Always Be Closing. Always Be Closing.

If Dave's smile was any wider, the corners of his mouth would have touched 'round back and the top of his head would have fallen off. Not only was he at his favorite Blog Flea Market, held at the local (long-abandoned) drive-in theater, but on a whim, he drove close to the gate and, by chance, got a great parking space right up front. He hopped out of his car, whistling, grabbing his favorite over-sized cloth shopping bag (the white one with the phrase "The Captain's Blog" on it in big, bold letters), and made for the entrance.

As usual, he took a moment to pause just inside the gate, to look around, take it all in and thank God that such a place existed. He smiled, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, loving that wonderful mix of smells coming from all of the booths, each selling something different and entertaining for a blogger to use in his/her blog.

"Gonna be a great blog tonight!" Dave said, as he began his usual pattern.

He stopped first by the Daily Trivia booth, to stock up on some historical factoids. They were 12 for a buck today, so he decided on two dozen. He'd spread them out over the coming week, he decided. Next to that booth was the Funny Picture Bin. Dave had to be careful - he could spend hours browsing here, and by that time, most of the best Funny Videos a couple booths down would be gone. Dave disciplined himself, and limited his Funny Pics purchase to a half-dozen, bought them, and moved on.

There were a few Funny Videos worth buying, as well as some ripe Gaming News. He then held his nose and hit up the Gutbuster booth, grabbing a couple stunning entrees for the upcoming week. He grabbed some Moderately Interesting Observations - the Highly Interesting ones were usually too expensive and not in season, so those would have to wait.

He browsed at the Overused Philosophical Rants booth, but didn't buy anything. He still had plenty of those left over in his archive. He made several more stops, to grab some Killer Landscape Photos for the headers, some Links of Interest, some used Spoonerisms, a few Energy Drink References and plenty of All-Purpose Whining.

The Anagrams weren't fresh today, and he always felt bad having to buy new Jokes (which is why he used the ones he had already, over and over and over...). By the time he reached the barrel of Movie Quotes, his bag was just about full. He topped off the bag with quotes (a penny each!) and decided to call it a day.

As he made for the front entrance, he paused long enough to cast a glance at the Brutal Honesty booth.

"Someday," he whispered. "Someday..."

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"Lip sync" or "Sip link", which one?

Summer winds it's way down, and Fall begins to peek its head up over the backyard fence, silent, but trying to make eye contact. I won't look at it! I won't! I want Summer to last a bit longer! But, alas, it may be too late. The ultimate harbinger of Fall has arrived, in the form of the return of Pumpkin Spice Frappucino's at Starbucks. Once those arrive, it's like labor pains to a woman with child. Fall will be born, and soon. Sigh.

Here, I need to get to this Funny Picture early on today, because it's too funny to wait...


LOL, OMG. That one's going in my Funny Pic Hall of Fame. I laughed so hard the first time I saw that, I nearly passed out...

Here's a cool story that some of you may have seen. In the fight against the current wildfires gobbling up brush in the LA area, they called in the newest, biggest firefighting tool currently available...

Put the spurs to her, Chuck.

That is not photoshopped - it's a modified 747 supertanker, that can carry 20,000 of chemical fire retardant and drop its load evenly across a three-mile long line. This is the first time it's been used in the US, and it seems to be helping tremendously. That... is INSANE. Anyway, here's the link to a story about it, if you'd like to read more about it.

The other day, I introduced a feature called the Shelf Portrait that was very well received. Thought I'd do another one, this time with my software shelf.


I had to make the full-sized photo really big, my apologies, so you can read all the titles (if you wanted to) in my game collection. Here's the breakdown of the numbers:

• 41 PC games: Of those, 16 I've played either to the finish, or put a substantial amount of time into. 15 I've dabbled with to some degree. 10 I've played either only once or not at all. In fact, 5 of them have yet to ever be installed.
• 9 DS Games: All played thoroughly, except COD4 and Hotel Dusk.
• The Application Software is moot.

Anyway, my autographed, personalized copy of Gates of Fire is up there on the top shelf. Awesome cover, though you can't really see it well in the pic. Lemme track down a copy of the hardback cover on Google, brb...

Killer cover design.

Anyway, as you can see from the Shelf Portrait, I have way too many games. I'll never understand why I buy more and then just keep them there on the shelf, unplayed. I guess it's like an unread book or something. I added another today - World of Goo. Picked it up at Target for $14.99. Boop, right on the shelf. Hmm... Anyway, those weren't all full-price games, fear not. Some of them were gifts, and most others were crazy good deals. I think only Fallout 3 and Hellgate London were bought when they first came out, at full price.

Well, another small glimpse into my world. And now, I shall move on.

I do have a cool video for you today...

Don't worry. I've seen the Brady Bunch. Nothing bad ever happens to you people.

I cannot imagine the hours of missed-shot footage that went into that video... I don't think I'd have the patience for that. Besides, I have rotator cuff issues, so just watching someone throw a basketball overhand like that makes my shoulder hurt... Still, it's fun to watch.

And while we're keeping it light-hearted tonight, I might as well end with this... I hope you can read it ok...


Got that from Gary's World - A blog I started following mainly for the Scrabble header he uses on the blog. Plus, he's usually amusing and he updates almost daily, which is always fun to find... it's as if angels were flying by so they dropped him off! [UPDATE - wouldn't you know it. As soon as I link to it, he posts something offensive. Sorry, y'all, I hadn't seem him do that before, ever]

I think I'll pull the plug. It's late and I need sleep... I wanted to get to the post earlier tonight, but the fam wanted to watch The Music Man, and then Project Runway was on, so we watched that too... didn't start writing this until after 11pm. Ouch.

Until tomorrow, remember, somewhere, inside, in the dark, the firm is listening...