Old Updates 28 March 2000 So, McDonalds is running their Monopoly promotion again, like they do every year. I had been lamenting to Shelly that I never win anything interesting with these things, aside from the occasional free cheeseburger or ice cream cone. But would you believe that I just won the $500 instant win gift certificate to checkout.com? How cool is that? I never win anything this cool! So I get to buy lots and lots of DVD's and shore up my collection a bit. Righteous! You can go to checkout.com and take a look at my selections, if the urge strikes you. You may have to sign up, but what's a little more spam mail. Just enter the email address madcow68@hotmail.com on the right side of the wishlist page after signing up. Make suggestions if you so desire. My new computer is finally functioning well enough for me to play Descent 3 online. I've been doing okay thus far. Look for Pilot Tremor on PXO. And no, I'm not going to update my Descent web page. That content is just for fun legacy stuff. Descent 3 is just an absolutely gorgeous game. It certainly shows off all the insane hardware I just bought. The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you. --Rita Mae Brown 4 March 2000 It's been an interesting month, that's for sure. The lemon law extravaganza is over, with us netting nothing. Alas, the problems we were complaining about (noisy front suspension) were currently fixed, so they figured the problem was solved. It was worth a try, I suppose. If anyone is in range of Northeast Ohio, I urge you to seek out the show Tetelestai this (and every other) Lenten Season. It's an amazing passion play, in which my good buddy Paul plays the Apostle Peter this year. Check out the show dates on his web page. Lots of people have been having birthdays recently, including my niece Niki, my wife's dad, my mom, my best bud James, and soon my brother. Hallmark's been loving our business recently. My new computer has continued to misbehave, and my old computer is being naughty too. I think they're conspiring to make my life difficult. I suppose I'll be getting over it. It's not like I have a choice :) There's a hope in my brain that I'll be updating my Lego page with some nifty new content pretty soon, as well as a little makeover for it. We'll see when I get the time to get around to stuff like that, though. Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?" Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night." --Charlie Brown 2 February 2000 Through the miracles of modern technology, my monthly update comes rolling towards you at the breakneck speed of light. Look out! This month's update comes to you from the Lego page. I finally added the rest of the pictures, meager as they are, to the Centrifugal Psychosis page. Now I need inspiration for my next project. What shall it be? I also updated my setlist to include my most recent purchases from the post-christmas sales. I'm up to almost 55,000 pieces now. Wow. On the real-life front, some interesting doings have transpired. Shelly and I are in the process of playing legally with the Better Business Bureau, in an effort to extort some money out of General Motors for the crappy car they sold us two years ago. We'll see how it works out. Matt and Sarah's wedding was a few weeks ago, and was an enjoyable experience. Shelly actually managed to get me on the dance floor, and I actually didn't hate it. Just don't think about trying to get me to fast-dance, though. I took some pictures, but I'm unsure as to whether I'll put them on the web page or not. And while we're on the subject of weddings, Paul seems committed to having tails on the tuxedos of the bridal party. I have as yet been unsuccessful in changing his mind. I don't want to wear tails! One final note, would everyone think happy thoughts for my mother, who's currently feeling very under the weather. I hope she gets better soon! If you cannot convince them, confuse them. --Harry S. Truman 3 January 2000 Well, my computer still works, even after the Y2K paranoia. I wasn't that worried. At any rate, nothing exciting happened here with regards to Y2K. I was almost a little disappointed. I can't say nothing exciting has happened around here, as Shelly and I threw a wonderful little party. Shame on Paul and Kelly, Matt and Sarah, Jerm, Ben, Solly, and the rest of the slackers who said they'd be there and then came up with excuses not to show. You missed a helluva good time. There are pictures of the New Year's party, as well as a couple of scans of pics from Amber's Halloween party. Check them out from the self page. Until later, peace. A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. --William James 8 December 1999 A-ha! See, it was less than a month since my last update, so there! The latest developments on the home front here is I finally succeeded in getting a DVD player. And what was the first movie I got? Why, The Matrix, of course! I love this movie, it's lots of fun. If you haven't seen it yet, rush out to your local video store and get it! I updated the Super-Secret Lego project page, it's now complete. it's a Technic Scale P-51 Mustang, if anyone was interested. It's done now, and can be seen on the Lego page. It's getting close to Christmas, and since I doubt I'll update again before the New Year (although you never know what might happen!) Have a happy Holiday and Don't Panic when the new year arrives. Whenever I'm caught between two evils, I take the one I've never tried. --Mae West 14 November 1999 Okay, sure, Its been over a month since I last updated. I've been busy, quit nagging me! Sheesh! Not much has happened on the web page, but interesting things have developed in real life. I helped Paul move into his new house, and it's quite the nifty little place. Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home, that's for sure. I'm currently in complete shock. The lowly Cleveland Browns just beat Pittsburgh, in Pittsburgh, 16-15. This team has improved hugely since they lost 42-0 to these same Steelers back in week one. Amazing! I played college recuiting back at the old Alma Mater. That was certainly an adventure. It's definitely odd being on this side of the interviewing table, however. I finally finished the super-secret Lego project that I've been working on for a couple of months. I don't, however, have a complete set of pictures up for it yet, just one. It'll have to be enough to keep you satisfied. Find it on the Lego page. Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools do. --Dale Carnegie 3 October 1999 Good day to you all. The updates have gotten few and far between recently, haven't they? Well, it's time for a quick update. Not much has happened recently, which may or may not be fortunate. I've been working so much lately, that I've had very little time to do anything fun! I have, however started work on a new project, which I shant spoil for you, but suffice to say, it will be impressive! On the friends front, congratulations to that nut Paul, who's gone and bought a house for himself and his wife-to-be. Isn't that sweet, he's becoming domesticated! Time to root for the Cleveland Indians in the playoffs. Go Tribe! And the Cleveland Browns might win a game one of these days too. Won't that be nice. Brain Damage Reading Test: People tell me one thing and out the other. I feel as much like yesterday as I did today. I never liked room temperature. My throat is closer than it seems. Likes and dislikes are among my favorites. No napkin is sanitary enough for me. I don't like any of my loved ones. --Daniel M. Wegner 8/27/99 Watch out, I can't be stopped! A new vehicle makes an appearance on the Lego page. This one's called the Dragoon. Go look upon it. I also updated the Lego Set List to reflect my latest additions. And in way cool news, I managed to get tickets to tomorrow's Cleveland Browns preseason game. How cool is that? I'm going to be 15 rows from the field in the southwest corner of the stadium, way on the other side from the Dawg Pound. It should be lots of fun. What is a committee? A group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit, to do the unnecessary. --Richard Harkness 8/22/99 I recently discovered the amazing coolness that is LDraw and this decided to add rendered instructions for the Gravedigger on the Lego page. And lo, it happened. I also added a new vehicle to the Lego page, the Tisiphone. Go gaze upon its glory. Go now, I'm watching you. May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house. --George Carlin 8/10/99 Just a quick update here. I have added on the Lego page a new model, the T-88 Gravedigger. Go see it now. That is all. Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. --Douglas Adams 8/8/99 It's been a busy weekend here at Tremor's Epicenter. I have spent some time redesigning the Lego page, and adding in the beginnings of a slightly new format. I hope you all like it, as it adds a little bit of something to the pages, I think. Just a couple of the pages have been converted over so far, but more will be coming down the pike soon enough. Take a look, also, at the bowling page on the Lego page. It's my first serious foray into making curved objects out of Lego. More impressively than all that, however, is the addition of the Lego set list page. I spent a rather significant period of time making an .html format of the old Excel spreadsheet list of the sets in my collection. I must say, the results are quite nifty. New Stuff: Redesigned the Lego page Added the lego set list Added the Lego bowling ball and pin page Tweaked a bunch of image sizes (I'm starting to run out of server room!) Giving money and power to Government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. --P. J. O'Rourke 7/30/99 In a fit of random productivity, I decided to scan in some pictures and make a web page about my best buddy James-Eric's marriage to the wonderful and beautiful Rianne. It is basically a handful of pictures scanned in from those that Shelly and I took at the wedding with our nifty little disposable Kodak. It can be found off the Self page, as I couldn't figure out where else to put it. Congratulations for the Cleveland Indians finally getting their asses in gear and winning their fourth game in a row. I swear that when I watch the Tribe games on TV, they win. I was on vacation for 10 days and they go 2-9, including a wickedly painful 21-1 trouncing at the hands of the Spankees. I'm just glad I didn't have to endure that fiasco firsthand. New Stuff: Updated content on and rearranged the the Self Page Created the James-Eric and Rianne wedding page th-th-th-th-th-th-th-that's all folks Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction. --E. F. Schumacher 7/28/99 If you're wondering what's been happening since the last update, it's been mostly lots of travelling. Shelly and I went to my parents' house over the 4th of July weekend, and had ourselves a grand old time playing volleyball and pool and eating food and blowing up a small part of the countryside with fireworks. What better way to celebrate your nation's independence than by blowing up a small part of it? (Thanks to The Simpsons for that.) Most recently, I just returned from a 10 day vacation to points east, including Washington D.C., Baltimore, Williamsburg VA, Goldsboro NC, and Doswell VA. The main goal of all of this was to attend, and be in, James-Eric and Rianne's wedding. It was a wonderful ceremony, and the reception was noted for the wicked thunderstorm that rolled through, threatening multiple times to extinguish power. Also part of the vacation were trips to Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Paramount King's Dominion, both in Virginia. The Alpengeist and Apollo's Chariot rides at Busch Gardens and Volcano: The Blast Coaster at King's Dominion are not to be missed! They are some of the best coasters after The Raptor at Cedar Point. As part of an ongoing mission to maybe, just maybe, add a little more content to this web page, I may be adding a travelogue of our vacation, complete with pictures (including that priceless look of James' terrified face from Volcano.) But as frequent visitors to my page most likely know, I've been very slow with my updates lately. Call me a slacker, call me a working stiff, call me whatever you want, but I've got so much stuff going on right now, it's really hard to keep up on everything. My Lego projects are suffering terribly! My AT-ST hasn't moved from its building spot for months! New Stuff: Updated content on the Self Page Acres more slacking! Til the next update, you all behave now. Hell, there are no rules here--we're trying to accomplish something. --Thomas Edison 6/14/99 Now I know what you're thinking: "What's this punk been doing? He hasn't updated his page in weeks!" Well, to tell you the truth, nothing particularly interesting has been happening. I'm settling into a nice rut, er, routine, and not much new has happened. I've still got a couple of LEGO projects that I've finished, but haven't bothered to take pictures of yet, so you'll see them eventually. Otherwise, I've been working, working, working. Here's to hoping that I'll have more free time one of these days (not likely!) Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat. --John Lehman, Secretary of the Navy, 1981-1987 5/23/99 My wife's family visited us for the weekend, so I had lots of spare time (since she was occupying them, and I had not much else to do). Therefore, I had lots of time to work on one of my new pet projects, the AT-ST walker from Star Wars. I've added lots of pictures of the current prototype. Go to the Lego page to see it. New Stuff: Added the AT-ST walker page to the main Lego page, with lots of nifty pictures Updated the set and piece count totals on the Lego page to reflect all of the Star Wars Lego I've purchased recently The only difference between me and a madman is that I am not mad. --Salvador Dali 5/21/99 Well, I saw Star Wars Episode 1 on Wednesday, with the millions of other people. I wasn't crazy enough to catch the midnight showing, but I caught a 7:00pm show at the Westgate Cinema, which is running the movie on four screens! It was a good movie, not the second coming of Christ as some people were hoping, but very entertaining anyway. The nitpickers on the net are having a field day with this movie, however, with bunches of web pages popping up ripping the movie to threads. It's just a movie, people!!! In other news, I'm going to my second Cleveland Indians game tomorrow. The Tribe won the first game I went to, here's shooting for two! And my wife would kill me if I didn't mention this, but tomorrow is our one year wedding anniversary. Thanks dear for a wonderful year, and here's to many more in the future! *smooch* Coming soon: A possible site redesign (conversion to frames) A series of semi trailers that hook to the 3442 California Truck town set A long term mission is to build an AT-ST model, or some other nifty Star Wars inspired machine I hear screaming. A good many dramatic situations begin with screaming. --Jane Fonda, Barbarella 5/9/99 Yeah, I know, it's been ages since I've updated, but that's because I've been horribly busy with setting up all of my house stuff. Moving went very well, and Shelly and I have been spending tons of money and time doing some house stuff. Lawn care, electrical work, bathroom work, you name it. It's been hectic, that's for sure. Can you believe that Ameritech wants to charge $100 to rewire the second line that's already in the house in order to put it in a different room? It boggles my mind. I'll spend the time to do it myself for that cost. Even if it takes me all day it's still worth it. And on another note, those rat fiends aren't offering ADSL in my area yet. Grr. I now have all but one of the Star Wars Lego sets. Muahahaha!!! Remember everybody, it's Mother's Day today. Call your mother! Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake when you make it again. --F.P. Jones 4/21/99 Hey there web surfers. The title's in our name, and we're moving into the new house in 2 days. Look out house, here we come! The computer will be disassembled tonight, not to be seen again until probably sunday or monday. So no updates for a while. In other news, I'm now officially part of the yuppie subculture, as I've bought a frivolous sport ute. Specifically, a spiffy green Jeep Cherokee. Pictures will be forthcoming, I'm sure. It's not so much verbing that weirds language, as renounification. --Coriander, Heinous BBS 4/16/99 Well now, all the i's have been dotted and t's have been crossed, and it's into the final stages of the house buying. They have our money, we've signed all the papers, and all that's left is for them to do the title transfer and for us to do the final walkthrough, and collect the keys. T-minus 8 days and counting til the move. The stress is starting to get heavy, trying to coordinate all the closing stuff on the old place with all the startup stuff at the new place, plus appliance deliveries, movers, and all sorts of other stuff. If anybody wants to help me move on Saturday, April 24th, you're welcome to donate your time. I'll reward you with pizza and beer. Also, it seems that there's lovin' in the air, as James and Rianne, Paul and Kelly, and Matt and Sarah are all getting married. Boy, it looks like Shelly and I are trend-setters! Oh, and La Mer's getting married too, but I don't know her fiance's name. Congratulations to all! Reality is a crutch for people who can't cope with drugs --Lily Tomlin 4/8/99 Good evening all. We were approved for financing! Yay! Two weeks from now and we'll be moving into the new house, and all sorts of wacky hijinks will ensue. So now we're packing. Updates for today: Removed the links to the quick index. They were redundant. Added a picture to the top of the Lego page. It didn't look right without one. Added the collection section to the Lego page. There you go Kleric, pictures of the sorted Lego. Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, and a dark side, and it holds the universe together. --Carl Zwanzig 4/4/99 Howdy Ho! Well boys and girls, the house process is a little closer. We should hear by the end of this week whether financing is approved, and then we'll be moving. Won't that be fun. And some other good news! I finally got my hands on the Star Wars Lego, and there will soon be some additions to my Lego page with regards to Star Wars Lego. What can I say, I'm a fanboy. Til the next update, may the force be with you. Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. --Will rogers 3/21/99 Happy spring everybody! Spring's when the the days get longer and warmer, the barbeque grills get fired up, and the chicks start wearing sun dresses. What a wonderful time of the year. I have added a new feature to the self page: my new house. The wife and I decided to include pictures of the house for people interested in what a couple of just out of college engineers can afford to purchase. Look for the house right about here. What's new for this update: Added the house page here and on the self page fussed with the self page just a bit Now everybody get outside and enjoy the spring! The first rule of tinkering is to save all the parts. --Paul Erlich 3/18/99 Well, we did it, we went and bought a house. Once we get the mortgage, we'll be set to take occupancy by the end of April. yahoo!!! Here's a picture of the house. There should be more coming later. If I ever get the time. To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk. --Thomas Edison 3/4/99 Who'd have thought that hunting for a house would be so much work? So much for free time. Who knows when I'll get to work on any of my LEGO projects again. But hey, a house will certainly come in handy. It'll make a great place to store lots and lots of stuff. Updates for today: Added the Pirate Ship Revenge to the LEGO projects page Added the Pile o' Minifigs picture to the LEGO page Created the Old Updates page Created the Cool Stuff page and added Paul's car pictures to it Added the quick links intro information I don't want to achieve immortality through my work... I want to achieve it through not dying. --Woody Allen 2/24/99 I don't like working 10 hours a day. I don't have nearly as much time to do fun stuff. On the good side, the wife cooks me dinner sometimes :) Updates for today: Added the Centrifugal Psychosis sneak preview to the amusement park rides LEGO page That's it Some mornings, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps. --Emo Phillips 2/19/99 Updates for today: Added a new feature to the Lego page, and reworked it a smidge Added pictures for the Skeleton Kickline and Bioledge Project Added a couple more links to the links page Thursday night i was watching rasslin' on WCW Thunder, and got to thinking. I watched Chris Benoit take a rather viscious bump, he did his flying headbutt off the top of a cage onto Bryan Adams. A 10 foot head first jump into a guy's sternum takes balls, that's for sure. Wrestlers like him and Mick Foley do an insane amount of damage to themselves to entertain an audience (and make a good wad of money too) How many of you would be willing to risk a concussion, broken limbs, brain damage, and goodness knows what else, for their job? I guess if you're making $3 million a year like Bret Hart, you'll do a lot... I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, its a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities. --Theodor Seuss Geissel 2/17/99 Well, today I decided to add a random comments and new stuff area on my page. It seems like a good place to make pointless banter, simply for the sake of updating my page on a more regular basis. Is this some sort of cry for attention? Anyway, updates for today: Added content to the Marvin Page Tinkered with the comments form a smidge Moved some info from the index page onto the self page Tinkered with the LEGO Web Ring source code to get it right Updated the quote of the day The quote of the moment/day/week will be updated whenever I add some random comments. If you have any groovy good quotes you want to share with me then go right ahead. Question of the moment. Who thinks that DIVX, Circuit City's alternative to DVD, is going to live through the year? Using DIVX eliminates any privacy you may have had with respect to which movies you watch. You need a dedicated phone line for DIVX so it can communicate with the server. A kid who watches Barney every day for a month will cost you hundreds of dollars a month. You can't watch one of your DIVX movies on a friend's DVD or DIVX player because it's keyed to your account only. I wonder if the marketing guy who thought up the whole concept still has a job... 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