Uncle Bruce Wants Access to Private Hunting Land

Brother Tom pointed me to this article today – and I saw my uncle Bruce highlighted in the news!

Regarding implementing a program in Minnesota similar to the one in South Dakota that pays land owners to let people hunt publicly on private land:

“It’s definitely time to put this concept into place in Minnesota,” said Petterson, a retired teacher who drove to St. Paul last week to voice his opinion at a State Capitol meeting. “It’s so popular in South Dakota, why can’t we do it in Minnesota?”

The rest of the story can be read here. I think the plan sounds like a great idea. Get it done!

“Pluto Platter” Inventor, Walter Morrison, Dies

What the hell is a Pluto Platter? That’s what Walter called the Frisbee before it was named the Frisbee. The more I think about it, I like Pluto Platter better. Cool name.

From Yahoo:

According to Kennedy, Morrison and his future wife, Lu, used to toss a tin cake pan on the beach in California. The idea grew as Morrison considered ways to make the cake pans fly better and after serving as a pilot in World War II, Morrison began manufacturing his flying discs in 1948.

He would hawk the discs at local fairs and eventually attracted Wham-O Manufacturing, the company that bought the rights to Morrison’s plastic discs.

Kennedy says Wham-O adopted the name “Frisbee” because that’s what college students in New England were calling the Pluto Platters. The name came from the Frisbie Pie Co., a local bakery whose empty tins were tossed like the soon-to-be Frisbee.

I’m gonna start having to call “disc golf” something else. “Pluto platter golf” maybe?

It’s the Phillies fault that the N.L. doesn’t have a DH

Apparently…

Well, the American League voted in the DH in 1973 and I don’t want to hear a whimper about how the biggest difference between the Yankees and Phillies in the World Series was the presence of DH Hideki Matsui. The Japanese slugger was the Series MVP despite starting just three of the six games – and driving in seven runs in Games 2 and 6, both played at Yankee Stadium.

Nope, just zip it up because the Phillies are to blame for the National League voting it down at that same meeting. Bill Giles was the Phillies’ representative. With 12 clubs in each league, it took eight votes to pass a rules change. Phils owner Ruly Carpenter favored the DH. Pirates owner John Galbraith instructed GM Joe Brown to vote with the Phillies. Before the teams were polled, Giles attempted to contact his boss for formal approval.

Ruly was on a fishing trip. He couldn’t be reached. Giles had no choice but to abstain. The Pirates followed suit. The 6-4-2 vote fell short of the two-thirds majority.

Nice. That’s why ya just can’t take a vacation sometimes. You might end up unbalancing some baseball leagues.

25 Pictures of Gas Station Failure

I ran across these today, what a big collection of ineptitude. I guess gas stations can be a little overwhelming for people at times. This is basically a big collection of pictures of people that either don’t know how to use a gas pump properly, or who forgot that they had a gas pump tethered to their vehicle.

Here’s a couple of my favorites.

First, the guy who pulls up to the pump and realizes he’s parked the wrong way, but is too lazy to turn around:

Wrong way, buddy, it's not that tough

And the lady that forgot to put the pump back on the handle:

Whoops

There’s 23 more of them here. Check it out.

The Horrible Decline of Detroit

Ran across this one today, a photo piece about the horrible decline of Detroit’s historic and beautiful architecture.

I’ve never been to Detroit, but the city is always portrayed as run down and grim whenever I see it portrayed in the media. This photo piece is quite interesting.

The photos are from a photo project named “The ruins of Detroit”, which can be seen here. Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre have compiled a very interesting collection of photography of the abandoned buildings and architecture that has been left in ruins since the pinnacle days of the Detroit metro area.

The photos are haunting and interesting and beautiful all in one.

I hate to say it, but a lot of the photos reminded me of my time spent in the Capital Wastelands in the latest game Fallout 3. A interesting, yet weird comparison I guess but that’s what came to mind.

I Just Can’t Understand Guitar Hero, or Rock Band

Now, before you rake me over the coals for saying that I just can’t understand Guitar Hero or Rock Band… hear me out.

I must first explain that come from a pretty heavy-duty electronic music composition and garage jamming background. Since probably 8th or 9th grade I’ve been jamming with friends and delving further into the world of electronic music composition.

Way Back…

Going from using really shitty gear to being able to buy some pretty nice electronic equipment has been a long journey. Back in the day I was using borrowed guitars (that needed to be fixed), buying $40 amps out of the back of vans in Park Rapids, MN, and struggling to save money just to buy a drum machine or a synthesizer and 4-track to make some very grungy sounding tracks.

Over the years I got into computers and finally lined up a nice turntable for sampling vinyl, and got some good software such as Propellerheads Reason for composing and sequencing electronic tracks.

After all that, all the rage these days is playing a fake guitar and and a fake drum kit for a video game, all using cover tracks.

I’d rather jam proper

Whenever I see anything that has to do with Rock Band or Guitar Hero, it piques my music curiousity but makes me want to jam. Not on a video game, but jamming proper. If I even think about the thought of playing one of those games I just think to myself that I would be better spending time trying to compose some new electronic tracks.

If I was hanging out with my buddies playing one of these games rather than jamming for real it just wouldn’t seem right. I don’t get it.

Oh well

I understand the gaming aspect of it though. I’ve enjoyed playing games involving car racing, for example, but I’m not a car racer by any means. So I can see it from that perspective. If I was more into car racing I might look at games like Grand Tourismo as kinda rediculous.