYU's tragic lose very well. I almost had to call for someone to take us to a safe house. Anyways while the rest of America was watching college football, Red and I mounted my new pike head onto a pole. It was a lot of fun. You can see Red below wearing the required safety googles. You can see the pike in her hand. I don't think it was a great reproduction but then again I have never seen a real one.
Here you can see her helping me marked where the pike fits on the pole.
As you can see that was not all she marked.

Here is a photo of her building a tower.
The project didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, even with Red's help, so I am not posting any photos of the result.

For those of you who do not regular attend "Super" Saturdays they last for a very long time, or Kat went to the movies. Either way we were on our own for dinner. I made a vegetarian Thanksgiving Dinner. Not because I am opposed to eating of animal flesh but because we didn't actual have any turkey and after all the pike mounting I was in no mood to walking to the store. So here it is.
Yes that is stove top stuffing, frozen corn and mashed potatoes with as much butter as I could get away with. The kids enjoyed it.

I thought it only fair to let Red take a photo or two as can be seen below.

All in all it was not bad evening, and now we can repeal boarders with greater efficiency.

And Another One Bits the Dust

So we just hosted the best Civil War Reenactment in the I have ever seen. It was a lot of fun but more importantly it was educational. I have provided a few of photos.

OMG hes been shot! These guys came from CA for our little event.

I told everyone in this photo to pose as if they had died while in the fight. As you can see Yankees fail to follow instructions.

Cavalry to the rescue.

Poor Confederate, died in his prime.

This in my favorite. I am the one in the weeds.

I wish I had thought to lay those two muskets down.

This Yankee may be a bit confused as to what side he should be on, but he is going to open a extra large can of whoop ass either way.

We watched as the Yankees fled in disarray.

I was able to yell "Over the top boys nobody lived forever" for the first time in my life and it actually applied to what I was doing.

This a good view of me from behind.

My tent is the extra large and comfortable one on the left.

Jesse James

I just watched the The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443680/

To be honest I was not expecting much. I had heard this was basically a love story, well I heard wrong. I have always felt the James and Young gang was a by-product of Missouri Guerrilla warfare starring notable characters such as William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson. It is a portion of our Civil War I study when I need reminding of the true "romance" of war.

Anyways, it was more about Robert Ford and less about Jesse James. The characters were engaging and the story was interesting. Jesse was not painted as modern "Robin Hood" nether was Ford painted as the shady assassin.

Convention the Final Frontier

If you read the last post I bet you are dying to know what I was up to in Vegas during the first two days of our vacation. I was at a Star Trek Convention. As proof I submit the photo of me with one of my favorite characters from Star Trek V.

As you can see I am not quite at the dress up level yet. Kat really pushed me to go and she was right to do so. It was not only very enjoyable but fairly educational. For example, I did not know that many Star Trek Fans are females. They were not social awkward, cat ladies types either. I would not be surprised if there were more women than men in attendance. Below an example of a very popular costume this season.

This was another popular costume.

There wear a lot of these but I didn't take many pictures because I didn't want to come off as creepy.

Here are few others that were big hits.

I spoke with the guy below and he really fit the Trekkie stereotype.

These two were pretty drunk. I thought the one on the right was going to throw me over her shoulder and carry me off.












This women was extremly popular, as you can imagine.

I went to a number of the presentation from the actors. I found that most people asked well-thought out, interesting, or humorous questions. Of course there are always the exceptions. Star Trek fans sometime have a hard time understanding why the actors are not as into the series as much as themselves.

I was really touched by Mr. Takei comments about Proposition 8 in CA. He did such a good presentation it almost made me forget about how weird he is. Lawenece Luckinbill was also very profound.

Zachary Quinto's mere presence on stage sent one of the fans into a panic attack/swoon kind of thing. He had to gave her a hug to help her calm down enough to ask her question. He seemed to get all the really strange questions. Such as why he didn't use his sword from Heroes to stab anyone, or how he could have a relationship with Uhura even though Vulcan males only mate once every seven years. I was impressed about how patient he was with people that made even me uncomfortable.

Mr. Shatner is larger than life on stage. My favorite part of his presentation was when called Mr Nimoy a whore/prostitute for jumping at the chance to do the new movie and not doing Generations with Shatner. Really, the term whore was used four time and prostitute twice. Nimoy just shuck his head.It was fantastic.

The best part of the convention was Sunday afternoon. I was in the Men's room, when Mr Nimoy walked in and used the urinal two down from me. I almost told him how much I enjoyed his work, but not even Spock was temptation enough for me to the break the unwritten "no talking at urinal" rule. Plus there is a time and place for everything.

Kevin Sorbo from "Hercules the Legendary Journey" was there and a little grumpy. There was also a huge number of people who played lesser roles.

I bought Kat a "Tribble" as a gift. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trouble_With_Tribbles

She claimed to like it but I have my doubts.

I also think I got hit on by a prostitute. That is the last time I walk the strip with a Star Trek T shirt on.

Vacation

The past ten days we have been on vacation. We left our house and traveled to Las Vegas with Kat's family. Where we meet her oldest brother. They tell me they all had a very good time. You see, I was not with them for the Vegas portion of the trip. My destiny lies elsewhere. Don't despair, I will post on that adventure soon.

From Vegas we traveled to Oceanside and spent our time between the beach, the pool and napping. It was pure, concentrated, bliss. Kat's parents had a three bedroom booked till about Thursday and a one bedroom booked till Sunday. Since we all could not fit in the one bedroom, everyone flew the coop but us. We stayed until right before checkout before leaving. It was great. Kat's parents are superb human beings for letting us use the place.

Of course no family vacation would be complete without historical sites. This is the biggest of a series of Spanish Missions established up the California coast. The mission dates back to 1798 and is called San Luis Rey de Francia. It was beautiful and full of excellent artifacts. Spanish Churches never get old. It was also occupied by the Mormon Battalion in 1847.

It even had a sattelite dish.

Red and Smiley hated the Ocean and wanted nothing to do with it. However, they didn't mind the sand one bit.

Smiley was a bit unsure about this photo.


There was a high quality Fish and Chips place. You could tell because your could feel your arterys clogging as you ate. Kat, being raised in England, loved it.

We ended our vacation by taking Red and Smiley to Excalibur and then staying with one of Kat's cousins. They were of the church going, scripture reading, bishopric type. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Kat and I disagreed on if it it inappropriate to where a T shirt with Damn (and Captain Reynolds) on it to such a household.


Good times where had by all.