Weather weirdness

Yesterday's high in denver was 82F. This morning it's 31F and snowing. Go figure.

Alone time

This past week I spent in Northern Wyoming and Southern Montana teaching classes in Powell and Gillette, WY. (I stayed a few nights in Cody, WY.) Though I met many wonderful new people several of whom encouraged me to do some of the things I did while not teaching, the alone time was much needed. Here's the low-down on what I did.

Hell's Half Acre

On the way up to Cody I made a short stop at Hell's Half Acre, basically a big hole in the ground with many interesting rock formations. I don't think any of my pictures do it justice.

Cody, WY

While in Cody, the town founded by Buffalo Bill Cody I mainly just walked around a lot. I did have dinner one evening at the Irma Hotel, named after Bill's daughter, and did manage to grab this one great shot of some colorful clouds.

Heart Mountain

Inbetween Cody and Powell is the Heart Mountain Relcolation Center Memorial Park. This is where a large number of Japanese-Americans were held during WWII in one of the more embarrassing moments in American history. Here are pictures of the information sign and the memeorial.

Big Horn Canyon

On Wednesday I had the day off and was told to take a different route over to Gillette than the one MapQuest had given me. This could only be descrbed as the Scenic Route (14 Alt for those wanting to look it up,) and man was it worth it. I took two hikes, both just over the border into Montana, one quite flat to the rim of the canyon and another, much longer and hike up and away from the canyon proper. (Here's a picture from the start of the hike, one looking down from the top, three miles later and a picture of the falls located at the top.) Oh, and here's one more picture I took on the way back down the mountain. I just through it was a great shot.

Medicine Wheel

Three miles off 14A in Big Horn National Forest is a Native American Medicine Wheel. It's quite amazing to look at, especially when you're the only person for miles and there's no sound but the wind.

Do ^Do Do _Do Do

Last but not least, on Thursday night I was informed that Devil's Tower National Monument was only an hour away so right after class I got myself down there since I'd been wanting to see it ever since first seeing Close Encounters of the Third Kind many years ago. It was worth the drive! Here's a picture of it from the road leading up to the park and another from the base. One word of warning however, if you've done the hike around the base, the 1.5 mile paved one, and it's 6pm in late October, you don't have enough time to do the 2.8 mile trail hike. It'll be way to daark for the last quater mile. Trust me, I know...

More lyrics

All day staring at the ceiling
Making friends with shadows on my wall
All night hearing voices telling me
That I should get some sleep
Because tomorrow might be good for something

Hold on
Feeling like I'm heading for a breakdown
And I don't know why

But I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell
I know right now you can't tell
But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see
A different side of me
I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired
I know right now you don't care
But soon enough you're gonna think of me
And how I used to be...me

I'm talking to myself in public
Dodging glances on the train
And I know, I know they've all been talking bout me
I can hear them whisper
And it makes me think there must be something wrong with me
Out of all the hours thinking
Somehow I've lost my mind

But I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell
I know right now you can't tell
But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see
A different side of me
I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired
I know right now you don't care
But soon enough you're gonna think of me
And how I used to be

I've been talking in my sleep
Pretty soon they'll come to get me
Yeah, they're taking me away I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell I know right now you can't tell But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see A different side of me I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired I know right now you don't care But soon enough you're gonna think of me And how I used to be Yeah, how I used to be How I used to be Well, I'm just a little unwell How I used to be How I used to be I'm just a little unwell

Catalog cards for sale

The Firends of the Royal Oak Public Library are offering some unique, autogaphed card catalog cards on eBay.

iTunes

Apple's legit music download service is now available for Windows!

Miles to go

39,935

What's wrong with this screenshot?

Appropriate lyrics

twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go i wanna be sedated nothing to do nowhere to go i wanna be sedated just get me to the airport and put me in a plane hurry hurry hurry before i go insane i can't control my fingers i can't control my brain oh no oh ho just put me in a wheelchair and get me to the show hurry hurry hurry before i go loco i can't control my fingers i can't control my toes oh no oh ho

It only took 26 years...

...but I finally got to meet Gene Simmons of KISS!
(He's standing on a foot-high stage while I'm standing on the floor.)

Miles to go

48,292

Acme, inc.

Even wish you could browse through a catalog of Acme products. Well now you can at The ORIGINAL Illustrated Catalog Of ACME Products

Miles to go

48,502

Joke

President Bush is trying to sleep one night in the White House. He`s very restless, and in the middle of the night he looks up to see George Washington standing at the foot of his bed. "My goodness! George Washington! May I ask you a question? " says the President. " What can I do right now to make the country better?" Washington replies, "Try always to be as honest and honorable as me". With that, Bush falls to sleep.

Awhile later he wakes up, this time to find Thomas Jefferson standing by his bed. "Wow!" says Bush. "Thomas Jefferson, please tell me! What can I do right now to make the country better?" Jefferson replies, "Always respect the Constitution, as I did". Finally, Bush figures he will get some sleep.

But to his amazement, he wakes one more time to find Abe Lincoln silently standing at his bedside. "Abraham Lincoln! Tell me please, what can I do right now to make the country a better place?". Lincoln looks at him and says.........."Relax, go see a play".

Frustrating

Well, today my voice got worse. A whisper is the best I can do right now so basically I've been told not to speak. For those of you that know me, you know how hard this will be.

Turned down

I just turned down my first writing opportunity. Smart Computing asked me to do an article on how to keep your PC quiet (details below.) Well, I'm just not a hardware person so I decided to decline the offer. It hurt, but I just couldn't talk myself into it. And, if my heart just isn't in it, I don't believe I should do it.

PC Project: Peace & Quiet - And Power, Too
As computers get more powerful they also seem to get noisier: high-powered CPUs, additional power-draining optical (and other) drives, etc. all mean that the system must supply more power. One result of that power drain is heat, and the way most manufacturers fight heat is to use larger fans, and more of them. In the end, you could end up with a PC that acts and sounds like an F-14 fighter: fast and powerful, but way too noisy to keep in your den. Let's establish some baselines for "acceptable" noise (explain decibel ratings, etc.), and then take the reader through the process of quieting a noisy system. (Use plenty of photos to help in describing how to install fans, noise dampeners, etc.)

Behind

Sorry for the lack of posts recently but I've been quite ill and blogging was hardly on my list of things to do while trying to sleep it off. I've still got a serious case of laryngitis but it's slowly getting better. So, here's a bunch of posts to get caught up.

Dean koontz update

My paperback copy of The Paper Doorway along with both the hardcover and library binding copies of Every Day's a Holiday have arrived and have been added to the ms. Additionally, the Overlook Connection Press edition of Goon by Edward Lee & John Phelan has been added to the Ephemera appendix due to a DK mention in the book's introduction.

It's here!

My first copies of The Neal-Schuman Directory of Management Software for Public Access Computers finally arrived late this afternoon. It's now officially available for purchase.

Author photos

New photos are up on my Author photos page. Recent additions include Neal Stephenson and Terry Pratchett. Unfortuantley due to my recent illness I was unable to attend signings by Madeline Albright and Joyce Carol Oates.

The friends of the aurora public library

The Web site is up and live. You can find it at http://fapl.coinfotech.com/