Personal, Travel

Manatee Watching

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Erika and I went to the Orange City Blue Spring Manatee Festival. Staring out, I didn’t have high hopes for it, but we wanted to do something different this weekend. As a side note, when I see “farmers’ market”, I think produce being raised and sold in lots of booths in an open air market, not one booth of produce and 50+ booths of arts & crafts — so with that in mind, I didn’t expect a “festival” of the same caliber of ones in Ohio.

And I was right. Maybe 40+ booths of arts & crafts, a few food vendors, some carny style games for the kids. And a long line to the shuttle… and really didn’t know what the shuttle was for. Come to find out, the shuttle took you into the Blue Spring park, to a location great for seeing manatees! This was the hi-light of the event & well worth the $8 of admission… and it goes to a good cause, the park. 🙂

Standing in line, one of the marine life (manatee) experts talked about what to expect & the “curiosity” of manatees. What I didn’t expect to see was so many! Gracefully swimming up and down the waters from the springs into the river. From what we overheard, there were 100+ spotted in the area, earlier that day… I thought that was an exaggeration, but I lost count after about 40. The manatees were curious… Erika and I were standing out on the of the piers, just by ourselves, everyone else had moved on. We stood there quietly for a few minutes, when momma and her two babies came swimming right for us… Then people started screaming with excitement. Momma turned tail and swam away from us… the marine life expert said, the best way to attract them was to be really calm & quiet.

Plots

Evil Dead meets Tarzan

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So my 10 Word Plot from April 22, 2007 was this:

10 Word Sci-Fi Plot: Scientist creates worm-hole, unleashes elder-gods; man, gun, and monkey save world. Think Evil Dead meets Tarazan.

Hmm… This could be the plot of the next Hell Boy movie; substitute man and monkey with Hell Boy and you almost have the plot of the first movie…

Or you can set the story in a steam-punk world, full of mad-scientist, blitzkrieg-bots, and blimps (or airships built using Cavorite). Areas on earth still untouched and unexplored by men. Primitive cultures living nearby lost civilizations (maybe long descendants). World political tension building towards a world war; each country trying to build armies or the next super-weapon. Then from out of the jungle, a half naked man & his monkey emerge with a monster from the ancient world — elephant gigantus — a elephant twice the size of any ordinary elephant, with two trunks.

Or hero, Jack Howard, was orphaned in the African jungle until the age of 12. Jack was rescued by local natives & turned over to the US embassy. From there, he was adopted by Nathan & Martha Howard, former ambassadors to Africa. Jack was a bright boy, curious, with a strong affinity for science. The Howards sent Jack off to Yale, where he majored in anthropology, girls, and football. After college, Jack was quickly recruited by the US government as a kind of exploratory anthropologist — which gave Jack an opportunity to return to the jungles of Africa, where he met his monkey companion, Kima. Unknown by Jack, this gigantic elephant was the weapon the US government was looking for.

Meanwhile in Bavaria, scientist Josef Fuchs is performing an ancient Thule blood ritual, which he thought was to bestow more savage strength on to warriors, but they were swallowed up by a portal into another universe… and an ancient evil was released, the lesser of the ancient gods…

Quick Wrap Up:

Whatever creature the lesser god is based on, begins to reproduce and spread out from Bavaria… to the point where other nations are taking notice & Bavaria is asking for help. The US government calls in all “exploratory adventurers” to form a plan. Jack recognizes symbols on a picture taken from ground zero & realizes from African folklore what evil has been unleashed… the elephant gigantus is the key to earth’s salvation… and of course, Jack’s 50 cal pistol, Bess.

Personal

Love Bugs

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Erika & I have been in Florida since the September before, but for some reason, I don’t remember the love bugs — now we see them everywhere. From what I read, they swarm twice a year, spring time (April-May) and fall time (September-October)… more swarm in the fall, than in the spring. They’re just annoying & their dead acidic bodies are covering the car… Can’t wait till the love bug season is over!

Plots

The Super-Human Race

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One of the ideas that I’ve been thinking about is a post-WW II world that didn’t have the a-bomb or the space race; but a super-human race. Countries like England, US, Russia, China, Japan, & some other countries start manufacturing post-humans.

In the United States, four different groups were set up for post-human production. First group’s goal was to create more intelligent humans – a post-human think tank. The second group was to create a super power human. The third group’s goal is to develop technologies for super powers. And the fourth group is to keep the other three groups in check – the place for information exchange between the three groups.

One image I keep getting is a child of a post-human tracking down one of the doctors that worked on the government projects, turned AWOL. A German in his late ‘70s, still very sharp, with traces of a great mind hidden behind wrinkles. He’s ex-Nazi, but really didn’t have a political affiliation – most scientist don’t – but was forced to work on government projects, the division of gods & monsters (insert German equivalent here). Later in the story, we find out that he’s gay – what forced him to leave the US government projects was the death of his lab assistant Karl, in an incident similar to Ictheas; the boy who flew too close to the Sun and crashed to his death. This, and some other policy changes in the fourth group forced him to leave. This post-human child is looking for some answers to his recent developed powers. His father was one of the earlier test subjects of the first group – his mind was chemically enhanced/altered. He became super smart, but the effects seemed to wear off over time. Adding more chemicals seemed to damage him physically & psychologically, that he could no longer used the drugs. But the alterations affected his son; he developed telekinetic & psi powers…

Plots

Comic Book Idea: Lithium & The Losers

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An idea I had for a comic book some time ago…

Endless Parody:
Probably one of the better ideas that I’ve had in a long time is to create anti-characters to Neil Gaiman’s Sandman… a farce on his seven Endless characters. These character wouldn’t take themselves as seriously as the ones created by Gaiman… sorta tongue-in-cheek… sorta their bungling counter parts.

The EndlessThe Losers
DestinyLucky
DeathLife
DreamLithium
DespairLost
Delight/DeliriousLoony
DesireLust
DestructionLarry

First Episode:
In the first episode, Lithium wakes up after following the Grateful Dead around for the past 20 years or so… he lost count because of the drug induced haze he’s been in since 1972. He’s looking to fill the empty void that Gerry has left in his life… his world is slowly crumbling, the new bands just don’t do it for him anymore. He first consults Lost of the Losers, to see there’s anything he can do about his dilemma — bottom line, he needs a new drug. Lost seems lost in her own problems… she has no direction herself, and Lithium realizes that Lost should have been the last person to ask for directions. In frustration, Lithium gets up, goes into the Lost’s room of symbols, picks up Lucky’s fuzzy dice in his hand, and repeats the following limerick:

“There once was a man named Luck,
who was good at winning a buck,
the women liked him,
but he’s not serious about them,
he only likes them for a good fu..”
He is transported instantly to Lucky’s domain before he can finish his sentence.

The Symbols:
One word should be said about the Loser’s symbols. Like the Endless, each of the Losers have their own sigil or symbol. Lucky’s is the pair of fuzzy dice. Life’s is two copper coins. Lithium’s is a rolled joint. Lost’s is a sign post pointing in many directions. Loony’s is the Warner Brother’s shield/logo. Lust is like a peep show window — you need to insert a quarter to get it to open up. And Larry’s is a book — the title changes every time. In Lost’s symbol room, it might have been Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy or something similar…

Back to Our Story:
“God I hate that”, says Lithium as he picks himself up off the floor and goes over to the casino bar to get himself a free drink to settle his nerves. This is Lucky’s domain. He is a smaller deity of Native-Americans, of mobsters, and some rural regions of China. The one Loser who married all three of the Fates…