The best laid schemes o' mice an' men...

It's been said a billion times that a picture is worth a thousand words.  This one sure is haunting enough.  From flickr user Dan Maudsley's collection comes this 2005 photo of the liner SS American Star (formerly SS America, among others), run aground off the Canary Islands:

(click for the larger version, of course)

For more info, check out the ship's Wikipedia article.  

The first thing I thought when I saw the photo (without knowing the ship's history), is how fragile our creations really are.  Yeah, yeah, yeah...a bit overboard (pardon the pun) on the philosophy, but really: stop and think about it for a minute.  This ship took the work of hundreds of people and actually survived in service from 1940 to 1994, when she was wrecked.  Like any ocean liner, she was built to last and survive quite a pounding.  That said, it only took two days of pounding from the sea to break the stranded ship (by then nothing more than a floating hotel, with no power or navigational abilities of its own) in half.  Two days?  A ship that'd survived 54 years' service--several of them during WWII as a troop transport--split in half by the waves of the mid Atlantic.  The bow section soldiered on for 13 more years, finally succumbing to the ocean in 2007.

All of that work, time, and history gone--just like that.  Kind of puts things in perspective, doesn't it?

For more pics, check out the page of one of the ship's former patrons: http://www.ss-australis.com

A Sign of the Times

Those of you who haven't been near or talked to me for more than 5 seconds since last Thursday may not know it, but Christy left for Tanzania a week ago.  She's due to come back on the 26th.  Please keep her and her group in your thoughts and prayers.  If you're curious, check out our blog for her thoughts on going back.  The Cliff's Notes version is that she loves being there--to hear her talk about it, Tanzania is one of the greatest places on Earth.  I love to sit and listen to her tell stories because it's so obvious that to her, it really is!  I will say for sure that after listening to her, I'm sold!  

It means a lot to me to see her being the woman I love--passionate, caring, loving, and diligent!

While this is her sixth trip, it's actually the third she's taken since we met.  She left for the first one back when we were dating.  In fact, she'd just met my parents for the first time that Memorial Day.  Back then, she was participating in We Care Ministries when she was in the 'States, so I knew that the next time I saw her would be more than a month (almost two) later.  I knew when she came back that my wait for a wife was over.  I also knew that if I could be apart from her for as long as that trip was (or seemed to be in my mind), I could do anything!

Soooo...thinking all this one week after my wife of (now) three years left for Africa, I find myself confident, but still...I miss her!

I love you, baby!

Something Different

This morning, I was getting ready to head out to work and remembered that I'd left my glasses on the dining room table when Christy and I were playing board games last night.  As I reached over to the table, I saw something...hop...in my peripheral vision.  Here's what I saw:

Seeing an opportunity that I couldn't pass up, I quickly and quietly got back to the living room to grab the camera.  I managed to snap off a few shots from a little closer:

This guy wasn't afraid of me!  I decided to oblige the little one's outgoing attitude by walking all the way up to the glass.  He actually didn't move until I backed away!

Neat way to start the day!

1989...Coolest Year. EVAR. Part 2

If you haven't read Part 1 of the Coolest Year EVAR list, have a look.  In the meantime, let's roll on!

6. Nintendo Game Boy - Honestly, I can't remember when I came to be in possession of Nintendo's "wonder brick", but the fact is, Gunpei Yokoi's pride and joy was released to the US in--you guessed it--1989.  None too soon for this video game nut!  For the first time, I could take my games with me--and how!  I don't know how I'd have made that first trip to Hawaii without it.

Did You Know?  The late Yokoi-san was the inventor not only of the Game and Watch series and a producer of the Metroid series (among others), he has been credited with patenting a staple of modern gaming, even in the analog stick era: the humble D-Pad.

5. Family Matters - I'd have included The Cosby Show, but it started in '84.  The adventures of the Winslow family and Black and Nerdy prototype Steven Q. Urkel were the linchpin of ABC's TGIF lineup.  It became so popular that Urkel got his own cereal, despite the fact that he was apparently so nerdy that he drove a BMW Isetta (which in my opinion only made him quirky, not nerdy).

The show would make a jump from ABC to CBS along with Step By Step (whose premier Urkel had literally crashed) for '94, though I'd argue by then the magic had long since been lost.  Jaleel White would eventually bounce through several roles, one of them being, strangely enough, the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog!

4. Tienanmen Square - You know the picture.  I'm pretty sure it's one of the most famous of the 20th Century.  Honestly, I was too young to really care what was going on when this photo was taken, but the image (and, oddly enough, not the video) have been burned into my mind forever.  TV news can be a wonderful thing.

3. Berlin Wall Falls - Probably an even more significant event than the student protests in Tienanmen.  Largely regarded as the official swan song of Communism--and not just in Germany.  This was another event that I really didn't understand until much, much later.  Watching several specials over the years, I really just can't imagine what people on either side of the Wall really had to experience on a daily basis.  Even comedies based off the event are tragic...

2. Ducktales - Why does this game make the list?  Is it because the Moon stage theme is quite frankly one of the coolest video game themes ever?  Maybe.  Is it because I can't get the cartoon's theme song out of my head any time I hear it?  Quite possibly.  There are plenty of reasons why it could make the list: great gameplay, simple (enough) controls, plenty of secrets, and the aforementioned music--all hallmarks of Capcom's great 8-bit games.  That said, this one makes the list for one reason and one reason only: it's the first game that I ever beat.  How many of you can say that you remember the first video game you ever beat?  

Now that I think of it, I seem to recall my first issue of Nintendo Power was the Ducktales issue!

Yeah, it's not much, but hey...I was eight.  What do you expect?!

Last but not least on the greatest things of '89 was a game that I never actually have beat:

1. Mega Man 2 - Though some of us get a laugh at just how many Mega Man games there are now (officially, there've been 10 8- and 16-bit games in the main series, 8 in the Mega Man X series, and let's not get into all the spinoffs from that), at one point, there were only two.  Like many other folks, the sequel was the first one I got to play and WOW...I was blown away.  HUGE bosses, one of the greatest game soundtracks ever, and a difficulty level that, while pretty high, was never cheap (I'm looking at you, Ninja Gaiden)--this game had a lot going for it.  To this day, I've never finished Dr. Wily's infamous castle (MM2 was the first to feature the castle), though I guess I probably could...and I wouldn't be the only one who's given it a thought.

There you have it: ten reasons why 1989 was one of the best years of my life.  I've left off a few things (you might want to Google "River City Ransom" sometime), but this covers most of the main things I could think of offhand.   Yeah, I talked mostly about video games, movies, and TV, but like I said...I was 8.  Having a brother (whom I idolized) that was into computers and comic books, no one should be surprised that this is what I could remember of 21 years ago!  Lots of things were changing in my life and, in many ways, I happened to be in the right place at the right time to enjoy a childhood at the end of one decade and the beginning of another.  Jesus Jones summed it up pretty well two years later: