Back to the Future

Last night I had one of the most coherent and involved dreams that i have had in a very long time. Characters, static setting, and a loose plot; protagonists, antangonists, conflict... this is a simplification of the dream...

The location was somewhere in the vague Chicago area, but it wasn't necessarily Chicago. The area was pretty run down and quite old. There were a few new houses that were being built, but while most of them had been started, production had been halted. Most houses were multi family, even if the house hadn't been built as that in the first place. Everything was gray, and the sky was dark... always.

The one link to reality that this dream had was that all of this was taking place a few days before we were to leave for the Feast of the Hunters' Moon, an event that i have gone to every single year for the last 20 years (and my 21st time to this event is in one week from today.) I was going to be riding to the event with Steelbuddha and Raggedy Android...

An early part of the dream, i was packing up my gear; i was having a tough time finding all of my gear, and i was realizing that i hadn't washed my uniform since the last event. But i found a clean shirt (a shirt that i don't actually own, but it would be nice if i did...) and i packed my gear in the van that we would be taking to the event...

so, i'm not sure WHY i was in this run down area of "Chicago", but there i was. There was strife and violence all over the area. We were always carrying guns, but these were nothing like real bullet guns. The guns we carried shot things like poison pellets and stun darts. I remember having to shoot a group of people just to get into the house i was staying in. While at a street market, there was a shooting "game" that i was talked into playing. The main target was a tank, and then other people-targets would pop up around the tank. I made every shot, and then for the hell of it, shot at (and precisely hit) a cigar that one of the people targets was holding.

Technology was somewhat advanced, but life was very backwards. On one hand, people had tiny personal portable computers, but on the other most were dirt poor and struggling to survive in houses that should have been condemned decades before. The dark cloud that persevered over the neighborhood was actually some sort of magnetic cloud... and it made my cell phone useless.

There were also a lot of cats around the neighborhood. They came and went from house to house. Maybe they were communal cats that helped keep down a mouse and rat problem?

So, the time for us to leave for Feast came and went, and i hadn't seen SB or RA... they must not have known that my cell phone wasn't able to take calls...

so, i'm trying to keep my phone on long enough to retrieve RA's phone number... the land line phone i was trying to call from was very strange and for some reason, very tricky to use. Even better, the batteries in the phone were starting to leak... so, i get the batteries replaced, but was having a tough time just dialing the stupid phone.

It was late Friday night and i KNEW Steelbuddha and Raggedy Android had gone on to Feast withouth me. But i had convinced the people who i was staying with that the three of us should all go to Feast early Saturday morning because it was only a couple hours away. i had my car with me, and they had their own car. The thing was that it was difficult to get out of this part of the city. This kept the riff-raff in and "upstanding" citizens safely out. If we drove two cars, i would be able to go back to Milwaukee after Feast without risking getting lost in the hell hole...

and then i woke up.

I don't like being flashed

Okay, this picture wasn't taken in my car, but it's what i saw on our way home from Pennsylvania. Fourth time pulled over in my life, second time in the last couple months, and now my second actual ticket. Clocked at 87 just twenty miles away from being out of Ohio (glad it was ONLY 87, since i was averaging 100+ in the flatter parts of Pennsylvania). The cop reduced the charge to just 20 over, saving me a lot of money, probably because i had all my paperwork (ID, registration, and insurance) all in order, and i didn't ask (let alone BEG) for a break.

i had just crested a hill when i saw him in the median. He actually proably clocked me at slower than i HAD been going... It took him awhile to pull out, so there was a long moment that i thought he wasn't coming. i slowed way down (careful to not flash my brakes WHILE passing him) and i tucked myself behind a semi who was doing about 63 (in a 65). He caught up, moved behind me, and just made me sweat as he followed me for awhile. S was wondering whether or not he was going to pull us over or not... "I'll get out my knitting if he pulls us over!" i would bet what he was doing was running my plates to assess the situation... is the car stolen? has the car been linked to any crimes? All i know is that he's already decided to pull me over, but he's just protecting himself.

The ticket is ONLY for $79. Was speeding worth it? eh, no. Well... okay, we still shaved an hour off the mapquest drive time, and gas IS cheaper than it was even just a month ago. It sucks, sure, but it wasn't as bad as i thought it would be.

And going that fast is SO MUCH FUN.

i need a race track... i need to see just how fast my beast CAN go!

The Tarot, but Not the Carrot

You scored as II - The High Priestess. The High Priestess is a card of intuition, instinct and hidden knowledge. She knows all your secrets, you can hide nothing from her. Yet you will never know the secrets she herself protects.If well aspected in a Tarot spread, this card can indicate the use of intuition to solve problems; trust to your instincts. If badly aspected, it can mean suppression and ignoring of such instincts - following your head at the expense of your heart. II - The High Priestess 75% XI: Justice 69% III - The Empress 69% XIII: Death 69% XIX: The Sun 56% 0 - The Fool 56% VI: The Lovers 56% I - Magician 50% VIII - Strength 50% XV: The Devil 50% XVI: The Tower 38% X - Wheel of Fortune 13% IV - The Emperor 13% Which Major Arcana Tarot Card Are You? created with QuizFarm.com

Volkswagen Saves the World

The Biggest cause of World War II was World War I, and not just because two follows one...

The Great War, as it was called at the time, was chaos and devistation like the world had never seen before. Hundreds of miles of trenches were carved into Mother Earth through Belgium, France, and Germany. Weapons of Mass Destruction such as machine guns and mustard gas were born and/or perfected during this time. Boys went "Over the Top" to their inevitable deaths running headlong into showers of bullets from machine guns. Disease was rampant in the mud of the Somme and Ypres. The war wiped out generations of able-bodied men in nations across Europe, and it was sparked because of the assasination of an archduke.

The United States kept its hands out until the last moment... we swept in like a noble cavalry charge in a poorly made film and helped clean up the mess. We helped Britain and France whup the "Huns" of Germany and Austria. Once the bullets stopped and the treaties were signed, we redrew the map of Europe, gave large chunks of Germany to other countries, and left the "Huns" to rot in Hell, thank you very much.

Big Mistake.

We think that the US had it bad when the market crashed in 1929. Imagine life in a war-ravaged country, void of a entire generation of men, with the world's economy spiralling down the drain. Along comes a man who offers you a clean shirt, a job, and a hot bowl of soup. You don't care that the shirt is Brown and the job is rebuilding Germany's army (even though Germany is not allowed to have an army, as stated in those treaties signed in Paris ten years before.)

So starts World War II.

The Allies learned from their mistakes at the end of The Great War, and knew that to insure global economic stability they couldn't1. leave the defeated countries to Rot In Hell again.

One factory retooled for civilian production was a factory in a town that would be named Wolfsburg (named for a nearby castle). That factory was Volkswagen, which was originally started in 1938 for the production of the People's Car, a car that never before or during the war saw civillian production save for a few prototypes. By 1946 under British supervison, the factory slowly started churning out the ugly little "bugs". By 1956, Volkswagen was strong enough to ship to the North American market. Germany's economic stability was guaranteed.

No, Volkswagen was not the only business that was rebuilt by the Allies, but it might be one of the most globally recognizable as GERMAN that was part of the rebuilding of war torn Germany. And because of the economic stability provided by such a company, hopefully Germany will never again give a foothold to a maniac like the evil we saw spawned by the distant Great War...

Just Desserts

recently in the Milwaukee area a teen-aged girl was gang-raped by up to 19 men and older boys. Reports say that she is HIV+, but that she was positive before the attack. Therefore, her rapists are now at risk of infection. i say... their punishment should include that, if they do test positive for HIV, that they receive no medical treatment for their infections AND that they get their dicks cut off (so they aren't passing it along to others).

yep.

Past Perfect Tense

i used to fancy myself a writer. i used to write a lot of short stories and essays and even some bad poetry (what other poetry to highschoolers write but BAD poetry?) With online access, i could write a lot, but maybe that is the roadblock. Anything i post COULD be read by many people. Not that is IS, but it COULD be... and having an audience opens one up to criticism and failure...

I've got a sizeable portfolio of short stories and essays all written on the Commodore 64, and i have it all saved on disk (and most of it printed out) but while i still have the computer, i don't have the printer. There goes THAT careeer path...

i've kept my online blog intentionally fairly bland because of my title crap. there is a lot that i would like to talk about that i don't just for the sake of decorum. Hmmm i think that i am far enough away from all of that that i can stop caring...

personality test...

My Personality

Neuroticism	88
Extraversion	24
Openness To Experience	81
Agreeableness	20
Conscientiousness	17

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