I Have Returned!

I'm back, and I'm stepping things up! I hope to return to posting on a weekly basis again, now that I finally have the time and the content to justify it.  To start with, I've started a new Cheezburger site: WoW lols, where I've begun posting captioned screenshots from World of Warcraft.  Here's a sample:



Also to come: select screenshots from games I've been playing on the Steam service, YouTube vids (some I've found, others I'll make), photography, and various miscellaneous musings, so come back soon!

Alfred Hitchhike

Good evening. Tonight's picture is a pun of sorts, regarding an iconic movie director obsessed with the macabre. It was inspired by a movie about the director, which is most appropriately named, "Hitchcock". I have yet to see the movie, but I believe it will be quite delightful. Now without further ado, I present to you..."Alfred Hitchhike".

Christmas With Freaky the Snowman

OK, I know I've been away for a while, which is due to a dearth of content and various things (like getting a job) keeping me busy. However, I will still keep blogging away, though my posts may be a bit more irregular than in the past.

Anyway, this Christmas Eve I thought I'd do a tribute to good ol' Freaky the Snowman of YouTube fame. For those who don't know, Freaky is a guy in a snowman suit who hangs out on the streets, scaring people as they walk by. Here's a clip of Freaky in action (and in trouble), followed by my own "Freaky the Snowman" song:

Freaky the Snowman,

Was a real sadistic soul,

With a black neck scarf,

And a carrot nose,

And two eyes made of peepholes,

Freaky the Snowman,

Was a fairy tale they say,

He was made of foam,

But the people know,

How he spooked them every day.

There must have been a person

In that spooky snowman suit,

For when folks came too close,

He'd turn and they would scoot!

Freaky the Snowman,

Was a creepy looking guy,

And the people say,

They would run away,

When he'd scare those passing by.

Freaky the Snowman,

Knew they streets were full that day,

So he said, "Right here,

We will do our scares,

And make them run away!"

Down in the city,

With a camera out of sight,

He sit here and there all around the square,

Giving folks a real good fright.

He'd do this every day,

Until the cops came 'round,

And then they said to him,

"You had better get out of town!"

Then Freaky the Snowman,

Had to hurry from the streets.

But he said,

"Hey there,

You had best beware,

I will be there in your sleep!"

Screamity-scream-scream-scream,

Look at Freaky go!

Screamity-scream-scream-scream,

The scary snowman of fake snow!

Seeing the B-24 in Person

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm posting this from my parent's place, where we had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with immediate family, and my sole surviving grandparent. When I was going through my parents' old computer rounding up old pictures I took, I found these of B-24 bombers that were part of a show at the airport in Yakima, WA, that me and my family went to see. It was neat to go through the same type of plane that my Grandpa Burt flew in. It's a good thing he wasn't claustrophobic, despite the huge size, it's cramped in there!

No, not the twinkie, anything but the twinkie!

I really really hope somebody will buy out the Hostess snacks, because while I don't eat them that often, I do enjoy a good twinkie, ding-dong, cupcake, etc. now and again. I guess I never truly appreciated Hostess until they announced they were shutting down. Below is a look-back on twinkies from CNN  followed by the full "twinkie" clip from Ghostbusters.



One thing they forgot to mention on the CNN clip; "Twinkie" was Moe's nickname for Calvin in the "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip.

The B-24

I'm watching a documentary on the B-24, the plane that Grandpa flew in during WWII. Even though it's a less famous plane than the B-29 or B-17, the B-24 was produced in larger numbers than either of the other two bomber craft.

Another Funeral

Hello again, readers. The reason I missed last week's post is because I was pallbearer for yet another grandparent. My grandfather, Richard W. Burt, has now joined my grandmother, Evelyn Deem Burt, in Heaven.

My Grandpa Burt was a WWII veteran. He was a radio operator for a B-24 aircraft, which at one point was shot down over enemy territory, and he was taken as a prisoner of war. A few years ago I had the privilege of accompanying my family to visit the sites of his P.O.W. camps.



Not much is left of them now, just a few bricks, and a water trench in one. I can't imagine what Grandpa went through in that time, especially during the last march, where all they could hope for was that the Allies would catch up to them, and that their guards would keep them alive until then.

Grandpa only recently started talking about and recording his war stories, when my mother was growing up it was understood that his time in the war just was never discussed.

But my grandfather's life wasn't all hardship. Long before the famous MIT hack placing a police cruise on top of the Great Dome, when Grandpa Burt was a kid he and his took apart a wooden buggy, nuck it into their schoolhouse through the coal chute piece by piece, then reassembled it in the schoolroom! He was always good with his hands, and I remember him doing a lot of woodcrafts when I was growing up. One of my favorites was a paddle with wooden chickens ringed around one side, with strings attached to each one and joined to a wooden peg on the other side. When you held the paddle with the chicken-side up, and moved it back and forth, the swinging peg on the bottom would pull on the strings, which would make the chickens "peck".

I'm proud to be decended to one of the Greatest Generation. Grandpa Burt went through a lot for his country, and he was good husband, father, and grandfather. I was honored to be a part of his well-deserved veteran's funeral.