Seneca Nation Casino at Niagara Falls

I met my son and daughter in law in Niagara Falls for the weekend - lots of fun! They convinced me I couldn't walk across bridge to Canada since I didn't have a passport or birth certificate, so I stayed behind and had a coffee at Starbucks. But I saw the Seneca Nation Casino across the street so I figured why not gamble? Last weekend I fired shotguns for 2 hrs with Nathaniel, so this weekend i figured I would gamble at a casino. So i went in, and the casino was huge, as big as a convention center. There was background music like I was entering heaven. Mostly there were slot machines, and the customers were for the most part older seniors, some with canes, over weight, and smoking - the same crowd you see at a racetrack. So I sat down by the slots that had a grand prize of a Lexus SUV, on display above us. I put in $10, played three times, and I won: whistles went off, sirens, bells, lights, I mean my machine made more noise than anyone else's. I thought I must have won the Lexus, but then again, no one was rushing up to congratulate me. The machine wanted to know if I wanted to play some more, and I selected a receipt. I put the receipt in a cashout machine, and it turned out I won $19. That is, I bet $10, and got $19 back, so I really only won $9 (they count what you bet as part of your winnings). So I left $9 richer. I gave the housekeeper who made my room at the holiday inn a $5 tip, so I only had $4 left. Thats my only experience gambling. A winner!

Dolce the cats hideout

I spread a blanket over my leather couch to prevent dolce the cat from clawing the leather, and he likes to knock the blanket off and hide in it. Its funny, because I wonder where he is, and then all of a sudden the blanket starts to move, and I see part of a tail, or part of an ear. he also hides on the dining room chair, the table spread covers the chair, so he is not visible unless I bend over and look for him, and then I see a paw.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Great film - just remade in 2008 - haven't seen the remake, but hard to believe it could be an improvement over the original (1953). But the great scene is when Helen ( the babe of interest) tells the robot:
" Gort! Klaatu barada nikto! "
we don't know what that means, but it gives instructions to the robot to protect helen, rescue Klaatu, bring him back to life, and help save earth. Great film!

Shoot skeet in Texas

So my son nathaniel and I are driving from Austin back to Dallas, in the afternoon, after attending a morning orientation to U Texas School of Business. He is checking out MBA schools. As we drive on I 35, we discuss possibly renting shotguns and shooting skeet the next day, even though its something we have never done. And then we saw it: a skeet range off I 35 (there is a frontage road on texas interstates, so its one long side of the road advertisement for used cars (wrecks) and flea markets (junk). So we turn off, walk in, "we want to shoot." They gave us a shotgun, 2 boxes of shells, and some tokens and turned us loose. We shot with a very large man who was a self professed "expert." He helped us alot, but he was kinda marginal (like after he shoots all his co-workers, the survivors say, "he was quiet, liked guns, but we never thought..."). We shot for two hours, and Nathaniel was good. This is a great way to release stress. But only in Texas can you pull off the interstate, flop down $80, no identification, nothing, just cash down on the counter top, and they give you a shotgun and shells to blast away for 2 hours. Only in texas. or maybe Afghanistan...

the F word in Big Lebowski, 281 times

here it is, all 281 times. the origin of "f.u.c.k" is hard to determine, but many languages have verbs that are very similar. Let us just say that the movie the big lebowski explores the various forms of this word, from verb to noun, adjective, adverb and so forth ("what have you...") Newsweek did a story on the movie this week - nothing new there for us "Achievers" - we know it all already. One of my students wrote an analysis, suggesting that the cowboy ("you got that whole...cowboy thing...") is really The Dude in an earlier life - that in the past, the Dude was a cowboy, herding the steers, fighting rustlers, and...eh...abiding. I thought this gave a whole new spiritual dimension to the movie, The Dude as a reincarnation of past heros. I gave the guy an A on the paper, probably BS though, but fun reading it. Newsweek's analysis says that the Dude, is broke, lives in poverty, has an aimless life, is drunk or stoned most of the time, and his only recreation is bowling, and that somehow today's college students who are caught up in upwardly mobile lifestyles and expectations see him as the ultimate anti hero - no crap?! Wow! they figured that out! only took them ten years !

Great Song "Common People": Rock Out William Shatner!

I have listened to this song before, really liked it, never realized (until I was entering grades in Blackboard at negative warp 3.5 - there are delays between each entry, and 106 grades TAKES ONE HOUR SO I HOPE THE STUDENT APPRECIATE THIS) but enough with my anger at Gradebook, check out this song! Part of it narrated by William Shatner, great music. Rock it Bill! And yet here is another version.
Here are lesser appreciable Shatner music attempts:
Rocket Man
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

I have it from good authority, that the last two Shatner music contributions have been played to enemy noncombatants at Camp XRay, and that they have all confessed to everything, including alien abduction and the Kennedy assasination. Book em' Danno!!!

Fake Sarah Palin pic: Real vid Palin firing auto rifle

I was so disappointed to hear that this photo is fake. It's a good phoney though, her head is proportional to the body, so someone worked on this more than a couple seconds. My regret is that it is a fake, because it would have boosted McCain ticket polls by at least 3 % ! Perhaps the McCain campaign should not have been so quick to dismiss this as a fake - maybe they should have said yeah it real, and notice that the safety is on too because she is careful with firearms. Here she is getting firing range practice in Kuwait with auto weapon. this is not a fake. Update: I finally saw the vid, and I believe she is firing a M16 variant, a model used by marines and some army units.

funny impersonator Sarah Palin

here is a funny you tube video of a sarah palin impersonator. So funny I laughed my a** off even though my back is killing me and pain killers haven't kicked in yet. There is part 1 and 2, and a McCain video too. I only saw Part 1 and it is really funny!!!

Village of Stonington

Stonington is a beautiful village, a former fishing village, and in the late 1700's and early 1800's, a seal hunting port. We saw only one commercial fishing boat coming in from the Sound, so now stonington is a place for wealthy people to have a summer house, and retirement condos. Cheapest place I found was over $600K, a two bedroom home. the condo's are over $one million. Here is a video of the public dock, and from a park located on the sound. Videos show how beautiful, peaceful this village is.

Ships at Mystic Seaport

here are photos of ships at the Mystic Seaport taken over Labor Day.

Whaling ship

Here are pictures of Harpoons on the whaling ship Morgan in Mystic Seaport. these are authentic! hard to imagine hunting whales with these small weapons - at least the whale had a fighting chance.