Family movie night- We are all watching John Wayne in "The Cowboys"

Gonna try Gmail's priority inbox. With almost 400 unread emails, I
need to do something. (most of those are twitter "so and so is
following you", though)

Listened to most every episode of The Mortis Matinee podcast today and
this evening. http://ping.fm/9kFib @themortis Almost caught up

Ending the evening by starting to watch "The Bed Sitting Room" on
Netflix streaming, a film I though was totally forgotten
http://ping.fm/ZwyRI

Marveling on the recent influx of streaming Netflix titles
http://ping.fm/RmRVJ

You would think Gmail would be smart enough to not put the Google
Friends Newsletter in the Spam folder.

Oh Yeah! A 2 hour 6 min Window to the Magic podcast this morning! Woo Hoo! @wttm

Furshlugginer Internet connection was down all night. Grrrr! Caught up
on some Doctor Who, though.

Reading "11 Terrible Doctor Who Cliffhangers"
http://ping.fm/pck9n

Cake Wrecks gives us some Disney, er, Dizney themed wrecked cakes
http://ping.fm/ARGzx

Oh Dear. Another Geek Test. http://www.innergeek.us/geek-test.html
Awww! I'm only an Extreme Geek 58.30258% I thought I would score
higher.

We Need 5 more calls to the @wttm hotline to get more audio from
Tairy's first WDW trip and Mousefest. (206) 984-9886

Webcam is back at Walt Disney World.
http://ping.fm/O7Yxd
Good. I missed the original one.

Watching "Bad Universe".

Working on the China TV listings until "Bad Universe" comes on.

"The Errand" (Another fine joke at misscellania.com )
http://ping.fm/ch0E3

Working on the Disney Theme Parks Related TV listings.

All Glory to the HypnoToad http://ping.fm/9M0ze

Netflix app for iPhone and iPod Touch is out! WooHoo!
http://ping.fm/6GDFl

iPod Touch Netflix App. http://ping.fm/EXWT6

"This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays" -
Arthur Dent via Douglas Adams

8 more calls needed to the @wttm hotline to ask for more audio from
Tairy's first WDW trip and Mousefest. (206) 984-9886

More stuff on my desk. Mickey Bobble-head and 2 Dumbos

How did I do that?Typing "label:notes" in gmail search shows me the
contents of my iPod Touch notes.It was in an auto-suggest for "notes"

I'm Downloading old episodes of The Happiness Patrol, a Doctor Who
podcast I only discovered last month
http://ping.fm/CoF3Q

I just called the @wttm hotline to ask for more audio from Tairy's
first WDW trip and Mousefest. Will you be next 2 call? (206) 984-9886

The Saddest Photo Ever
http://ping.fm/g0SjT

My mother was impressed by Billie Piper in Doctor Who, but was unsure
if she will watch another episode. Oh Well.

Watching Doctor Who "Rose"

My 83 year old mother says she might be interested in watching Doctor
Who. Should I start with "Rose" or another episode?

Watching a little bit of Doctor Who - The War Machines (1st Doctor)

I like that VLC media player immediately recognizes how to play these
old Monkey King VCDs. Watching Disk 7

Oldest daughter asked to watch the 1999 animated "Xi You Ji" Monkey
King VCD set instead (in Chinese, which she does not speak)

Watching DVD of Monkey!
http://ping.fm/fIICb with oldest and
youngest daughter.

Working on the Disney Theme Parks Related TV listings.

Watching Doctor Who - The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone with youngest daughter

Neil Gaiman has posted a scene he removed from his Doctor Who script
http://ping.fm/viVpQ

"Let me get this right.A thing that looks like a Police Box, stuck in
a junkyard, can move anywhere in time and space"-Ian Chesterton

The Big Bang Theory Season 3 comes out on DVD on Sep 14. I can't wait!

Also getting Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country from Netflix
tomorrow. The girls haven't see that one yet.

Getting Doctor Who - The War Machines (1st Doctor) from Netflix
tomorrow (well, today technically since it is after midnite)

Finally finished Aaron Wallace's top 100 Disney Songs on
Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Pod today http://ping.fm/EDQvl Excellent!

"The Science of Doctor Who" by Paul Parsons was sent to me by an old
friend from college. Cool! Thanks Sara!

The Doctor Who Podshock interview with "An Unearthly Child" director
Waris Hussein was fascinating. Thanks @LouisTrapani

Simon's Cat finds a box
http://ping.fm/2rlK7

Starz publish Torchwood synopsis, character bios
http://ping.fm/rKAUH

Amused by New York accented Epcot tram driver in today's @wttm:
Driver-"Lower yer head. Watch yer step. Enjoy yer day". Guest-"or
else!"

To thems that woot, looks like a woot-off today http://www.woot.com/

An almost 3 hour Window to the Magic podcast episode is in iTunes this
morning. Yay! (not facetious. Really Yay!)

Ah Memories. I just ran across the Bringing Disneyland Home and Big D
videos of WestFest 2008. That was a fun trip.

Six devious ways Farmville gets people hooked
http://ping.fm/2e1Wu

I love these Doctor Who - Tom Baker/Lalla Ward ads for PRIME
computers. Hey, it knows RPG
http://ping.fm/sEgvO

I was wondering why my internet was suddenly slowing down. iTunes is
pulling in a new Beyond Main Street episode. Very Good!

Working on the China Related TV listings.

Finally watching "Gorn cannon" on Mythbusters. I kept missing it and
forgetting to record it.

Done with the Disney TV listings. Turning on the infotext on the
Logopolis DVD along with the commentary.

Oh! I didn't realize the commentary on the Logopolis DVD has Tom Baker.

Working on the Disney Theme Parks Related TV listings while "watching"
Doctor Who Logopolis (4th Doctor) with commentary on.

Williamson County Fair 2010 (Franklin TN)

I visited the Williamson County Fair 2010 in Franklin TN on Ag 14, 2010



These pics are in the Picasa Album at

Williamson County Fair 2010 (Franklin TN)

Cool! HowToGeek on an easy way to stream video to your
iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch
http://ping.fm/n8EeP

I'm relatively new to Windoze 7. Nice (not) to see that it also will
mystery reboot in the middle of the night as it has the last 2 nights.

No webpages coming up this morning except for gmail? That's weird.
Gmail is working fine, but nothing else.

Duct Tape Madrigal (thanks to Miss Cellania)
http://ping.fm/M4va0

Every few months I inexplicably find myself clicking through the
mentalfloss blogs. http://ping.fm/LllZP Thanks to Miss
Cellania http://ping.fm/VG4i6

Finally finished watching Doctor Who - Logopolis (4th Doctor) after starting
it 3 or 4 times. Not a bad story or regeneration.

Added a Paper Cut-Out Tardis to the growing collection on my desk

Watching Doctor Who - Logopolis (4th Doctor) on DVD

4 people joined my disneythemeparkstv yahoogroup in the past day. My
listings must have been promoted somewhere new.

Going to listen to the Doctor Who BBC Proms concert on the way to work.

How did I miss this? Google axes wave.
http://ping.fm/wM2pP

Epic Display Fail http://ping.fm/Y1A42

Watching Disney Echo TV's "Waterfalls of the Disneyland Hotel"
http://ping.fm/qB3AP

Upgrading my Netbook to Jolicloud 1.0.

Win7's Windows Live Movie Maker isn't all that great. I may just use
XP's Movie Maker to edit video.

Just discovered the Culinary Dislight video podcast. Watching ep 2 -
Cheddar Cheese Soup. Then will watch ep 4 - Tonga Toast. I'm hungry
now.

While the Hi-8 video gets recorded on one computer, I am working on
the Disney Theme Parks Related TV listings on my laptop.

Trying yet again to transfer old home movies on Hi-8 tape to digital
media. Dedicated a spare PC to the purpose.

Watching Victor Borge on PBS. Seen it a zillion times but always funny.

Australian Group Manta performs Doctor Who Theme (with Didgeridoo)
http://ping.fm/miaeT

I'm looking at the lights on pics of Harry Potter/Forbidden Journey at
Theme Park Review
http://ping.fm/R9Sqg

This should now update Twitter, Facebook, Plurk and my blog at
brothermonkey.blogspot.com http://ping.fm/9qe7F

The Piggy Bank Adventures 2

My middle daughter took the Piggy Bank sculpture and did a little stop motion experiment with him.

The Piggy Bank Adventures

My oldest daughter gave me permission to post these to show off her sculpture and photography.

Virtual Chumby

I'm hoping to get a Chumby for my Birthday/Christmas, so I have created a virtual one here.

Hand Drawn Colossal Cave Adventure Map - 1979

While I was studying at Northern Illinois University in 1979, I had an account that allowed me to dial into Southern Illinois University's computer, ostensibly to write programs on their system. I found their games pretty quickly and fell in love with the text game "Colossal Cave Adventure" (which was simply labelled "Adventure" while I was playing it.)

I soon discovered that I was going to need to draw a map in order to find my way around the adventure. On a spare piece of computer paper, I started sketching my way through the cave.

(click on the image to see it full size)

For some reason I drew the start building in the upper right and I never indicated the 3 "south" moves to get to the grate room to enter the cave. On the map the grate room is at the bottom right. Later I constantly used "xyzzy" to get to the cave.

The map has all sorts of notations on it as to where various objects are.
I cannot remember why I have "z'zzz" circled at the top. I think it was a magic word in the version I was playing, similar to "xyzzy". This map does not correspond exactly with instructions and maps I found on the Colossal Cave Adventure page. I'm not sure if I was dealing with an earlier version or a student rewrite or if my own mapping found different passageways.

There are much better maps online nowadays, but I was sketching mine in 1979 as I was playing.

(click on the image to see it full size)

The "all alike" maze was entered from the stalactite room (up from "bedquilt" on the main map and marked "stalag"). You can see "maze" in pencil just below the "stalag". The maze was mapped by dropping items various places. The key to the maze map is on the image below.

(click on the image to see it full size)

I don't remember how I figured out the vending machine maze. Once I figured out the mazes, I wrote down the directions to navigate to the various treasures.

The original map is ready to fall to pieces. I've been telling myself I needed to scan it and post it for years now. Finally got around to doing it, 30 years after first playing the game.

Ah Spring!

Working from home. I took a few minutes to walk around the house to admire Spring!

Tellus Museum Observatory

Mary (the youngest Geek) and I attended a lecture by Hal McAlister, director of the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy http://www.chara.gsu.edu/CHARA/ and then visited the newly opened Observatory to look at the Moon at twilight. Took a quick look at the unlabeled large vehicle collection as well. (pictures vary in quality because of the light levels)



More information on that unusual mine locomotive is available at http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=48259

The pictures in the slideshow can be seen at http://picasaweb.google.com/kirbysloan/TellusMuseumObservatory#

(the other geeks were jealous when I got home, as they thought an astronomy lecture would be boring. I tried to tell them that the observatory was possibly going to be open, but Nooooooo!)

Tree Removal - Six Months Later

Finally finished the tree removal after having started it 6 months ago. (after a Soap Opera worthy tale of rip-offs to both us and to the owner of the original tree service that prompted us to finally hire a new tree service. Ah! Home Ownership!)


Guy in a tree in the back yard preparing it for cutting.

Ground crew with rope helping with the same tree.

We had the chips blown into an area next to the compost bins (you can see the bins just past the place the chips are falling).

They also removed the limbless trunks of the trees in the front yard that had been left by the original service (affectionately referred to as the "flagpoles" of the neighborhood)

Michael Broggie / World's Greatest Hobby

Let's Talk About Disney podcast's Jana let me know that Michael Broggie, son of Disney Legend Roger Broggie, was going to be in Nashville for a Model Railroad show on Feb 14 and 15 2009. Youngest geek Mary and I drove up to meet Jana and a couple of other Disney fans to hear Michael Broggie speak about Disney and trains.

Tellus Museum - Dinosaur Lecture

Visited the Tellus Museum Thursday evening with Julia and Mary to hear Paleontologist David Schwimmer (not the actor)



David Schwimmer's Columbus State University page

He was one of 3 scientists to describe the Appalachiosaurus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachiosaurus

Julia was fascinated by the lecture. Mary was bored.

We visited the fossil gallery after the lecture.

Atlanta Chinese Culture Center - Year of the Ox Celebration

Our visit to the Atlanta Chinese Culture Center for the Year of the Ox Celebration.

If you can't see the slideshow, the pictures are at
http://picasaweb.google.com/kirbysloan/TheYearOfTheOxCelebration?feat=directlink

The Fortune God opens the celebration.

Walking through the crowd is always a challenge. (we pass by 2 of my girls plus their friends early in the video)

The Dragon Dance

The Lion Dance. Our girls and their friends are just to my left and give their red envelopes away to the first lion that comes around. The lion ignores my envelope! I hand it down to the girls and Louisa is able to give my envelope away a little later.

My Birthday Present! - Roku Netflix Player

Got my Roku Netflix box today. Pulled it out of the box and set it up very quickly.

Longest part was finding my old video distribution box so I could convert the video to old fashioned coax.

Unboxing the device

Mary and Mao helping out

My "wiring closet". Router (white). Network Storage (640GB) behind it.
My old video distributor is under the Roku box. It feeds me the signal on Ch. 79

Imagine what I am watching first!

Screen for my main Kubuntu box on the left and TV to the right.
I couldn't get a good Netflix stream going on the Kubuntu Box (running XP in VirtualBox) so pulling it off onto its own platform made sense.

Jake Ludington’s HP Magic Giveaway

Check out this Giveaway at one of my favorite tech newsletter/blogs

Jake Ludington’s HP Magic Giveaway

50 sites are awarding an incredible selection of HP equipment to lucky winners. Jake adds "Most of us don’t really need 4 computers at home, but we all know a person or an organization who could really use some help. For my giveaway, I’m asking you to tell me about who you would share some of this great hardware and software with and why."

I would find a way to support "Our Chinese Daughters Foundation" http://www.ocdf.org/

(Ha! I HAVE more than 4 computers at home, but they are getting pretty old. The Dell Mini I am writing this on is more powerful than most of the other boxes I have. Those machines are mostly single purpose machines - i.e. podcast aggregator, DVD burner, Pop email for those mailing lists I subscribe to but don't have time to read. It would be nice to join the 21st Century with more than my netbook.)

Peter Pan at 8:15pm

Recently one of my favorite sites - Disneyland Resort Mystery Photo - had a mystery photo of a clock face that was projected onto the floor of the animation building in Disney's California Adventure - Click here for the entire blog entry from http://www.ldphotography.net/disneypics/2008/dl081109/



I've been so busy at work lately that I have not been keeping up with Disneyland Resort Mystery Photos. Tonite was the first time in weeks I have had a chance to look at the page to see what I have missed.

When looking at the clock picture, the first thing I recognized was that it was from Peter Pan.

The second thing I noticed was that there was a comment on the page from someone who did not know what the picture was, but who said "I have no idea, but is 8:15 significant?". The site owner of Disneyland Resort Mystery Photos responded "I have no idea if there's a significance other than it wasn't the current time. I took that photo at 4:23pm."

"Hmm", I thought. Could this be the actual time that was showing on Big Ben in the 1953 Disney movie? Out came my DVD, where I discovered that indeed that is the time - after Peter, Wendy, John and Michael land on the minute hand! (The screen grab at the top of this post is straight off the DVD)

A little snooping around the web revealed another image - this one from the mural at Peter Pan's flight in Disneyland Paris - although here it is 7:15.


I also found a snow globe on Disney's site that shows 8:15!

No real significance to this post, just thought it interesting that Disney maintains that 8:15 time for Big Ben.

Halloween 2008 and Haunted House

The girls are beginning to grow out of Trick or Treating. We only hit a few houses this year and then visited an elaborate Haunted House that a coworker told me about. The older girls (and their best friend) loved the Haunted House, but 11 year old Mary hated it

Tree Removal - Day 1

We are getting rid of some trees in the back yard that have the potential of falling into the house and a stand of pines in the front to allow the dogwood trees to grow.



If the above slideshow doesn't show, the pictures can be found at
http://picasaweb.google.com/kirbysloan/TreeRemovalDay1

Youtube video of the cutting of the pines.

My new computer setup

Kubuntu box on the Left (with Robin Hood playing)
Dual Boot XP and Kubuntu Laptop on the right with dual screens.

1988 Oldsmobile dangling part - What is it

I started hearing a rattling today as I was driving my beater - a 1989 Oldsmobile Royale 88. (yeah, I put the wrong year in the title above and I can't change it now)

When I got home, I found this thing hanging from underneath the right front part of the engine.

I will call my mechanic on Monday, but if anyone has any idea what this thing is, let me know kirbysloan@gmail.com

Click on the pictures to get a larger view.

The bottom picture is sideways, but you can see the connection where this sucker broke off.

There's a Bat in Me Attic!

I was up in the attic today and happened to look behind a shelf at one of the vents at one end of the house.

Wow! A Bat was hanging on the outside of the screen. Coolness! I made enough noise to make it move a little (to make sure it was actually alive), took a quick picture with my cel phone and will leave it alone.

The DPN's WestFest 08 - Monday May 5 2008

If the slideshow does not appear in the above space, you may find it at
http://picasaweb.google.com/kirbysloan/TheDPNSWestFest08Monday
You can also comment on the pictures at this link.