Little of this, little of that

I was showing my blog to some people today via Internet Explorer 8 on a giant TV screen in some ungodly resolution, and the layout was broken. The right-hand sidebar was wrapped under the posts. It may have been because somebody had increased the text size, but it was still pretty embarrassing. I think everybody realized that this was a Blogger thing and not something I really have control over. I am a bit worried that I am still not using the new blogger templates, though at this point 'new' is a relative term.

If you didn't know I am in Scotland at the moment. I count myself lucky that after five years in Australia, I at least know which way to look when I cross the street. It is a lot like Australia in that they roll the sidewalks up pretty early, not counting the pubs and the lone Kebab shop.

It has been quite the two weeks though. Took my dad down to the VA hospital for his eye operation. That all appeared to have turned out quite well.

Then a few days in Disneyland with the Niece, Nephew and other assorted relatives. Kids are still pretty young and hyper while my elders are starting to get up there. Being caught in-between that was almost an event unto itself. I did get away the first night because Eric#3 and Kristina had wagon-trained up with us. She had an appointment in LA the next morning. The upshot of that is that I got to have a grown up dinner with them in Downtown Disney the night before, fireworks included.

I did get my Monte Cristo sandwich (don't look at the picture on that wiki link, it is horrible and very unappetizing) but I missed riding Space Mountain while I was making reservations for the Blue Bayou restaurant in the morning. Alex went back to get us a fastpass for it later on, but they closed it for a few hours to fix something. When we went back by it, the Fastpass time had a return of much later that night and we had dinner reservations at the Pirate's Dinner Adventure. I thought there was too much singing and a tad too much slapstick, but the kids really liked it. Next time I think I'll go back to the old tradition of Medieval Times which is next door.

Now I'm in Scotland and managed to chip my other front tooth veneer. I got in at 12:00 local time and took a small nap. When I got up I was spying around the local area on Google Earth when I kinda nodded off again. I awoke with start for no reason I can remember, bit down too hard and off comes a big chip. I had to have the Lovely Kristina call my dentist back in Vegas to extend my Wednesday appointment to get the actual new veneer on the previous one installed (I'm wearing a temporary on that one that I've been afraid would pop off during this trip) to now include starting the process to fix the next one. Anybody got a spare $1300 dollars lying around?

Speaking of the adventures of me and my dentist; when I chipped the first tooth, I had tried to get a hold of Dr. Phelps who was pretty much Westwood's dentist back in the day. He was related to one of the programmers and played Everquest with us. I found out that he had moved away and somebody else had taken over his practice. They then in-turn moved to the other side of town. When I was tracking down their address, driving down Flamingo, when I had a big scare that they would be the dentist that had taken over the old Unicorn Software office. As it turns out they are in phase two of the office complex that Unicorn was in. It was being built during my time at Unicorn back in the late 80's. I went over there and the nice ladies at the accounting office that is now there, let me take a picture of the stained glass Unicorn window from the inside. I do think that had this new dentist been in the old Unicorn office that I would have had to find someplace else to fix my tooth.

I have been desperately trying to follow the Tour de France, but am not having much luck. I got to watch the first stage via the Australian SBS website, but they blocked out of the country viewing the next day. Since they I either haven't been around or able to find a site that lets me view the videos live from where I am. I have just been settling on reading about each stage, watching the standings and following a few of the team on Twitter. Even the TV here in my hotel room doesn't appear to be working.

Just Trying To Keep Busy

I've always invented games when bored. I think a lot of them steamed from my frustration at the lack of rules in childhood games.

"Bang! You're dead."

"No, you missed."

"No I didn't I got you!"

"Nuh-uh!"

...and so on. Not the fun I was looking for.

When riding the bus to school, I created a game where you got points for running people over. Granted you really only pointed people out and tabulated your score; it was more like a scavenger hunt you play while riding in the car. But, I had seen the original Deathrace 2000 as a kid and I just wanted to wrap the game in a more exciting theme. It is all in the marketing, remember Guitar Hero is just a well packaged rhythm game.

I am also ashamed to admit that the spiral notebook, that my friends and I completely filled up with 'victim's' point values, was very politically incorrect and it is hopefully lost forever. Having it turn up in the middle of my 2012 Presidential Election would be bad.

Another game I invented in about the 4th or 5th grade was "Frisbee Tag" and before you point out that it should be "Frisbee Brand Flying Disc Tag" know that I renamed it "The Tron Game" after seeing the movie. I'm sure Disney's copyright lawyers (follow that link and read the story, its good if your interested in paority law history) are much more friendly than Wham-o's.

To play the game you take a bunch of Frisbee brand flying discs and throw them up into the air. Then you try to get them and throw them at other players which is okay because everybody is wearing their safety equipment. If you hit somebody they are out, unless they caught it, in which case you are out. If the Frisbee brand flying discs touches the ground first, catching it wouldn't cause the thrower to be out, but it could still tag you out. In other words if somebody skipped it off the ground, it could still tag you out but if you caught it they wouldn't be out. You could also deflect the Frisbee brand flying discs with another Frisbee brand flying discs, a rules addition added after seeing the movie Tron.

Now, I haven't created a rule system for a childhood game in quite some time. Over the last twenty-plus years I have been working for other people who have been paying to create games for them. But, now that I am currently unemployed, I find that I still have this unsatiable need to create well structured entertainment.

The current game I am working on involves people watching in a Country Western dance club. I've never really been into Country, Western, or dancing; but, I have been spending two nights a week, for the past 2-3 weeks, in such a club. Specifically, Stoney's North Forty in the Santa Fey hotel and casino. Basically, I am there to hang out with my friends and I do a lot of people watching.

Anyway, I haven't really nailed the game down yet, but it has something to do with watching the waitresses take orders and deliver drinks. Make that incredibly hot waitresses that wear ass-less chaps over skimpy black bikinis, remember its all in the marketing.

I should also point out that there is usually a 3 to 1, girl to guy ratio, in the club, so I am seriously thinking about learning to two-step or do a few line dances.

No School Like Old School

Ollie Johnston, the last of Disney’s legendary Nine Old Men, passed way on Monday, April 14, of natural causes. He was 95 years old.

Full story via News-a-Rama

I'm surprised at how really sad I am at this news. He co-wrote "The Illusion of Life" which I've always meant to pick-up but never did. Think I'll make a point of grabbing a copy this weekend.