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ENLOWSPEAK

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(on permanent hiatus)


AIM: Lenlow1
lenlow@gmail.com

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Clix.

Once again it's been a while since I made you think. Here's some fun brain-teaser "games". I got through the first two, but then I was put off by the third because it involved more brainpower than I felt like expending last night. Last night it was brought to my attention that some of my audience may be slightly technologically retahded (that reminds me, thanks for dinner Dad), so here's a public service announcement. For some of these sites I recommend from time to time with "cool" games and stuff, it will ask you to download a "plug-in" like "Shockwave" or "Flash"... so go right ahead and do that. And if you have a Mac and it's not working, you're on your own.

This just in: A major solar flare is headed for earth. Not as bad as it sounds.

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My website traffic hit an all-time high yesterday. I feel so popular.
Oh wait, 28 of the last 40 hits were people searching for "WTC pictures".
So you want to see my White Trash Camping pictures? Why didn't you say so? Here you go.
You want to see pictures of a Waste Treatment Complex? Here you go.
Oh, I bet you want to see a picture of William Tyndale College... here you go.

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Maybe I just have a one-track mind lately, like much of the country... but...
I've been commuting to New Hampshire for about a week and have grown tired of my CD's, so I borrowed U2's latest album "All That You Can't Leave Behind", and I was struck by the titles of the songs on the CD. Here's nine of the eleven: "New York", "Elevation", "Walk On", "Beautiful Day", "In a Little While", "Grace", "Peace On Earth", "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of", "When I Look at the World". It was like they cut a cliche-ridden news article out of last week's newspaper and made a collage out of it on their CD cover.
Also, the pictures on the front and back of the CD seem to be the band in an airport.

Coincidence, or cause for alarm? You be the judge. Has anyone played the album backwards?
(N.B.: The views expressed by the author... them's just jokes!)

Hey weird... as I'm writing this, MTV is showing an "inspirational" video montage of WTC-related footage set to "Walk On."

But seriously... "In a Little While" is a great song. Check it out (especially members of the Enlow Family Band).

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Ha ha ha. Thanks Matt for recommending this bit of genius. It's funny... FOR ME TO POOP ON!

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I've got a bunch of new games and diversions to recommend, all via Fark.

Spaced Penguin - Really fun. I think the creators just sort of gave up when they made the levels, but this is worth checking out.
Mini Golf - Pretty slick.
3D Pong - Yeah.
Hairbears Donut Dash - Frogger remake. You know, for kids!
RustedJacks - Blackjack game with focus on cool artwork and ambience, less on gameplay
Tiny Windows Games - intended for sneaky gaming at work, I guess

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Well here's an article addressing the rumor of more terrorism tomorrow. More specifically, Boston may be a target. I don't know if other cities are being alerted or just Boston, but either way this is scary.

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A transcript of Conan O'Brien's monologue, his first day back (via Fark). I was rather impressed by how he handled the whole thing; I wish I had seen it.

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Sports Guy's take on life after 9-11. The whole Yankees thing hadn't even occurred to me (then again I haven't been thinking about baseball much lately). I would feel guilty rooting against the Yankees........ this year.

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So busy at work. Virus... deadlines... stress...

Apparently one of the Flight 93 heroes who thwarted the hijackers' plan (unless their target was rural Pennsylvania) was a Wheaton alumnus, class of '91. Thanks to Bill for the link, and to Dean for trying to send me the link.

I have heard from two sources (boston.com and WEEI news) that September 22 is a possible target for more terrorism. The FBI has intelligence that suggests it. That really scares me. Looking for an article about it...

September 23 at 0800 hours is a time that I am supposed to be playing a soccer game. It is also the hour at which I will be exactly a quarter of a century old. All intelligence suggests that I will be stationed in my bed.

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My apologies to the several people who have found my site by searching for "WTC pictures". That stood for "White Trash Camping", back in July.
However, NO apologies to the sickos who searched for "funny WTC pictures".

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I don't have much profound to say that hasn't been said already. I didn't lose any friends or family in the incident(s), and I feel lucky. And guilty. It would be nice to be with my family... I have only seen my brother since Tuesday, but that was good. But here are some thoughts of mine since Tuesday. (Don't think my blogging hiatus was for me to gather my thoughts and compose a lengthy and coherent essay on last week's tragedies.)

I think I was starting to get desensitized to the videos shown on TV. How is that possible? Can you believe what has happened, what you have seen?

I was just sitting down for root canal part 2 Tuesday when the dentist said "did you hear the news this morning?" I hadn't, because I listen to CD's in the car. He said "a plane crashed into the top of the World Trade Center." I didn't quite realize the severity until they turned on the radio, and started hearing developments like the collapse of the towers and the Pentagon crash. The dentist turned off the radio so he could concentrate, and I'm okay with that. I felt like asking him if we could hook up some headphones for me... P.S.: Root canals are still a piece of cake (and too many pieces of cake lead to a root canal).

I have never been a fan of politics or current events (I wish I were, but I'm not), but I could not stop watching TV or listening to the radio all last week. I didn't want to go to bed Tuesday night because I was afraid I'd miss something huge.

I work right across the river from downtown Boston. At about noon on Tuesday, my coworkers and I were gathered around the TV, still in a state of shock, confusion and fear. We had learned that all flights across the country were grounded. Suddenly we heard the sound of a jet overhead... and I haven't been that scared in a while.

Each day ESPN.com has a photo gallery on their site (the source of most LenLowLand imagery), and one of the photos from Saturday was this one on the right: Wheaton College (my alma mater) football playing against Wabash. Apparently some Division 3 schools played Saturday, even though Division 1 schools did not.

Too bad so much of the news coverage in the past week was fruitless. All Wednesday afternoon the local channels were camping out outside Boston's Westin Hotel, after the SWAT team went in with fiberoptic cameras and bomb-sniffing dogs... three arrests were made, but (unless I'm wrong) none were directly linked to the terrorism. Other similar scenarios unfolded worldwide. Of course the news (especially local) should be all over that, and of course the FBI should leave no stone unturned... I just tired of gluing my eyes to the television with bated breath as these things were developing, then eventually leading nowhere.

This isn't over... but what is next? Kinda scary. Everyone should read this, written by a credible Afghan-American. (No not my brother, he is just posting the letter there.)
For the record: I believe whoever did this should be punished, but only when we're sure who exactly is responsible. We must not lose our heads. Oh and stop firebombing mosques, you stupid, stupid people.

Oh shucks. Bin Laden says he wasn't behind the attacks. Now what do we do.

Thanks Heather, Ryan, Patch, Katie, Thom for the respectful and insightful comments below.

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I don't know what to say, yet.
Perhaps a blogging hiatus is in order.
Feel free to discuss... let's talk about it.

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I just watched Ed McCaffrey of the Denver Broncos break his leg. That was gross. Oddly enough, I didn't see anything suspicious when the play happened, but it only took one slow-motion replay to make me wish I hadn't seen that replay.

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I heard a good brain teaser Sunday that I do not yet know the answer to:
Name two well-known U.S. cities, each having nine letters, which rhyme with each other.
Shouldn't be too hard with a little cheating, eh?.... Anybody?

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I feel funny picking out cat food in the grocery store. "Carved Chicken and Tuna in Gravy? Ooh that sounds good."

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On Sunday Karen and I went to King Richard's Faire. Before you make fun, know that she's a medieval-archaeologist-in-training. And get this, apparently there were one or two historical inaccuracies there. Overall, kinda cheesy. We walked around, took in some shows, had some "fryes" but no "whyte wyne" or "apple cryspe", saw ye olde simulated joust that reminded me of the WWF, and did a good amount of people watching. And Karen took a few pictures. Here are a couple.

left: Axe throwing lessons from yours truly. Hey I wouldn't have done it if I knew it cost $2 to throw five axes. None of the other "lords" could get even get their axes to stick. How I must have impressed maid Karen. Oh and look how I fit right in with the other faire-goers. (It occurred to me more than once that that silent E really should be pronounced.)

(Picture removed): This is a liger, the offspring of a lion and a tiger. If it were to mate with a lion it would have a li-li, and if it were to mate with a tiger it would have a ti-ti. You learn something new every day. Anyway, this thing was immense, as you can see... 900 pounds, and about 11 feet tall when it stood up. The largest kind of cat in the world. And the only thing between it and us was Warwick Davis doing crowd control. This show was definiely the coolest part of KRF. (KRF is gonna rock you!)

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I guess I don't have to go overseas to get the fanatical soccer experience, complete with hooliganism. I can stay in my own backyard.

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New Sports Guy article about the "Curse of the Bambino", and other ramblings.

Yep, still turmoil among the Sox, this time more regarding Pedro, and general discontent with general manager Duquette. Seems the latter wants the former to continue pitching even though the former probably isn't completely healthy.
Some cool (though not encouraging) stuff in this article, like fired pitching coach Cumberland saying "Duquette wanted to do an evaluation on me. I said, 'It's better to do an evaluation on yourself.' " Zing!
And I like how they quote Nomar, and only leave out one word: "That's why no one wants to ... play here." What word could they have left out, and why?

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I just got back from a root canal, and boy is my jaw tired! Here's Episode 2 of the reality miniseries I call "Roots". [Here's Episode 1]

Why do root canals get such a bad rap? I had a great time... in fact I'm going back next week. Okay I exaggerate... I'm only going back because he's not finished. But seriously, they're not that bad. This is my second one and I was worried that the first painless one was just a fluke. But it wasn't.

The tooth in question, my top left molar (#15, in dentalspeak), is very large. After three x-rays and an hour and a half, Doc discovered that it had four roots rather than three, which is somewhat unusual. That's when he decided to have me back next week. My question is, how could he go through an hour and a half and THREE x-rays and not notice a fourth root? He just sort of stumbled upon it. Oh well. So today he removed the filling that was there, hollowed out the root that was causing the biggest problem, and filled it back up. Next week he will be doing the other three.

So It wasn't that bad, overall. But when he was digging in to the very depths of my most problematic root, there were several pokes with his gouger that did not sit well with me. Here's a "funny" exchange between me and the endodontist:

DOC: [drill drill drill, poke poke poke]
ME (feeling a sharp pain): [wince]
DOC: Do you feel that??
ME: Mmm-hmm.
DOC: You do??

There's just something unsettling about me feeling pain that Doc was not expecting at all. Yes, I'm sure that hurt. My feet did not jump off the footrest voluntarily. And I don't know how to explain why I didn't mind hearing "Okay you're gonna feel a pinch for a second" but it was a different story for "Tell me when you feel this".

One little invention that made this visit so much more "enjoyable" than my last root canal was a little rubber drape. Its purpose was to isolate the tooth from the rest of my mouth. It was so comfortable only swallowing my saliva, and having the rubber drape thing catch all the... other stuff in my mouth. I cannot stress this enough. (As for descriptiveness, I think I'll draw the line... here.)

In summary, I think everyone should go get root canals.
Until next time.......

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Whew, the Seattle Mariners (99 wins, 39 losses) clinched a playoff berth with their win last night. That was close.

Congrats to rookie Bud Smith of the Cardinals on his no-hitter last night. And to think I almost put him on my fantasy baseball team.

I hate those Yankees. For those on the other side of the globe, Mike Mussina came one strike away from a perfect game against the Red Sox, before Crazy Carl broke it up with a single. Then again, if you're on the other side of the globe, you really don't care, or you don't know what I'm talking about. What's strange is that Moose seems like a nice guy... for a Yankee. Most of them just go around and do stuff like this.

There is turmoil in the Sox clubhouse. Pedro wants to be shut down for the season. The pitching coach was fired. We've lost the last 8 games, 5 of them by one run. Swept by the hated Yankees. Morale is plummeting. Nomar's yelling at people... or at nobody in particular. Bad times for us Sox fans. But hey, it's not over till El Guapo sings.

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