taiwan sr poster
2006.05.22 17.18
wild things
2006.05.22 9.53
I'm stepping away from lunch but wanted to post that I visited the local Minneapolis amusement park Valley Fair yesterday. That's what The Super Genius Podcast Episode 4 is going to be all about. I rode a ride called Wild Thing and accidentally swallowed at least one bug. That ride was crazy style. An hour after I left, check out what happened:Valleyfair's Wild Thing car derails, injures ridersFourteen people were taken to the hospital after an accident on the Wild Thing roller coaster at Valleyfair amusement park in Shakopee on Sunday afternoon, authorities said.
Four others refused medical attention at the scene, said Bill Von Bank, a Valleyfair spokesman.
A 15th person later arrived at St. Francis Regional Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Lori Manske said. All were treated and released by 8:30 p.m., Manske said. Most of the injuries were strains and sprains, she said.
The accident happened about 4:25 p.m. as the roller coaster train was slowing as it approached the ride station. One of the cars somehow separated from the train, Von Bank said.
Bailey Merchant, 12, of Shakopee, said she was in the rear car when the middle car began jerking and smoking. She said the car "fell right off the track" and made the last car turn over.
"We were jerked and twisted, and it started to hurt really badly," Bailey said as she left the hospital.
Her mother, Tracy Theis, said a nurse at St. Francis called to tell her of the accident. "It's very scary," she said. "You don't ever want to get that phone call."
Katelyn Churchich, 16, of Oakdale, who was treated for neck and back pains, said she was in the middle car when it happened.
"It started jerking and moving around, like, not right," she said. "We kind of heard scratching, and we didn't know anything was wrong until we smelled metal grinding ... and when we looked back one of the cars was tilted on its side."
The Wild Thing will remain closed until further notice, Von Bank said. The incident will be investigated.
Nicole Triplett, 20, of Apple Valley, was with her boyfriend in the first row of the rear car. She said she must have passed out.
Triplett said the hospital staff took X-rays and told her not to go to work today because she probably suffered a mild concussion.
Wild Thing opened in May 1996. It is 200 feet high, 5,460 feet long and travels at speeds as high as 74 miles per hour.
Records show that in June 1996, its computer system stopped the ride's lift mechanism, suspending 30 passengers near its highest point for 45 minutes.
Bailey Merchant said the accident won't keep her from returning to the amusement park, "but probably not that ride ever again."
But Tripplet said she's had enough. "I will never go on a ride ever again in my life," she vowed.
superman returns tv spots
2006.05.20 15.01
Here's two new spots that they're airing on television. The first spot is a bit spoilery so if you want to avoid significant plot points then you should skip it. The second spot, however, has a SMALLVILLE feel to it. It's either the love talk or the pop song in the background -- or both. There are some really gorgeous flying shots in this one. Image manipulation has really gone a long way in the last 25 years. So has data manipulation, but image manipulation sure is prettier.
|
Here are the links for Superman Returns TV spot #1: Windows Media Player Real Player iPod Video |
Here are the links for Superman Returns TV spot #2: Windows Media Player Real Player iPod Video |
hearing everything
2006.05.17 11.54
1980 astroworld videos on dvd
2006.05.14 17.55
I've had my hands full with my client's project and can't believe that I finally had some time this weekend to make a new friend, hang out in Uptown, call my mom to discuss in some detail why she should work at a better hospital, send belated presents for my dad's birthday and for Mother's Day, book a hotel in Portugal, do my expenses, AND edit and publish a DVD for the Astroworld people who've been quite anxious for the last month. It's full screen. There's no watermark. It's like owning your very own copy of the Scotch T-60 videocassette that was sitting in my videos shelf for the last 26 years. Scroll down and you'll find the BUY IT NOW link below if you'd like a copy. If you'd rather keep your money, these videos are also available for free on my Astroworld blog site. I'll be out of town from 5/26 through 6/11 so if you purchase a DVD after 5/25 then it won't ship until 6/12. Good to know.
the eero aarnio ball chair
2006.05.06 18.30
Recognize this chair from CLOCKWORK ORANGE and MEN IN BLACK? There's one for sale near me although it's way too pricey even at 70% off. After doing some research, I'm pretty sure inmod is the way to go, however. Their reproductions of the original Aarnio chairs are wayyy more affordable. So cool.the impossible mission force
2006.05.06 10.38
The first MISSION IMPOSSIBLE came out in 1996 while I was still a teacher. I didn't like it until I saw it the second time because I'd missed so many double-crosses that I'd gotten completely GODFATHER 3 lost. Director Brian DePalma was good at doing that to you. The second film, directed by John Woo, came out in 2000 and featured a muuuuch easier to understand story. However, it was also a bit on the slow side. Now in 2006, J.J. Abrams brings us the third film of the series which unofficially kicks off the summer blockbuster movie season. I drove straight to the AMC Southdale Center 16 when I got off work yesterday. I bought my ticket and was the first in line for the 7 PM show. I was excited. Why should I be? The reviews have been glowing. So, what about my review? I loved it, of course. Duh. Abrams has honed the fine art of the thriller with his shows LOST and ALIAS. He also took the previously unappreciated elements of the original MISSION IMPOSSIBLE television show from the 60s and brought them back. Specifically, the character's friendships and interactions. There's a really important scene near the end of the film which could have easily followed Cruise's IMF agent Ethan Hunt into a building where he had to steal something known as The Rabbit's Foot. Instead, we are treated with a scene featuring the other agents and how they're dealing with the anxiety. It's awesome! Of course, they're interrupted as Hunt blurts ''I GOT IT!!'' on the radio just as he's jumping through a glass window 40 stories up. The film is filled with enough fist clenching tension and fantastic gadgets that you may have a hard time finishing your popcorn because of excessive teeth gritting. It's that good! MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: III earns the Super Genius seal of approval. I think I may even see it a second time. Anyone?
my first snip...
2006.05.03 18.36
[snip!]new superman returns trailer
2006.05.02 14.21
Click here for the new SUPERMAN RETURNS trailer. I'm stuck behind a firewall and can't watch this until I get home. Wah. I've got a lot of work to do, as well. I know. Wah, wah.markshields.com circa 1996
2006.05.02 9.50
Thanks to the kind folks at ARCHIVE.ORG, I was finally able to locate a copy of my very first website from 1996. It looks better on a FireFox browser (the background isn't loading in Internet Exploder, for some reason). I used Notepad and Netscape 3 to test the site, I believe. I'm vaguely recalling that I used some HTML editor named after a horse or donkey. This was hosted on my second ISP Flash*Net. My first ISP was technically a CompuServe admin account that had PPP access. Am I speaking in tongues yet?my april 2006 adsense results
2006.05.01 15.25
| Channel Description | Page impressions | Clicks | Page CTR | Page eCPM | Earnings |
| MARKSHIELDS.COM | 79,578 | 747 | 0.94% | $1.25 | $99.39 |
| THEREALWORLDAUSTIN.COM | 45,115 | 61 | 0.14% | $0.27 | $12.21 |
| MARKWAHLBERG.COM (Forum) | 83,406 | 72 | 0.09% | $0.10 | $8.61 |
| THEREALWORLDPHILLY.COM (Forum) | 1,947 | 7 | 0.36% | $0.84 | $1.64 |
| QUARK.NAME | 576 | 11 | 1.91% | $2.14 | $1.23 |
| MARKWAHLBERG.COM (Old Forum) | 2,908 | 8 | 0.28% | $0.36 | $1.03 |
| ASTROWORLD.CC (Blog) | 2,644 | 8 | 0.30% | $0.37 | $0.98 |
| THEREALWORLDPHILLY.COM (Gallery) | 4,556 | 4 | 0.09% | $0.18 | $0.81 |
| ASTROWORLD.CC (General Header/Footer) | 2,068 | 2 | 0.10% | $0.36 | $0.73 |
| ASTROWORLD.CC (Homepage Header/Footer) | 807 | 7 | 0.87% | $0.61 | $0.49 |
| QUERYLETTERS.NET | 9 | 3 | 33.33% | $52.67 | $0.47 |
Above are my April 2006 Google adsense earning results. I'm a bit shocked that my personal dinky blog is able to generate this kind of income. I only use one banner ''channel'' for all of MarkShields.com. As such, I have no clue if someone clicks on a banner at the top or the bottom of my site, or for that matter, what page were they on. You can create as many channels as you want to accomplish this. The trick is that you have to Not Be Lazy. I did break up the ASTROWORLD.CC banners into three channels. First for the homepage's header and footer, second for a blog entry page's header and footer, and third for the the little banner that appears just below a blog entry. A new separate web page is created everytime I add a blog entry to MarkShields.com, QueryLetters.net, or Astroworld.cc. People posting messages on the forums create a new page when the number of posts to a topic exceed a certain length or when someone starts a new topic altogether. The forum is the easiest to generate pages because visitors create the content. The blog is harder since I have to do it myself. However, you can see from the chart above that the blog is kicking the forum's butt all over the parking lot. Still, this doesn't mean that every blog entry I write results in more golden chances for my Google ads. You have to keep things interesting. There are thousands of blogs that merely detail one's daily thoughts. Some are good. Some suck. The Super Genius blog, however, is always chock full of weirdo goodness!
In other geeky MarkShields.com news, I recently updated the templates that MovableType 2.661 (my blog software) produces to include RSS 1.0 and RSS 2.0 files along with turning on the ''pinging'' option to alert web blog indexing sites that The Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz Has Spoken. I didn't realize I could do this until I set up my ASTROWORLD.CC site. I'm slow. I'm thinking about possibly upgrading to MT 3.2 but I'm holding off for as long as possible in order to properly acclimate my Discover card to the front row Madonna tickets.
