Friday, November 27, 2009

Ode to a Ford Taurus


Dear Ford Taurus,

My parents bought you from some sketchy Russians, and when my old car died, you were bequeathed to me. We had some good times, Ford Taurus. You broke down in Madison, Wisconsin. You broke down in Astoria, Oregon. You successfully towed a U-Haul trailer across the country, and your lack of fuel-efficient air conditioning almost killed my cat. Good times, good times.

But now your transmission is shot, and not even the weird people on Craigslist want you. I have to take you to a junkyard. I know it's an ignoble end for a car that has served so well, but maybe if you hadn't crapped out so unexpectedly, or left me stranded in this little New England town, I would be more moved by your plight.

I wanted to take you to Boston again, and up the coast to Maine. We could have driven to New York, and I know I promised you a trip to Detroit (the land of your birth), but now I'll be taking the trains and buses. Farewell Ford Taurus. I hope your parts make other car-owners happy.

Sincerely,



Ian

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Happy Belated Halloween

Ha, I never post on here any more. So Ashley and I had a lovely Halloween. She went as Margot Tenenbaum (of The Royal Tenenbaums) and I went as a deer. Friday night was a party at Andrew and Keith's house and Saturday night we went to the Portsmouth parade, then watched Donnie Darko, always an excellent Halloween choice.

Ashley doing her best Margot expression.

Deer.

At the parade, small children wanted their picture taken with me. "My daughter is really into bucks. All about bucks. She wants her picture taken with anything buck-related. Do you mind?" Of course not. Here are some other kick-ass costumes we saw.

Keith and Nate as Garth and Wayne.

GREENMAN!

Greenman and the deer dancing, Ashley poking her head out creepily.

Video game characters in the Portsmouth parade. The guy dressed up as Ness from Earthbound gets an A for obscurity.



Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Fun Spot is the Spot for Fun

I'm so sorry that this is so late. I visited Funspot two Sundays ago, and I'm just now getting to blog about it. Life and school have both been kind of kicking my ass, but right now I'm just too burnt out to do serious writing, so I'm blogging instead.

Laconia, NH is a weird little tourist spot on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee, full of water slides, rock walls, and minigolf courses. It also has Funspot, the largest arcade in the world. No kidding. The largest arcade in the world is in some little shitty rundown lakeside resort town in New Hampshire. Who knew? It's got around 250 arcade games. It's several stories. It's huge, and it's my own little nerd heaven.

But Funspot isn't just full of games, it's full of old games. It's home to the American Classic Arcade Museum, a group dedicated to preserving old machines from the 70s and 80s. It is also the setting for the second half of the fantastic documentary King of Kong, a film about two men (one from Redmond, WA!) vying for the top score in Donkey Kong--if you haven't seen this, you have to. It's amazing.

We spent hours at Funspot and I feel like I barely scratched the surface. There are so many more games I want to play, and some I want to beat (looking at you TMNT and Simpsons). Here are some pics.

Did I mention they have a bar with cheap Stella Artois?

Ashley playing Donkey Kong on the machine that set the world record.

NERD HEAVEN.

Gabe used to talk about this game all the time. Finally played it in the arcades. I have to say, the laserdisc technology is pretty impressive for the early '80s, but the game itself sucks.

This is Computer Space, the world's first arcade game. Sadly, it was being repaired.

This game was also shut down for repairs. If anybody can tell me what it is about just by looking at the cabinet, I will give you fifty dollars.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

The Kanc Picture Dump

Yesterday Ashley and I drove into the White Mountains to tour the famous Kancamagus Highway. It's a huge fall foliage spot, a thirty-four mile drive through the mountains and forests. There were lots of tourists, and the traffic to get there was pretty bad, but it was worth it. The leaves here are amazing!

Getting out and looking at nature and mountains made both Ashley and I very homesick. I couldn't help but compare the Kanc to Chuckanut Drive, and Chuckanut wins. Yeah, the fall foliage is amazing, and Washington just doesn't get leaves the way New England does, but give me the rugged Pacific coast and evergreens any day. Here's a bunch of pictures, in no particular order.