Magic Landing - Like it or lump it

I have been given some new leads as to what happened at Magic Landing so many years ago. I still don't have a timeline of events, but there are some things brewing that I am now directly involved in and will be updating Blank Media with what I have found. I need to verify some accounts of what happened, I am starting to get an idea on what happened in the parks brief, yet memorable history.

I am correct when I say the park opened July 4th 1984.

The deadly rollercoaster now has a name. The Wild Cat stood from 1984-1990, operated from 1984-1985, was dismantled after the accident but NOT DESTROYED, sold to a Mexican amusement park and is still in operation called Montana Rusa. I am somewhat outraged by this.

There were at least three incidents of accidents and mishaps at the park, not including the trains tracks getting washed away a few times. I will save that information for another day. So when people think its strange I think for these things, there are others that follow suit. IM not crazy, IM insane, there's a difference. Insanity is genius gone wrong.

Joe will appreciate this one

Since buying the Dell a few months ago, I had retired my desktop to light duty as my dad's new computer. However, it had sat unplugged and was collecting dust for some time. I was asked to set the computer back up for my dad to use. I wanted to take the second hard drive out of it, because I still haven't eliminated the thought of using it as the laptop's second storage drive.

So, I opened the case and took out the second drive, pieced it back together and placed the system restore disk into the CD drive. Funny thing is, nothing was responding. Tried again, nothing. I opened the case again, checked the switches on the HDD (I had changed the original drive to a slave and forgot to change it back) and tried again. Nothing. I put the second drive back on it, nothing.

The damn computer wasn't even loading its BIOS program. I started to get slightly concerned, because I didn't feel like flashing the BIOS chip. Finally, after fumbling with the stupid little switches, I got the drive to work, and reloaded the old Windows ME back onto the computer. Fresh with DVD and CD burning capabilities, they are there, but doubt they will ever be used.

I wasted 2 hours on that stupid thing. I just shudder when I realize I have a Linux format on the second drive I removed, IM going to need something to reformat that sucker when it comes to that time...

Do you trust your co-workers?

I work in radio. I trust some of them, not all of them. Mainly we trust each other because we work so closely with each other, so issues about leaving wallets, cell phones and such are almost an every day occurrence that we (in radio) don't think there's going to be anything malicious that will happen to our property.

Like I said, I do trust some of my co-workers. I remember my friend at the Sunny FM station has asked me if she could borrow my building entrance card, and I mistakenly heard her ask to borrow my car. I handed her the keys to my car (which was my old Cavalier) and my other co-worker looked at me with total shock that I would loan her my car. Its all a matter of trust.

I soon stopped trusting my own co-workers when I started a change cup in my personal box. It was loose change I had in my pocket left over at the end of the day that I would save in case one day I didn't have spare change for the vending machines. There was one point where I pooled the spare change from my friend Eddie as well. We had something close to $5 in change in this cheap, Styrofoam cup that was well labeled.

Well, as time went on, we noticed all the quarters were gone. In time, all the dimes. Soon, we were left with only pennies. Someone would come, steal our change, never put it back and left. Moving to a new building, I thought I would try the same thing only with Tylenol. I bought it myself and kept it in my personal box. Soon, my full bottle became empty, and the time I needed my own supply, it was gone. I had wandered the building asking people if they had Tylenol or something to take away the headache, and one person from one of the radio stations I DON'T trust told me that there was some Tylenol in someone's box in the DJ prep room. I looked and it was mine.

Later that week, I took pebbles from the parking lot and placed them in the bottle with a note taped to it in tiny lettering, bitching them out for taking all of my aspirin and never once thanking me, or repaying me. I used several cuss words and held nothing back. I noticed the bottle was missing from my box after one weekend.

I now have a stash of aspirin under lock and key. I also have a stash of pens and post-it pads, the remote control for our television, and several blank, but valued cassette tapes in this locked drawer to which there are only two keys. I carry one key on my key chain, the other is hidden in the room. I don't trust my co-workers. Do you trust yours?

Productivity

No, I can never leave it alone. I dumped SuSE Linux for Mandrake Linux, found it didn't work, so I went with Red Hat Linux, it didn't work either so I went back to SuSE. It kept me busy the past two days.

I had been putting off getting the inspection sticker on the Mustang for a while. I guess I figured if I ignored it, it would solve itself. I know, it never happens. With no wait at a local business in town, I got the sticker replaced and had lunch at the same time.

Right now I am reading an interesting book of sorts. Amborse Bierce's The Devils Dictionary. If you don't know what I am talking about, go to Barnes & Noble and order one. You will not be disappointed.

STRANGE FINDINGS FROM THE INTERNET LXIII

*the WTF edition*

Just as a word of warning, this update will get strange, fast.

I've gotten speeding tickets. A total of three. None of them in either of my convertibles. I didn't fight the tickets, I was guilty, even though one of them was questionable. How many did this guy get to learn from it and write everything down?

You will thank me for this one, while cruising the web I found Cartoon Fridge. I am watching cartoons whenever I want from my laptop at work, and loving it. The cartoons I am watching are classic Ren & Stimpy, Rocko's Modern Life and Futurama. DEFINITE HIGH SPEED CONNECTIONS ONLY.

Now, here's everything you need to know to survive a zombie attack. So many questions, none have answers that would satisfy the logical mind.

I wish I was making these headlines up. MSNBC had that headline "Thar She Blows" when that whale exploded in Singapore or some other place like that a few months back. This Harpers magazine's article title is "We Come In Peace". I don't need to hold your hand on that one.

IM a Trekkie. I am not, however, someone who dresses as a Klingon and runs out onto a battle field (mock, or otherwise) and aide in mock war exhibitions. Well, someone did. They look ridiculous, yet look as if they are trapped in a hollodeck.

I've said it once, I will say it again. I am envious on how some people are able to take photographs. An Atlanta police officer took these and they are beautiful. He's been added to my sidebar of photographers.

I don't think this needs any other description other than their tagline - "Check out the hot Action-Man-On-Action-Man Action!". DEAR GOD WHAT THE FUCK!!?? THAT'S NOT RIGHT!!

FEAR

So I am at work yesterday. I dare not say I wasn't working, but I was in the same room my boss was, listening to what he has to say. My friend Vanessa comes in, chats with us all, then reminds me about a lunch date we had made the week before. She leaves. My boss leaves. I stay chatting with my supervisor and am standing in the doorway not facing people coming in. Vanessa sneaks up behind me and scares the hell out of me by grabbing the side of my ribs and SHOUTS her words.

1. I hate people touching the side of my ribs, I hated my brother doing that to me, I hate others doing the same.
2. I hate being scared so OFTEN.
3. She always manages to scare me.

So, I calm down and wait till the end of my shift. Noon comes and I head over to the studios Vanessa is recording in and find she isn't there. I wait, and wait, and wait. I give up, walk the building, then get the idea of scaring the living shit out of her in her own studio. I walk back and stay standing at the wall the door opens up against and just wait. It took less than a minute when I hear her voice in the hallway. I think to myself I can't do it with someone following her, but realize she is merely talking to someone in the hall.

I take my place at the door, she opens it. She isn't looking in my direction right away, so I spring out of the door and scream loudly at her and raise my hands in the air in a Yetti-like pounce straight out of a Scooby Doo cartoon. She screams out of sheer terror and recoils towards the other side of the room when she figures out that it was me. I am now starting to bust out in laughter, she is now starting to do the same after the initial shock is gone and throws her keys on the floor and punches me in the arm.

It was something close to an hour after the initial scare and she was still shaking from the fear. She told me that she was going to raise the bar on our game of one-upsmanship.

Bring it on...

Jury Duty

Yeah, it's been a year now since I last did my civic duty blah blah blah blah. This time around was much more interesting than the few previous times I've been to jury duty. You see, I was late. Much later than I had ever been.

I had prepared the day on Monday night. I got everything ready, got the cell phone charged and ready, all alarm clocks ready and clothing chosen. I had been awakened by my mom leaving the house at 5:45am, so I figured that the alarm was going to go off in 15 more minutes. I put my head back on the pillow.

I opened my eyes and thought to myself that the room seemed much brighter than 15 minutes later. A glance at my clock showed it was 8:20am. A second glance at the jury duty paper showed I was supposed to arrive at court at 8:30. The typical drive to the courthouse from my house is 15 minutes. I am late.

After throwing around some bedding, throwing on some clothing and grabbing things that I thought I needed, I jumped into the car and tore off down the road. After clearing my neighborhood, I reached for the cell phone, wondering why I didn't hear it go off (it acts as a second alarm clock) and figured out that the cell phone I picked up was the cell phone I washed back in January.

Luckily there was a BMW flying down the Border Highway faster than I was, I figured I would speed with this twit, and let him take the speeding ticket if there was a cop. Remarkably, there were no cops out on patrol. The Bimmer and myself were running at just 85mph the entire time. The Bimmer turned to US-54, I continued on the Border Highway.

I get to the courthouse, and they are still accepting people into the garage. I am in luck. Then, as the car in front of me gets waved in, the traffic cop waves me away saying that the lot is now full. DAMNIT! All that speeding for being one car too late. I find a parking spot behind the courthouse, lock the car, pay the parking meter and run to the jury room. I had made it into my seat by 8:48am.

After having my name called for a juror panel, we sat and waited in the jury room for an hour when the bailiff comes out and lets us all know that our services aren't needed. Heading back to the car, I have this feeling come over me, it feels like the day is strange. It could be that I am not at work at 10am, or it could be I was late to wake up, but it was a strange day, to say the least.

REVENGE OF THE LIVING DEAD - LAPTOP

No, I don't think I will ever let the old Panasonic rust-in-peace. You see, I went over to CompUSA to look for some computer stuff, mainly Linux compatible webcams, other gadget goodies, and for some reason I turned down one isle and found a portable laptop hard drive case. It takes a laptop hard drive and turns it into a plug and play second hard drive to store data. Realizing I have a spare laptop hard drive, I bought it and took it home.

I opened the package, pulled out the contents, pulled out the old hard drive from the Panasonic and started to piece it together. Then, as if the laptop was refusing to work, even after its been long dead, the hard drive is an older model hard drive, and it was too tall for the application I bought it for. There was nothing I could do. I returned it for a full credit. That damn laptop of mine will not die. It will fight me, kicking and screaming.

R.M.S. Titanic, April 15, 1912

R.M.S. Titanic, after striking an iceberg, sinks.

OK, I don't know who you are...

You know more than what you are letting on. You are dangling a carrot in front of me, yet when I turn around you are gone, replaced only with a stick and a string. Whomever you are, you know everything I want to know about what happened that night back in the mid 1980's. I remember little, I was still too young to comprehend what I saw. What I post is what little information I have gathered and pieced together. I will never post what you tell me, you have my word as a member of the media. I would like for you to share with me what you know.

I am looking for answers that no one wants to share with me. Once I know the final truth, I can move on and delete those postings and keep going on with Blank Media.

At the risk of having every yahoo under the sun send me crap I don't need, you can contact me at sennheister@yahoo.com.

You read my website often, I know that. I don't care who you are, give a fake name, create an email address to use just for the information I want to know, but contact me. This has been driving me insane for the past 10 years.

So I have this dream yesterday...

Surprise, surprise, it was about the Mustang, Corpus Christi, Padre Island and the beach. I arrive at the beach on a day similar to the day I first stepped foot on the beach back in 2003 when the remains of hurricane Claudette screwed with the surf and tides. It was an overcast day in my dream, a healthy wind coming off the waters kicked the breakers into a tizzy and I swore I heard the ocean in my dream as if I were there.

I was walking the beach, I think Ralph was with me in the dream, remembering that he was with me this past vacation back in January. We walked a good distance down the beach when another of our friends joined us on the beach. We laughed because this second friend parked next to my car down the beach and we continued to walk the remainder of Padre Island.

Well, the winds started to kick up more, and the waves were starting to reach farther up the beach, close to where our cars were parked. We all realize this and start running to where we parked and sure enough, the tires on both cars were starting to sink into the sand. We all sort of laughed and saw our other friend jump into his car and move it. When I open the door on my car, I see that the waves somehow had piled wet sand into the passenger area of the car, the seats, the floor, the dash, all covered in wet sand.

I remember in my dream scooping it all out with my hands and finally driving the car out of the beach. I thought it was a weird dream because I hadn't put the top down on the car in the dream, so how did the waves put sand in the car?

Well, thinking about what I dreamt, I decided to go to a favorite website I have relied on for years to help explain the dreams I have had over the years. Dreamloverinc.com has a great dream dictionary, so if you want to make your own assertion from what I wrote, go ahead. I already have an idea what I was dreaming and why.

The Impact of Gran Turismo

For those of you who do not know what Gran Turismo is, it has been touted as The Ultimate Driving Simulator developed by Polyphony and Sony Computer Entertainment of America. Developed back in the day of the original Playstation, the game was state of the art at the time, highlighting for the first time, sports cars in an ultra realistic race car genre that was unlike anything ever conceived before and has been hard to topple since. Using near perfect physics, power-to-weight ratios, an actual licensed soundtrack with real bands and utilizing the authentic sounds of each car's engine with state-of-the-art graphics made the game an instant hit with the gaming community.

Personally, as a fan of anything with wheels, I fell in love with the game, devoting too many hours in front of that console playing that game until the CDs became scratched and unreadable. CD repair tools work great, by the way.

I opine about this great videogame because of what I am doing right now. It sounds innocent enough, but I am listening to heavy industrial music that was featured in the original Gran Turismo game. I realize that I am pretty addicted to the game in all aspects. Since the release of the first game, I tried to get everything I could that involved the game, including the limited release soundtrack to the game (which is now out of print, but own two copies) and every strategy guide I could find.

I realized I was in trouble when I was looking for the musical artists featured in each installment of Gran Turismo to play as my own personal driving soundtrack. Looking at my driving history, I am surprised I haven't been stopped in the Mustang for speeds in excess of 100mph with the emotions I feel at times while listening to the soundtrack.

The artists I have gone out of my way to purchase:

• Grand Theft Audio - One-hit wonders from the UK, who's song We Luv U is featured in other games and movies.
• Cubanate - British Industrial/trance musicians who now no-longer make music, still provide that kick in the teeth music that makes you wanna smash that gas pedal into the floorboards for all its worth.
• Fluke - Dance/Trance musicians responsible for the Nissan Altima commercial of a few years back, where the car does a few turns and spins... Guess you had to be there...
• Manic Street Preachers/ The Chemical Bros. Gran Turismo Open Movie Mix - What else is there to say? Manic Street Preachers are folksy, British pop.
• Garbage - Who had two songs featured in separate GT games.
• The Cult - 80's rock, still great to race to
• Judas Priest - Has two songs on two separate GT games, including GT 4.

I think I may have a problem. I don't know for sure, better consult someone -after I finish this game...

Gmail

Sounds like a rap star's stage name, but that's Google's new email system. This email is so exclusive, only a handful of "invitations" are given to members at any given time.

I've got one.

Tee-hee.

MAYBE I will consider you for an invitation. If you're nice.

Maybe.

Tee-hee.

FIRE ALARM

They are testing the fire alarms here in the building. I am scared in 5 minute intervals by the ear-piercing screams from the alarms.

Speaking of piercings, the hole has completely shut closed where my labret used to be. There is now only a fissure that is starting to go away where the skin tried to heal around. It doesn't hurt, but its proving to be an interesting end to what was something I really wanted.

So I went to get my hair cut yesterday...

... and couldn't stop laughing. My usual hair cutter wasn't there so I still signed up because there was remarkably no wait. No sooner did I sit down that I had been called to get a haircut. So as I sit down and explain to the hair stylist how I want it, I stare at the operators license hanging on her mirror and couldn't stop laughing to myself when I saw that the photo of the stylist shared a striking resemblance to Charo. I was laughing hard thinking to myself that Charo was cutting my hair! She did a good job, but still, she needs to fire her agent.

Still, I had to stifle the urge to scream "Coochie Coochie"...

So I tried it and didn't like it in the long run

Back in November of 2003, I was vacationing in Corpus Christi, Tx when the urge to do something crazy and uncharacteristic of me by going out and getting a body piercing hit. I got a labret the night before I came back home and really was happy with my decision. However, the year and a quarter that I have had it has shown me that there had been more problems with it than I would have liked. Yesterday, I took it off of my lower lip and have the little 16 gauge spike sitting on the shelf in my closet.

Will I get that piercing again? Probably not. It was cool to have, it was (to me) nice to look at, but every so often I would wake up in the morning and be chewing on the butt-end inside my lip. Not a pretty sight, I know.

Next on my list: Tattoo.

Looking back, I am laughing

Friday was good up to a certain point. See, the morning when I was working was a good one, I had everything done for the weekend and I was ahead of every bill I usually have to pay, so I went to the local KFC/ Taco Bell because I don't know if you know, their new menu of filling items is actually filling! I usually get two soft tacos and a beef and potato burrito, because that's all I need to satisfy my hunger.

It was lunchtime, so the drive-thru was pretty packed, but I was the third car in wait for the order box. I was amazed, the line was going pretty fast, so in no time I was up to order. Now, I know that there are some times that people forget that there is someone at the order box, but I was waiting in front of the order box for five minutes honking, revving the engine, SCREAMING at the box and at the end, I pulled out my car's The Club steering wheel lock and started BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF THE SPEAKER BOX BECAUSE NO ONE WAS TAKING MY ORDER.

There are several dents in the box, thanks to my -- tactful attempt to get a simple fucking order that cost me $3.10, 5 minutes of my life and $0.97 worth of gas. Oh, and by the way, there were seven cars that started backing up behind me. I know that those people were watching me and hopefully laughing.

Need I say it?