Remember "Mars Saga?"

There was a Commodore 64 game I bet many of you reading this may remember called "Mars Saga." I thought it also was called "Mines of Titan," but apparently, these are sister games that were very similar.

Here's the Wikipedia link that tells about the games.

Here's what we should have been doing to beat the game.

I ought to go download it, just for old time's sake.

A new DHP is here

Dark Horse Presents issue 9 is here.

Maybe I don't need to keep posting these links every month, but it's always worth a look. Worth noting: the art in "Wondermark." Too bad they covered it up with all those word balloons. I'd just as soon take a gander at the art with no dialog.

Next month: "Milk and Cheese: Dairy Products Gone Bad!" Yay!

Plastic surgery is yucky

Here's a story about plastic surgery that ... well I don't know what it does, really. Here's the main point:

"But is all this really making us look younger? Or just weirder?"

What's disturbing is the slide show included with the article about the stars who have had plastic surgery and what they look like.

If plastic surgery made a person look younger and more attractive, I'd say it was a good thing. But all too often, even stars who have the money to pay for expensive doctors and procedures don't look better. They just look freakish.

What's disturbing about it is these same people keep going back and back and back for more as if they honestly think they look better. Most of the time, they don't. Most of the time they look worse with each new procedure.

Collagen lips and cheek implants and eye lifts don't look natural to me. I get the idea, but it just doesn't work.

Look at the slide show and see Wayne Newton. He barely looks like a person, much less like Wayne Newton. If I was a little kid, and he started talking to me at the store or something, I'd probably be so creeped out, I'd cry.

For what it's worth, I think a person is supposed to age. You are not supposed to look the same at 50 as you did at 40 or 30 or 20. There's nothing wrong with that. There is something wrong with looking the way some of the people in the slide show look. It's not natural, and may not even be human.

One the other hand, there's another interesting interactive slide show with the article. It tells you what's supposed to happen to you as your body ages.

I say, with diet and exercise, and good genetics, a person can look best without collagen, botox or surgery. It might not be the same best as at a younger age, but that's OK.

Serial cereal blogging

Since my post about Coco Wheats, I have not eaten any Coco Wheats. I have eaten:

* Raisin Bran
* A TV dinner breakfast with eggs, bacon and a McDonald's-esque hash brown
* Waffles
* A huge breakfast with eggs, bacon, hash browns, and toast from Waffle House
* English Muffins

Just thought you'd like to know.

(MisterCellaneous: Making the mundane even more mundane since 1970.)

A moment of clarity

I was listening to the new They Might Be Giants children's CD called "Here come the 123's" the other day, and amidst all the counting, I remembered a strange moment of clarity from my own childhood.
I don't remember how old I was, but I remember sitting down on the couch and deciding I would start to count, and I would count as high as I could.
After I got to 250 or so, I realized I knew and understood the pattern of counting by tens, hundreds, thousands and so on, and could continue counting indefinitely.
So, with that realization, I stopped counting.
I have no idea to this day how high I could really count, but I assume it to be somewhere in the trillions. I could keep going after that if I found out what comes after trillions.

If you are flying, here are some good tips

Thanks to Yahoo!, here's an article, with links to more, that tells you what to do if you get bumped on a flight, which, apparently, is more likely than ever.

Also in there is a link that tell you about "Rule 240," which I think is very interesting. I tried invoking it once, and was met with a dumb stare, but when you are stuck anything is worth a try.

Serial cereal blogging

I am out of cereal, and I don't want to eat the "Lucky Charms" in the cupboard. I like "Raisin Bran" OK, but I have to put a lot of sugar in it.

I am considering returning to "Coco Wheats."

I know of so few people who eat, and like, Coco Wheats that sometime I think the company keeps making them just for me.

That Web site has lots of cool stuff on it. Why doesn't somebody make commercials like this any more?

Closing out the closer

Jow Borowski got put on the disabled list after blowing two saves with a fastball that topped out at something like 83 miles per hour.

I am surprised that Indians even brought him back this year. He did lead the league in saves last year, but was pretty dicey most of the time. I'd have had serious reservations had I been the manager and had to use him to protect a one-run lead in the playoffs. Better perhaps that they sign someone or trade for a closer to replace him.

I don't know who the Indians should turn to as the closer now, though. Rafael Betancourt has been such a god set up guy I'd hate to lose him in that role. The other pitchers in the bullpen are all untested as closers.

I wonder if the Cubs would consider a trade for former Indian Bobby Howry, who lost a chance at the closer's job to Kerry Wood?

People just listen for the commercials

Here's Rush Limbaugh telling us why his commercials get higher ratings than his show.

The key quote:

"What it is a testament to -- if the research is accurate -- is the deep bond of loyalty that you and I have and that you are profoundly interested in what is happening during commercial breaks on this program."

Isn't this the same kind of reasoning that leads to statements like "Insurgent attacks are up, therefore we must be winning?"

Save gas; slow down

This story tells us that driving too fast may be costing us more than we think.

Somehow, I think they missed the point

I was watching "I Love The 80s: 3D" this evening. The show played a clip from "Cocktail," the movie with Tom Cruse. Of itself, it was pretty unremarkable.

However, they chose a clip that had a curse word in it, specifically a girl calling ol' Tom an "ass hole." Since it was on normal TV, they had to bleep over it right?

They bleeped over "hole" and left in "ass." So, the girl called Tom Cruse an "ass bleep."

Umm, last time I checked, isn't "ass" the cuss word?

Something to make you shudder

One of the more horrifying things I have read in my life is in this article, in which a woman describes her ‘escape’ from polygamy. She left the same sect that 534 women and children were freed from in Texas.

The worst part:

The 40-year-old Jessop was 18 when she was forced to marry Merril Jessop, who is said to have taken over leadership of the sect when Jeffs went to prison. ...
“The method he would use with infants was a form of water torture,” Jessop said of her former husband. “He would spank the baby until it was screaming out of control, and then he would hold the baby faceup under a tap of running water so it couldn’t breathe. He would do this repeatedly. Sometimes, it would go on for an hour, until the baby was so exhausted it couldn’t cry anymore. This method he called ‘breaking them."

Is there anything more unthinkably sick that that? It's essentially waterboarding babies. There are some things people do I can't understand, and my brain revolts at the thought. Waterboarding babies is one of them. How on earth could a person do this, and how, no matter how beaten down and intimidated into submission, would someone else have to be to stand by and let it happen?

The story doesn't say (although that one passage was so disturbing that I can't honestly say I read the rest with a clear head) what happened to her former husband.

My first reaction was the someone should spank him so hard he can't stop screaming and hold his head underwater. But that's just looking for revenge.

More suitable, I think, that he be allowed to rot in jail. The message should be this: We could have done to him what he did to others, but we choose not to. I'd rather he spend the rest of his life thinking about what he did and how far it separates him from every other human being on the planet.

A-Rod or Jeter at short?

This article on Yahoo! Sports tells us, "A minor injury to Derek Jeter is a wake-up call to the Yankees, who must entertain the possibility of moving A-Rod to shortstop."

If you read through it, the author lays out a case stating that Jeter has been awful at short for a few years now and A-Rod was once one of the best shortstops in the game. In fact, it was greatly debated when the Yankees got Rodriguez whether or nor Jeter should move to third base to accommodate his glove.

If it was a tabletop game, I'd move Jeter to first and try A-Rod at short. The Yankees don't have a star at first base, and Jeter would certainly give them one. There are a bunch of third basemen available in trade, to include Joe Crede and Brandon Inge. certainly the Yankees could afford to pony up what it would take to get one of those guys if they didn't have someone else.

Since it isn't a tabletop game, I guess we'll see what happens. I suspect that the Yankees will find a fill-in for Jeter and keep A-Rod at third.

Animated cartoons

He-he.

If gas stations don't make money off of gasoline ...

... why do they sell it?

According to this, they make much more money by selling candy bars, pop and other semi-healthy and unhealthy things.

Doesn't this make the whole point of the gas station/convenience store at the corner to get you inside to buy things other than gas? Then why not get rid of the pay at the pump credit card thingamabobs and make everyone go inside, and assault them with various types of advertising that made America great?

However, "Increasingly, a station owner's biggest challenge is convincing drivers to step inside the store after they gas up."

Well, DUH!

To get a competitive edge, many station owners are investing heavily in other things. Rutter's Hartman says he makes more selling a cup of coffee than a gallon of gas, and is operating his stations with that in mind. He's emphasizing convenience, building bigger stations and investing over $1 million in bathroom upgrades, "more like you would find in an upscale restaurant."

I can see it now:
"Oh, I'm sorry sir, but I am afraid we insist you wear a tie before we give you keys to the restroom. We have an image to uphold, you know. "

At least it will make more jobs. Think of how many people will be employed to brush off your sport coat and hand you a mint as you exit the restroom.

April Fool's Day

Look what Google is doing for April Fool's Day. I have no idea how long it will stay up, so if it's gone, I apologize.
And, oh by the way, here's what Gmail is doing, too.

Both are very amusing.