California Nature (rewrite of Your Nature)

Your journey roads herald adventure,
Impelling me to climb your cloven heights,
And romp carelessly,
as aureate poppy fields beckon.

Sun-kissed waters bounce along your shoreline joggle,
Enticing me to surf the crashing calm waves.
Canopy-enveloped valleys thrive with floral scents,
Drawing my ingression, but I forestall.

Instead I caper like the mysterious-moving-desert-rocks,
Which tickle your basin by some unseen will.
I endeavor to hike your proud hills,
And find a place to gaze lostly into lakes, filled with sky.

Vineyard nectar overflows like sweet sweat,
To spur my arousal as I partake.
Your boundless attributes gratify my wanderlust,
Alluring me to appease your nature.

There is no plan B!

What's my story?

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Kate *****
>Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 11:53 AM
>To: Matthew *****
>Subject: RE: HI!!
>
>Thangs are great. I'm swamped at work. Took yesterday off to receive 2
>deliveries-a new king bed and a frig. Worked in the garden, walked the dog,
>and totally enjoyed the warm weather. Holidays were delightful.
>What's your story?

What's my story, you ask? Well, at the age of 5 I was living in a home for the mentally insane. My father was a doctor in love with his patient, but like many love affairs in insane asylums, the romance was not meant to last. He moved on, leaving my mother pregnant with me and my evil twin, Horus. We grew up in an orphanage. Horus was always trying to do evil by helping nasty old ladies to cross the street and becoming a lackey for the local YMCA. I, for my part, decided to take a more mundane path. At the age of 8, I built a ray gun that would destroy the moon, which I have proven is the cause of evil insanity. That moon, it's so bright at night, keeping me awake...awake...awake. For some reason this upset the authorities. Something about leaving the Earth helpless at the mercy of huge moon debris, I think, as if that matters to me. So, the nefarious forces of the ATF intervened, taking my ray gun away to use for their own selfish purposes. At that moment, I set out on a life that would allow me to one day rule the world and destroy evil everywhere. I've almost completed my plan twice in the past 10 years, only to be thwarted by some super hero or another. If I have to hear the words, "I'm Batman!" hoarsely uttered by that bat brained fool one more time, I'm going to go crazy myself. He will be the first to go when I am King of Everything, and then I will eliminate my nemesis, Horus where ever he is! ::maniacal laugh::

As for this week, I've just been busy here at work...really busy too. Lots going on. I'm excited about going to Vegas in a couple weeks! woohoo!

Star Trek: The Exhibition at The Tech in San Jose, CA

Star Trek: The Exhibition is currently travelling around the country, presumably before Star Trek: The Experience reopens at its new home Neonopolis Mall later this year. The Exhibition is a seriously scaled back version of the The Experience, without the live actors, large scale stories in the form of rides and adventures. It's pretty much just a museum style display of some of the more common Star Trek vintage items.


They have this scale "authentic replica" of the Enterprise in the first main hall, along with displays giving mundane details about the various Star Trek series and movies. There are also display cases with phasers, tribbles, tricorders, etc.

The Guardian of Forever greeted me. I have no memory of any events that may have occurred as I walked through the gate. Hmmm, I wonder what adventures I had.

My Grandfather's UFO encounter

For a time, my Grandfather was a truck driver on runs that would extend well into the night. He related to me his UFO encounter during his time as a trucker on one such night. Now, my Grandfather was man that was quick to anger, and not one to believe something unless he saw it for himself. His temperament and nature made his story all the weirder. The last person I would've expected to tell me about aliens and UFO's was him. He didn't read books and didn't seem to ever show any interest in paranormal or New Age concepts.

The year is unknown, but likely in the 1950's or 60's. The place was some lonely highway in the middle of nowhere; I don't remember which state. My Grandfather related to me that he was driving when he saw these bright lights in front of him, off in the distance. As he drove closer, he discovered it to be a gigantic UFO hovering close to ground. He described it as a huge cube that was a mile across with many lights, and glowing from underneath. Without approaching it too closely, he stopped his truck and got out to look. It was right there in front of him, blocking his way. That's when he saw them. He said he saw the aliens. Hundreds of them. When he related this story to me, his expressed his adamance to my contrarian and doubtful questions. "You didn't really see aliens!?" I asked. His emphatic response, "You better believe it! I saw them with my own eyes right there in front of me!" He described them in more detail than I can remember. I do remember him saying they where short, green and naked. I felt like that if he had the opportunity, he would've gone up and punched one of them. However, I think wisdom won the day. He never told me what they where doing or if they noticed him. Only that he decided to get the hell out of there. He drove off in a hurry. When he finally got the nerve to look back, he saw the UFO take off.

49er's Stadium: What does Cedar Fair really want?

Perhaps there is some legitimate concern for proper bureaucratic process over at Cedar Fair, owners of California's Great American theme park. Why else would they file a lawsuit against the City of Santa Clara complaining about how paperwork was recently handled in the process to approve the new 49ers stadium? (Santa Clara County Superior Court Case number 109CV158836.) Well, maybe they seek to take advantage of the delicate phase in the planning of the new stadium?

Given the lack of enthusiasm for the new stadium previously expressed by Cedar Fair, I'm guessing this is more of a ploy to legally extort conditions and concessions from the City of Santa Clara. Cedar Fair may feel it needs more money from the city simply because the new stadium site is a direct neighbor to the theme park. Here's the funny part. Even though Cedar Fair does own Great American, the City of Santa Clara actually owns the land upon which Great America rests. The City of Santa Clara is the landlord to Cedar Fair. Santa Clara has already bent over backwards to make Cedar Fair feel at home. Cedar Fair now seems to be abusing their position as our guest and interfering in our business. Is there a San Francisco connection, as SF City Hall tries to buy yet even more time in their uber-pathetic effort to keep the 49er's in San Francisco? They've already had over 1.5 decades to do something.

Frankly, there could also be a Sac connection, since some big names in our state and even the Federal government are against the 49er's moving to another city in the Bay Area. Again, there is another funny part to this. If the 49er's do not find a new home in the Bay Area, they have suggested that the will leave the area completely. So, all this effort to pin the 49er's down in San Francisco could backfire by slingshotting our team to another state altogether! How embarrassing would that be?

And now a new wrinkle. Cedar Fair was just bought by a private firm that has yet to comment on their position. My hope is that they do not interfere with local economic endeavors, and instead help boost the local economy by supporting the new 49ers stadium.