Paddy's Wanderings

Dinosaurs do Rule the Earth!

That my friends, is an Apatosaurus. According to my children, I rode one to school when I was a wee lad. Little did they know.. This is, quite naturally, one of my favorite dinosaurs. Yes fellow wanderers, I love dinosaurs and have done so since I discovered them as a wee lad in elementary school. I watch movies, read books and magazine articles, I am an amateur dino fanatic. Must have been my childhood.

The Flintstones were in syndication when I was a wee lad. Who wouldn't want Dino as a pet? I still watch the show when I can catch it because of all the crazy dino stuff. I have always wanted a pterodactyl dictating machine busily punching away on a stone tablet.

When I saw the preview for this movie I was jazzed! My mom had a copy of the book Jurassic Park and I devoured it before going to see the move. I was blown away! What a cool concept and then I went to the movie.. To walk amongst real dinosaurs? Oh yeah, I wanted to do that with all my kids heart. Even as an adult, that kid was still there, jumping up and down, wanting to run with the dinosaurs!

Today, the techno-tyke and I are watching a marathon of The Land Before Time. He looked at me and said in his wittle voice, 'I love dinosaurs'. Well that settled it, today was marathon day with Little Foot and friends. And, it gave me an idea for a blog post. The tyke is a pretty good assistant. Good thing he works for broccoli and doritos (hey it was his snacks of choice!) and chocolate milk.

In all seriousness, the science of dinosaurs is pretty darn cool and the geek in me likes that as well and I do indeed, read scientific articles about dinosaurs. But they are still a kid's passion, so I can be goofy and have fun too. Be careful of that big pile of poo! and..

Happy Dino Wanderings!

Surfing Crop Circles

I love crop circles. I have had this addiction since I was a wee lad back in the Fashioned Challenged Seventies. Try as I might, I keep searching out new images and reading about crop circles from time to time. I have no idea why something like this fascinates me so. Then again, maybe I do. It is a duality thing.

As a kid, it was a fascination with an unknown. The above picture is taken near Stonehenge and anything from the Salisbury Plain is cool by me. It is ancient peoples, some residual power seeping from the earth. Maybe it is aliens from some far off planet. Maybe it is a natural occurrence in the land of Arthur. As a kid with a vivid imagination, all things were possible, even as the circles got more and more complex.

Maybe it was a couple of guys pulling a prank.

Well.. carp! That is not fun or far out or super cool mysterious. Maybe it is the monkey syndrome, the copy cat syndrome and a bunch of people are doing it. Man, even people doing it as promotional stuff.. Geesh..

Okay I dig album cover art work. I dig Zeppelin. You had to know that was coming...

So maybe ancient peoples and space aliens jam out to Black Dog or Whole Lotta Love.. maybe the Immigrant Song.. so what? Music binds creation together.

One time I cut a circular patch out in the back yard (I get these strange ideas some times and just act on em) and came in and sat down. When asked if I had finished cutting the grass, I said sure, knowing full well there would have to be visual verification. My dad was not amused.

One of those burning questions I still have is, why go out in the middle of the night and stamp down your neighbors field in a geometric pattern? Did the flaming dog poop on the porch trick not work? Did the poor neighbor not have Prince Albert in a can? I just wonder what possessed them.. to do such things.

Either way, I still dig crop circles and I still remember as a kid the wonder they produced. Real or fake, probably a bit of both in my opinion (there is that duality thing again), it does spark something, doesn't it?

Happy Crop Circle Wanderings!

Of Myths and Monsters

When I was a wee lad back in the Fashioned Challenged Seventies, one of my favorite televsion shows was in search of. I was totally fascinated by mysteries and the unexplained that I could not wait for the latest episode!

The show was hosted by Leonard Nimoy from 1976 to1982. To my young self, it was Spock showing me all the far out mysteries of the world. This was the original far out TV show and is probably the reason I watch so much History and Discovery Channel today.

But as a kid.. these strange, crazy stories were far out cool. From Martians and Atlantis, to UFO's and Aliens, to Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. Whoo hoo! Tallyho! This was super cool stuff! Thirty years ago Leonard Nimoy was ghost hunting! 

Myths, legends, mysterious ancient civilizations, man it had it all. No, I did not forget ESP! You should have known that.. Quirky and cool, what more could you want? Well okay.. the Amityville episode still freaks me out.

What a wonderful world we live in when a person can catch a couple channels worth of programming, every, single, day! just like

in search of...

Kid Wonderful

Monday was the launch of Kid Wonderful and I am pretty excited. Okay, I am very excited! This is an awesome opportunity for me. I get to write articles and blog and ramble on about kids. Kids are one of my favorite subjects!

You may not know this so I will let you in on the not so secret, secret. I loved being a kid. I love reading to kids and playing cars and building stuff with blocks. I am still a big kid really. I have been fighting the whole growing up thing for a long time. I have enjoyed having kids and I am going to enjoy being a grandfather. Kids really are wonderful.

I get to work with some truly awesome parents who are very creative, hard working people. Together, I believe we can fill a website with some informative, entertaining, and most of all, fun stuff. To get a chance to do this kind of thing is exciting. I am grateful for the chance and look forward to the opportunity.

I hope you will come visit. I will post up links to the articles from all of the talented writers everywhere I hang out on the 'net. You can also subscribe to the news feed or hit the like button on Facebook and then you'll get regular updates.You can also follow on Twitter at @Kid_Wonderful.

Dont be shy. Please feel free to comment on articles, offer feedback, and contact the writers. We love that kind of stuff. Pass it along too, share with your friends and family. I am sure there will be something for all parents, and grandparents! to enjoy.

Remember my fellow wanderers.. Kids are Wonderful!

Olivia & Me

That, my friends, is Olivia. She is the one in the pink hat. That other big scary guy is me. Pretty neato picture taken by my son Julian in the hospital.

Olivia is about 20 hours old at the time of the pic. Me? Technically I am 44 years, 8 months, 8 days old at that moment. Or in kiddo age, 536.3 months. Man.. that is a lot of months!

For you numerology people, she was born at 7:23 on 7/23 and weighed in at 7lbs, 2 oz. We should play the lottery!

For us astrology nuts, she is a Leo. The Lion!

Whoo hoo! Julian and Melissa had a kitty!

I thought I was too young to have children at 23 but I was wrong. I think I am too young to be a grandpa at 44 and I have no doubt I am wrong about that too. I knew this day would come someday. The past few months I have been thinking about it a lot. I have this new hat to wear, and it feels pretty cool.

The family is pretty excited. Better 1/2 and gammie have a girl to make stuff for and they are knee deep in plans and material for everything from blankies to barbie dream houses. The two uncles are pretty geeked too, even middle son who will make a fine uncle. The techno-tyke says he has a lots of toys she can play with and share. They can play cars while they watch Chicken Little..

All in all, this is cool and we are going to have some fun. You can plan and anticipate and all that, but in the end, when your holding the wee one, all that just goes out the window. There is nothing like a new baby, a new member of the family.

I know what Curly meant by just one thing. That one thing for me is family.

The Dark Journeys Collection is Here!

The Collection is here! You can get a copy at Jenny's website. I followed the Blog Tour, I bought the individual stories and I am buying the collection for the 'extra' story. Why? It is simple, the stories are good, very good. There is something for everyone in the collection, horror, fantasy, science fiction(Black Velveteen rawks! ~ had to say that again!) and for three buckeroos?

It is a deal beyond all deals. I have paid 8 bucks for a mag and got one story that didn't suck, it wasn't great, it just didn't suck. Yeah.. So I am serious when I say you will find a story that knocks your socks off and the writing is top notch. Read some of the excerpts, take a stroll through the site and check out the book, then buy a copy if you find a story you like if you have not already done so.

Happy Reading!

On The Silk Road

In a previous life, I had a friend whose father listened to Hearts of Space out of CMU and got me hooked on the radio station. I discovered something there that changed my life. I am a big music lover and like just about anything. The station played 'new age' music and I found Kitaro one early Sunday morning. It has been a road to wonder since then.

That pic is from the album cover to Silk Road. Yeah, I had that in vinyl and played the grooves out of it, spending countless hours listening through headphones. The music is truly amazing. In the hazy eighties Kitaro did concerts throughout Asia that would attract a couple hundred thousand people. No joke. I would day dream of hitching a ride to catch a live performance. I have seen videos of some of his performances, and man, they rock like nothing I have ever seen.

I have collected so many versions of Silk Road that I can listen to a different version every day of the week for a couple months. Check out this live version.

Pretty cool. Musician, composer and all that. Truly beautiful music. Words do not do justice. So listen some more, then. And while you listen and are blown away by the violin, that is Lorenza Ponce and she is pure awesome.

And one more, cause I know you wont just link over to youtube and watch every single video. This one is for Sally...

Yeap, Sally is a big fan too, and she loves the drums and Kitaro can kick it. Now that I am jazzed on Kitaro I think I will listen to a few albums. Thursdays are good days too.

Happy Wanderings!

To The Moon!

Yeap, I was 3 1/2 years old when humans landed on the moon. Hard to imagine its been 41 years, but there it is. This is one of my first memories and I have no doubt is the beginning of my fascination with space. But that is cool because, it has never been just about space, or the moon, but about technology, exploration, science and dreams as well.

It still is and I have no doubt the moon will always fascinate me. Science Fiction has fueled that fire over the years starting way back with Jules Verne, and still going strong today. I still want to strap a rocket on and fly to the moon, even if science has made those early dreams seem silly. After all, it is rocket science.

The moon was groovy in the seventies and I read science and SF in equal doses to get all there was to know about the moon. I was a kid, but I thought someday we would have a moon base and I could go live there, maybe by the time I got out of college! Then along came the Eighties, and the moon was super cool!

I wanted my MTV almost as much as I wanted my moon house. Looks like I was going to have to settle for music videos and no moon base. Well.. that was okay, for a bit. Madonna was no where near as cool as the moon. There was hope we may get there by Y2K right? Well.. no..

Scientists have discovered water on the moon, which makes it easier to live there in a sustainable habitat, woot! But it is now forty one years after the first lunar landing and its Y2K10!! Where is my moon house?

Now that is groovy! Celebrate the past accomplishments and dream of the future. Kinda how space exploration has been in my lifetime. Except.. we are running out of new stuff to celebrate and I may stomp a foot if my moon house is not ready for my retirement. After all, its just a winter home, the Mars house is the summer villa, and we won't even go down that path..

Construction delays are the pits!

Hooray for an awesome achievement many.. moons.. ago. Time to go back.

She'll Always be Dana to Me

I know what you just did, you went.. whoaa.. Paddy, wtf? You are putting a picture of a book by a rapper, Queen Latifah no less, on your blog? Why? I like to wander, remember? And this is part of that whole a little bit of everything, and then some.

Let me just say this, I think Queen Latifah is cool. She has a book out and I am grabbing a copy. Last night I was watching her interview on Larry King Live and she rocked it. How cool is she? If you google queen, she is at number three, behind Victoria and Elizabeth, and that is pretty neato.

This woman can sing, you ever listen to The Dana Owens Album where she sings soul and jazz?? NO? Well go take a listen, I can wait.. no really, go listen, she can sing! Okay I took a listen and I still dig her voice. I am not big on rap so that part of her career is meh to me, but by all accounts she is considered pretty sharp there as well.

She was awesome in Chicago! Oh right.. you did not know I like musicals? or musical theater? Well I do, I like that kind of stuff a lot. Chicago is great and she rocked that part. She has done a lot of movies and TV and she always delivers.

But what is cool, why I really like her? She is genuine. I like that about people, movie star, rapper, what ever a person may do, I like straight forward people. She seems that way. No doubt she has talent in a wide variety of creative endeavors and she has had some success and still has her feet on the ground.

I am a fan of just not a movie star, or singer, or writer, but a person who is.. a real person. If you are not a fan, you should take a close look, you may just think I am not so crazy after all..

and remember.. when your good to Mama, she'll be good to you..

Freeland 40k Free For All

Okay then, its like this see. In the wide world of gaming, there is nothing like watching a new player start in a game you love. My motto has always been the more the merrier. So when a new player comes along and starts down the gaming path I have tread for so many years, its a cool thing. And you know what? We need to document some of the 40k action from last night and the new figs on the table.

That my friends, are freshly primed space marines right out of the starter game Assault on Black Reach. Ahh, there is nothing like walking up to the game store and getting a whiff of primer. Even better? Those virgin space marines got a chance to be blooded on the table top.

So whats a game with out the bad guys right? Orks, fresh from the box, glued and primed and ready to take on the marines. A bit of ork blood got spilled on ye olde game table as well.. A classic battle of marines versus orks!* Can you imagine the carnage they will produce and how cool they will be when fully painted? I can..

The followers of Khorne rushing to chop down the Tau! Cry Chaos! and let slip the Bloodletters.. Mid picture, hiding in the trees, are the brave men of Tanith. Led by Gaunt, they had happened upon the battle of the forces of Chaos and the Tau. Choosing the greater of two evils, they rushed from the trees to cut down mankind's most fearsome enemy. The Tau, having survived the onslaught, slipped away in the skimmers to fight another day..

Then the Tau, the lesser of two evils, fell afoul of the Space Wolves.. and this time, the Emperors forces had them in a trap they would not so easily escape!

Having broke upon the rock of the vaunted Space Wolves, the Tau soon found themselves between a rock and a hard place. That hard place was Ibram Gaunt and the men of Tanith. The alien was purged from the tabletops in the city of Freeland Friday night.*

In the end, it was a good night for gaming and what playing 40k across the tabletop from your opponent is all about. This, my fellow wanderers, is fun

*No actual demon miniatures or followers of chaos, Wolves, Tau, or Tanith were harmed in the battle. Also, the orks and space marines tipped a few mugs of ale after their 'battle'. There was that awful sound of minis hitting asphalt out in the parking lot as a box fell open, but all pieces parts were saved and all that was needed was a bit of glue.