Extraction Point

Well, frequent visitors to my blog may recall that back in May and June I played the PC game FEAR. A first-person shooter (FPS) where you are a member of the "First Encounter Assault Recon, the military's top-secret task force assigned to deal with paranormal situations".

Well, now I have started playing the expansion to it: Extraction Point. After the destruction of a facility in Auburn, the chopper carrying the main character away goes down. You have to fight your way through clone soldiers and supernatural critters. Plus Alma, the scariest enemy in the game. I've seen her torch rooms/buildings and completely slaughter soldiers (without firing a shot). Thankfully, she saved my ass in one scene of extraction point... I suspect I know why but I can't reveal it to you because it would spoil the original game.

As I have been playing, I have managed to take a handful of screenshots:

My partner is taken by some ghouls... guess I have to work alone now!

A USAF plane downed in downtown Auburn.

As I climbed up this ladder, Alma popped out at the last second giving me quite a fright. I fell to the ground and she vanished (as she seems to do too often).

I don't recall what year this game is supposed to take place in but checkout the Fed. Min. Wage!

Bad Humour Island

As I have stated here before, I enjoy mountain biking on La Framboise Island. The island is a sandbar island and is home to many different animals and vegetation including: deer, beaver, and cottonwood and redwood trees.

I normally don't like to carry my camera along because I don't like to stop. I really enjoy trying to keep my speed up as I pedal along he winding trails and between the trees. But sometime in the past week I took my camera along and snapped a few pics for you, my readers.

Enjoy!

Political Platform

What is that sound? What is that feeling in the air? Could it be? Are the internet rumors true? YES! Cobloggeration has been spreading like wild fire. The culprits? These two.

Well, as my comrades have done, here is my political platform:
I am not at all surprised by the results. Overall, I am more of a centrist politically, but the current major issues in politics have me shifting towards the "left". Well, except on immigration.

I think my isolationist tendencies have surfaced in this platform. I believe we should not be in Iraq, though we will win it (at too high a cost) and I believe that illegal immigration needs to be curbed.

Well, I think that my bloggin' ways will return with the cooler temps that have hit SD. So, what should you expect to see?

• Pics from one of my rides on La Framboise Island
• Piracy invades Pierre
• New PC for a friend
• FEAR: Extraction Point
• And hopefully more...

Cleaning up pictures on my desktop...

As ou can guess by the title, I found a pair of pics on my desktop that I have been meaning to blog about but never got around to. First up, I discovered how Youtube REALLY works.
And second, I did take the World's Shortest Political Quiz. To be honest, I was not surprised by the outcome: I am a centrist with liberal and libertarian tendencies.

45 minutes = $50,000

How much damage can a 7 and 10 year old cause? $50,000! I suspect the ten year old will spend some time in a juvenile detention center, the parents' insurance premium will rapidly increase if they don't lose it entirely. And besides the punishment from the parents, the 7 year old gets away with it. (Well, if he were my son I would make him do a large number of chores for the owner(s) of the home he destroyed nearing 50k in value).

Rollin' Down To Old Oahe

Well, I came up with a parody of Rollin' Down To Old Maui based upon my return to SD. he original is one of my favorite whaling songs, what do you think of my parody?

It's a damn tough life full of toil and strife
We civils undergo.
And we don't give a damn when the day is done
How hard the winds did blow.
For we're homeward bound from the Yakima ground
With a good truck, taut and free
And we don't give a damn when we drink our rum
With the girls of Old Oahe.

(chorus)
Rolling down to Old Oahe, me boys
Rolling down to Old Oahe
We're homeward bound from the Yakima ground
Rolling down to Old Oahe.

Once more we cruise with a westerly gale
Through the ice and wind and rain.
Them native maids, them midwestern glades,
We soon shall see again.
twelve hellish months have passed away
One the dry Sagebrush Sea,
But now we're bound from the Yakima ground
Rolling down to Old Oahe.

chorus

Once more we cruise with a westerly gale
Towards our midwestern  home.
Our cargo secured, our traffic engineering done,
And we ain't go far to roam.
Our stuns'l bones is carried away
What care we for that sound?
A living gale is after us,
Thank God we're homeward bound.

chorus

How soft the breeze through the cottonwood trees,
Now the sagebrush is far astern.
Them native maids, them midwestern glades
Is a-waiting our return.
Even now their soft brown eyes look out
Hoping some fine day to see
Our baggy tarp runnin' 'fore the gales
Rolling down to old Oahe.

chorus

Blog-block

I am blogging less often than I used to, but why? While I was in Yakima I blogged nealy everyday, even going 100 straight days with a post! But what happened?

Well, I felt the same as my KC friend while I was living in Yakima. But since I have returned to Pierre, SD, I have spent more time outdoors (kayaking, mnt biking) and I have spent more time with friends, thanks to close proximity of a few college friends and my willingness to drive a few hours. Also, football season (both college and NFL) has also hindered my blogging.

Well, as the winter progresses, I should be able to blog more often. My outdoor activities will go away, leaving me with working out at the YMCA.

Boxes

I haven't mentioned work at the SDDOT Office of Bridge Design (OBD) in a while, so here you are...

The past couple of weeks I have been working on some box culvert layouts (pre-design), rather simple but still needs to be done before the design phase. Well, the last couple of days I worked on a huge box culvert layout that will be replacing a small bridge over the Fall River in Fall River County, SD. It is a 5 barrel 14ft x 13ft (span x rise). Meaning 5*14+6*9.5/12 (9.5" walls) or 74 ft 9 inches wide! And annoyingly, it was skewed at 55 degrees and did not use standard wingwalls... oh well.

Picture Perfect Monday

It's October and I have been kayaking?! I went on saturday but that is not the topic of this post. Later on on saturday, I was down by the (Missouri) river (well, what else do you expect from a pirate?) and took some great pictures of the fall scenes and sunset.

Three Item Thursday!

1. Before I get into the "real" news... I might as well own a home. I have been doing yardwork this week and I don't even ppwn a yard! First of all, I cleaned out my parent's gutters earlier this week and managed to cut my hand twice on them. Second, today I hauled leaves, crabapples, etc. to the yardwaste dropoff. OK alright, I didn't do that much yardwork and I really don't mind helping my parents after all they have done for me. But griping can be fun to!
2. Thanks to my loyal Navigator, I am now the proud owner of a Garmin GPSmap 60Cx. I decided to tryout this crazy fad called geocaching and I actually had fun this evening. I think I discovered my next hobby ;) Below is where I found a cache at tonight:
3. But most importantly, GAS HAS DROPPED BELOW $2 IN SOUTH DAKOTA, while remaining at or above $2.42 in Washington... Take that Yakima! ;)

Have Camera, Will Travel

First off, I apologize for not blogging in the last week. I do not have any excuses; I just didn't take the time to blog.

I did manage to use my camera between Thursday and today, so I will share with you some of my recent pics.

Capitol Creek in Pierre, SD flowing near the DOT building.

The SD Capitol Building.

Well, I went to Rapid City this weekend for M-Day, so...

The new Exit 60 interchange:

It used to be a non-standard interchange, where westbound traffic exited from the left land and not all movements were provided. But now it is a single-point interchange.

Another, closer, shot:

Ah, Dunn Brothers!

The best coffee!

Sadly, I rarely thought to take a picture while in Rapid but I did take the time to snap a few more shots on my way back to Pierre.

The leaves changing alongthe Bad River:

"Something" that slowed down my trip home. It sortof looks like a hull but I think it probably is a storage tank/bin for something.

And some leaves changing in Pierre:

Today's Hero

This was a good weekend. Notre Dame won with a come-back victory, Steve Smith returned to the Panthers, and the Carolina Panthers defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on a last second John Kasay field goal (yes, Kasay is today's hero).

Welcome to the Fascist State Formerly Known As The U.S.

And people wonder why I claim we are heading for a dark age?!

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060921/NEWS07/609210404/1009

Too bad I didn't get to see this film.

When Legends Fade...

There are many legends of unbelievable drinking and drunkenness throughout every culture in history. And they come out in many folk songs.

Johnny Tarr is probably the most unbelievable "legend" but we may have lost a living legend this weekend.

Juan "Habanero" Diablo-Murphy, the ever fiesty, hard-drinking Irish-Mexican came with me out to Rapid City, SD this weekend to see some friends in RC and get out of Pierre during the Vietnam War Memorial dedication. I don't have anything against the dedication other than I want to avoid the crowds!

Well, a group of us ended up at the Valley Sports Bar, where I acted as the DD and enjoyed my favorite spectator sport ;) Well, early on the unconquerorable Juan kept giving the Lord of Beverages a hard time about being a light-weight drinker but towards the end of the night the Lord of Beverages was still able to have a semi-intelligent conversation while Juan was completely wasted after four beers.

Well, Juan needed my help to even enter the house we were staying at and immediately crashed in front of the "porcelain god". Later on in the wee hours of the morning he got up and we tried to get him to sleep on a futon and in the process he puked on the couch.

Obviously, since I am posting this as a humerous post, he did turn out alright. But as the Lord of Beverages said, "Seeing Juan wasted after four beers was like findinag out that Santa was not real... a legend has died."


Well, as with all legends and tales the facts can become blurred. The four beers were larger than normal beers, but worst of all... Juan made the mistake of not eating anything while out drinking so he was affect greater than he should have been.

Also, as with most tales, the names have been changed to protect the guilty ;)

shopping for jeans ;)

I recently recieved an email with a bunch of pictures joking aboput the difference between men and women . Well, one of the pictures I have to disagree with...

I am not disagreeing with the female portrayal here... not that I actually believe this to be fact for all women, but stereotped comedy can still be funny! But disagreement is with the male portrayal. I don't even bother with a mall for jeans! I just head up to walmart for a pair of wranglers and it costs me about $15-$25 (depending if they are on sale or not). The time is about right though... I hate those walmart crowds... I could be out in 3minutes otherwise ;)

Plutonian Revolution?

Pirate Muster

Today I picked up the custom tshirts that I ordered with the Pirates of the Missouri logo. The graphic design place came up with a slightly different design as me, but I am pleased with the results anyway.

Adventures of the a Seadog

This weekend was a bad weekend for sports (at least for me). Justine Henin-Hardenne lost the US Open Women's Singles Final to Maria Sharapova and today my football team either didn't play or spotted the Atlanta Falcons a game.

I need to do a post to get my mind off of football...

Fishing for treasure or drowning a landlubber?

La Framboise Island belongs to the Pirates now!

Intently watching lubbers strolling along the opposite shoreline... how dare they!

Trudging along...

Searching for the trail to the treasure...

A friendly port ;)

Official Unveiling of a New Band of Super Villia... er... Heroes

My new website has reached an official unveiling!

http://www.piratesofthemissouri.com

I setup my hosting account to rid the initial site of ads (Your Welcome!) and uploaded all of my vids to the server; to see the new location of my vidding page click on My Vids after following the above link.

I have also began placing links to various sites and files on the main page for your enjoyment. And the best part is that my internet won't be negativel affected by said enjoyment ;)

Any questions on how to join, donate cash towards, or any other questions regarding the Pirates of the Missouri may be sent to Captain@piratesofthemissouri.com

Any questions on gps, maps, locations, or what to do in KC may be sent to Navigator@piratesofthemissouri.com

More from last weekend

Those of you that know me well, know that I like to keep a room cool. Well, when I left for the lifelight festival last Friday, I left the windows in my apartment open with fans blowing. Thanks to the cool weather of the weekend, I came back to a comfortable living quarters:
Oh all right, it was after 8PM when I got back but it still wasa nice in there ;)


And while I was in Sioux Falls I picked up a new office chair for $50. The old one is the green chair in the pic. As you can tell, the new onw is much nicer. BTW, the strange looking mark on the green seat is another topic for another day ;) If you are desperate enough for the story my former roommate might be willing to sell the story for the right price ;)

New Site

I have just obtained my own domain name so head on over and bookmark http://www.piratesofthemissouri.com/ It will be ever changing over the next couple of weeks as I work on it.

Talk Like A Pirate Day Training Camp

In preparation for the grand day of TLAPD I have began to listen to songs of piracy and sailing. Join in with me! Check out the bilge pumps!

Or belt out a chrous Billy Bones favorite song!

For those interested my current playlist includes:

Patrick Street - Killanin's Fancy/The Dash to Portobello/Anna Maculeen
Flogging Molly - Salty Dog
Flogging Molly - Whats Left Of The Flag
Flogging Molly - Swagger
Flogging Molly - Rebels of the Sacred Heart
Gael Force - Wild Rover
Gaelic Storm - Scalliwag
Gaelic Storm - The Schooner Lake Set
Gaelic Storm - The Devil Down Below
Gaelic Storm - Bonny Ship the Diamond/Tamlinn
Gaelic Storm - Drink the Night Away
Gaelic Storm - New York Girls
Gaelic Storm - South Australia
Gaelic Storm - Spanish Lady
Gaelic Storm - The Leaving of Liverpool
Great Big Sea - Donkey Riding
Great Big Sea - Jack Hinks
Great Big Sea - Lukey
Great Big Sea - I'm A Rover
Great Big Sea - Rant And Roar
Great Big Sea - Excursion Around The Bay
Great Big Sea - The Old Black Ram
Irish Descendants - Barrett's Privateers
Irish Descendants - Catch The Wind
Irish Rovers - What Do We Do with a Drunken Sailor
Patrick Street - Patrick Street The Carraroe
The Tossers - No Loot,No Booze, No Fun
Tom Smith w/Steve Jackson & Luke Ski - Talk Like A Pirate Day
Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life For Me)

Only 13 days to go, so you better get practicng ;)

Lifelight 2006

Well,, this weekend I followed the advice of a wiseman down KC way and went down to Lifelight in Sioux Falls. Despite heavy rain (for SD anyway) it was a fun time, but also a muddy mess and I missed out on the muddiest parts (Friday night)

Even though, they scraped much of the muck away on Saturday morning and I suspect I know where it went... ;)Even though, obviously, it was still somewhat muddy ;)

On saturday, I drove because I had the lone pickup out of our small group and the mud could still have been an issue. It wasn't, but it may have been if we had taken someone's low clearance car.

But onto the point of the pickup story... it was cramped with four of us:
"The Master of Cutlery", "the wise man down KC way", and his sister rode along with me. The wise man bravely sat where few have dared... the backseat of a S10!

Even though the two engineer passengerss don't even seem to notice me taking this pic... damn engineers' perception and I am not talking about the engineers who designed the Oahe Dam ;)

Well, here we are at the festival... not much else going on in this pointless pic
A couple of videos of from the fest:
A fan... the wiseman from down KC way and his sister (sorry, no nickname)
A band... Superchick

Overall, I would have to say the Lifelight 2006 festival was a ball!

For more pics and videos or if you just want to waste my bandwidth, Click Here.

...Hey blogspot employees! You need to add a spell checker, I keep republishing this post as I catch mistakes. I knew I normally don't read my own blog for a reason ;)