Paddy's Wanderings

The Continuing Voyage

StarTrekTicket, originally uploaded by paddy's wandering.

I finally got more then an hour that was not at 2:00 a.m. and went to see the new Star Trek movie. I have seen every Trek movie in the theater from the Original Motion Picture through Nemesis and I was not gonna miss this one, no way.

So me and middle son took a trip to the theater and finally, finally got to see the new movie. All I can say is whoa! It is fast paced action with an excellent story. I liked the action, the story, special effects, just everything.

Like always, I was skeptical about the movie. I saw the teasers, the previews and what not and I was not so sure it would be cool. I was way wrong. Ok I have been saying the same thing about every new installment of the Trek universe because I just love the old series that much. The original got me into science fiction and fueled my ongoing fascination with space. And like always the new Trek stuff was cool. I hope they just keep going and going, I'll never get enough.

And She Was

I just finished reading Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. This is the first book in a fantasy trilogy. I picked up a copy when I was in Traverse City the last time because I wanted to try out his work. Sanderson is writing the final story for Wheel of Time, the series of books started and almost finished by Robert Jordan before his passing. Since I am a big fan of WoT, I thought I better find out more about Sanderson. Let me just say, that they picked the right guy.

Mistborn is a good sized novel, 600+ pages, and I did not want it to end. The story is good and the characters are the kind you care about. Now it is good old fashioned fantasy in a lot of ways but the devil is in the details. The hero is a young girl who is a thief for starters. The magic is based on the use of metals and the bad guy rules the land. There is a lot of difference from your standard young hero goes out to save the world type story. Mistborn has a lot of uniqueness to the story and the characters, enough to make an old fantasy fan like myself, go hmmmm.

Yep, its good. You want something new and fresh and a good summer reading book before the last of the wheel of time stuff comes out in the fall, then go pick up a copy, it will be worth it.

Share your Toys

ToysforTots2003, originally uploaded by paddy's wandering.

One of the best things in the world is a new toy. Seriously, nothing brightens a child's day like a toy at Christmas. Heck even for an old guy like me, I love toys and love giving them. One of the best things I have ever been involved with is Toys for Tots that the Marines do every holiday season. My better 1/2 got me involved because her Marine dad is a supporter.

So I got an opportunity when I owned a game store to have a big event where customers and friends could come in, play the games we love, and donate to Toys for Tots. The first event was in 2003 and a slew of people showed up, toys in hand. We collected a Metric Butt Load of toys and many, many dollars from the raffle all for the kids.

Yeah, we are just big kids and collect and play with a ton of toys ourselves. So who better then to give and share some of that joy. We got the Marines to send a rep and we had a blast that day playing and giving and sharing. I was so proud of all the people who took the time and money to help support a worthy cause.

One of the important lessons in life is to learn to share. When that happens, the world is a better place.

The Upper Mitten

lakeclouds, originally uploaded by paddy's wandering.

On one of the earliest Sheeple Migrations I had the pleasure of participating in, the family went North to the Upper Peninsula when I was a wee lad of eight summers. This was our first big trip and was a lot of fun.

We drove along the Great North Road, across the Mighty Mac and into a wonderland. We of course stopped at a few Sheeple Bait Piles along the way, gathering treasures of sea shells, rubber tomahawks, and assorted bric-a-brac to mark our trail. Our first stop of significance was the Porcupine Mountains . Yep, Michigan has mountains and it was so cold you could spit ice cubes. Lake of the Clouds was an awesome site as we headed toward our next stop.

We drove into Copper Harbor and took a tour of one of the copper mines that was kinda scary, with the rickety elevator and the cold, dark mine shaft. We stopped at a Bait Pile and I got a copper pirate treasure chest bank. A real honest to goodness made from copper bank that I still have to this day.

Then we stopped in a little town called Christmas . There was a general store there and out back they had a real live bear in a cage. If I remember correctly, they got this bear when he was a cub after his mother was hit by a car and kept him there at the store until he died many years later. It was quite the attraction and there was a lot of people buying cokes and peanuts and watching the bear. Almost everyone I have ever talked to that took a Sheeple Migration into the U.P., stopped at Christmas and saw the bear. The better 1/2 did when she was a kid in the Fashion Challenged Seventies, just like I did.

Last stop was the Soo Locks in Saulte Ste Marie and we got to check out the locks between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. It was cool, we even got to watch a ship go through, and of course, got some more Treasures from a Bait Pile.

It was a great trip and a ton of fun. It was cold, it rained and my dad got the Inevitable Cold, but I had so much fun exploring the Upper Mitten for the first, but certainly not last time.

Comet Cyclone

65Comet1967, originally uploaded by paddy's wandering.

Like most Americans, I can trace my life through the cars I have owned and sometimes, those cars can have special meaning. One such car was my ‘first’ car, and I don’t mean the first car I owned, but my first car my parents owned. That car was not just any car, but a 1965 Mercury Comet Cyclone my dad had bought brand new, right off the dealership lot.

But the Comet was a real muscle car with four on the floor, big 271hp V-8 Hi-Po motor and all the goodies; the kind of car that could scoot. Sure, there was the Mustang and Corvette, but for my money, the Comet is way cooler. And now, fourty four years later, my dad found a 1965 Comet almost totally restored, it just needs a few minor touch ups and voila! He has a ’65 Comet again.

It was the car my mom and dad took on their honeymoon and the car they brought me home in from the hospital. And the crazy thing is, I remember standing on the back seat floor looking out the windshield to see where we were going. That’s about it for memories because just before my brother was born when I was all of two and half, they bought a '68 Pontiac. That may be why, when they brought my brother home from the hospital, I threw a book at him.

This time, I am not riding in the back seat. This time, I get to drive…

We can build a better Sci-Fi TV Show

I really liked the movie and the tv series Alien Nation. Like so many sci fi shows over the years, it lasted a season before cancellation. I did enjoy the movies that came out during the nineties and have collected on DVD all that I can find. Leave it to the network to cancel a great show. But what we got, we got good.

I liked the characters, the story lines and the aliens themselves. The ongoing 'love' interest of Sikes and Cathy is great, it shows the humanity of Sikes and just what it takes to get by prejudice and see a person for their true self. I also like George and his 'typical' family struggles and his own 'humanity'. So many story lines just never got to be developed for any length of time, and that is the true tragedy.

This series and story line is awesome and another fine example of the mind of Kenneth Johnson. Imagine my surprise when I was looking at his credits and found out he did all that cool stuff back in the fashion challenged seventies. This is the man who wrote Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman, fave shows when I was a kid.

The Long and Winding Silk Road

A long time ago I discovered the Hearts of Space radio program one sunday morning. I was just trying to tune my stereo in to a station that was not filled with static and I came across the program. I was trying to pick up American Top 40. They were playing a piece that was really different from what I was used to listening to, so I listened until the end to see who it was. It was Kitaro.

I had never heard of him and getting information in 1981 was a lot harder then it is today. So I started digging, asking at record stores and all over, trying to find more music. Eventually I stumbled across the album Silk Road and from there I have become a life long fan. I am also, to this day, a big fan of most New Age music and still sample and pick up a few songs.

I have been fascinated with all things Asian since I was a wee lad watching kung fu movies but there is so much more to explore. My journey to the east has had many paths and Kitaro and his music has provided the soundtrack to my exploration.

2319! 2319!

The wee toddler loves Pixar movies, and well, so does the whole family. So of course we have a bunch of the movies on DVD and the current reigning champ is  Monsters, Inc. I must have watched this movie a gajillion times, unlike the other movies  where we are only at about half the viewings,  so far..

Hey I  am a Disney kid and love  Monsters too, but when you start quoting the dialogue to co-workers in casual conversation, then its time for an intervention. Mike and Sully are great, its a fun movie, but a little variety would be nice.We were watching the Disney Channel the other day and the movie Cars came on so I got a break, sort of.

You know your slipping to the dark side when you open the pantry and a pile of cothes and toys fall out at your feet and you yell 2319! Our house is the poster house for the CDA and what happens when you leave the closet door open.

Capt. Tripps does not exist

Today is housework day, and when we do housework in the ole homestead, we do it in style. Said housework is always rather boring and involves much cleaning of the weekly grunge that builds up in our hectic lives. So after a long, long week of working at a real job, we spend a saturday(note this is a holiday weekend saturday and no Sheeple Migration for us) doing laundry and assorted other chores.

But this day is a day for The Stand. We are running the mini series on the television to help us along our way as we are big, huge fans of the mini series and the novel. You might ask why we would do this. I say we do this to help distract us from the drudgery of chores, so there it is.

First part of The Stand is the outbreak of the plague and almost everyone dies, except our heroes of course. I am not sure what is more horrifying in the begining. Everyone is dying of the super flu but the really horrifying part is those that survive in cities filled with the dead. Trying to find other survivors and to get out of dodge to somewhere safe seems pretty scary, or the fact that something as cataclysmic as a man made virus killing everyone?

The social creatures that we are, lends to survivors gathering together, for good or ill. And so begins the end of the world, or the begining of the New World. I like it so I watch it, and the book is tens time better, as most books are prone to be.

Hey bob-a-luga, can you dig your man?

The Long, Long Trailer

crestwood, originally uploaded by paddy's wandering.

Back a few years ago, my better ½ wanted to take a spur of the moment Sheeple Run to one of our favorite places to go in the Mitten, Traverse City. She was talking to Gammie Sheeple and said we should make a run to the Cherry Capital. So we packed up our Sheeple teens and road tripped up the Great North Road. As we did
not plan ahead, we did not have a hotel reservation and the Cherry Capital is notorious for being booked solid during the Autumn Sheeple Migration. My better ½ said no problem, I got us two rooms at the Crestwood Motel, just a couple miles from downtown. Now I have been to C.C. many times over the years, but for the life of me, I could not remember the Crestwood. Not to worry, she says, it is on the main road into town, we can’t miss it. She further states it is a historical motel of the old Traverse City, the one we remember as Sheeple Kids. Ok sure, no problem, it’s a spur of the moment Migration, its all good.

Then as we are just leaving Acme(I never look up in Acme for fear of falling anvils, and yes that really is a town) we see the Crestwood. I just about drove past thinking this can’t be the place, but it is. So we pull in and sure enough, it is a Motel with Sheeple Cabins! Right out of the late forties, early fifties. Definitely, a historical landmark.

The look on my face must have been priceless because my better ½ says hey it will be good. So we go to check in and the folks are really nice and we are all set and we get the keys to our cabins. I can be adventurous sometimes, kinda sorta, ok maybe not as much as I like. So in we walk right back in time to the early fifties complete with stove, fridge and sink, circa 1953. The beds look fine but of the Honeymooners variety. The bathroom was so small if I changed my mind I had to open the door, but again, its all good. The television was of the tube variety with rabbit ears and an ancient cable box strapped onto the side. However on a good note, we watched a 'classic' Redwings game from the fifties with Gordie Howe playing on classic ESPN.

To top it all off it has a space heater and when we turned it on that night because it got really cold, the circuit breaker blew, much to our dismay. We did not have a phone, so we had to bang on the managers door, and he had to regret to inform us that he did not have any spare breakers and we would have to wait until the morning. That was the proverbial icing on the Sheeple Cake.

I stalked and I fumed and said nothing. Then a light bulb when on in my head and I started to laugh, a full belly laugh as everyone just stared at me, and the better 1/2 giving me the look that says if you say I told you so I am gonna hurt you with my little fist, just made me laugh harder.

It was the Long Long Trailer. I had just seen that movie about two weeks ago and laughed at Lucy and Desi and their trip from hell. This was my version of the trailer, complete with the appropriate interiors and everything. When I finally explained the whole mess, my better ½(this is why she is the better ½) laughed right along with me as everyone else looked at us like we were nuts. Maybe we are a little bent, but from then on, that Sheeple Migration was nothing but fun and filled with laughs.