Departure: Crossing the line

"It's never too early to think about leaving."

I thought that was a line from some song or poem, but Google can't seem to find it. Anyway...been thinking about the route I'll need to take out of here to wherever it is I'm going to be working in Virginia, and it came to me that the best route from all perspectives is to leave Minnesota the way I arrived: by way of Iowa. Not literally, mind you; the last leg of the trip up here in 1983 sucked ass for numerous reasons and was a boring drive on top of it all, straight up I-35 from Mason City into Minneapolis. I came here in a Torino station wagon loaded with books and clothes and furniture and all kinds of stuf, to say nothing of my new bride; I'll be leaving alone in a Kia with just a suitcase, a laptop, and a bare minimum of other stuff. The symmetry appeals to me, and I've always liked the drive down US 52 to the Avenue of the Saints, Waterloo, and Cedar Rapids. Sure, part of that was knowing I had AI or Icon or something else fun ahead of me (well, usually) but I do like the scenery, much more than the view along I-35, I-90 or I-94.

Especially I-94. Every time I take that route out of the Twin Towns of Terror, there's long stretches of it being screwed up by the State of Wisconsin, and this year's no different. Yeah, I know there's nothing marked on their website, but I have faith that something will go wrong. Besides, if I take that route (or US 52 to I-90 east) there's no escape from the Illinois tollway en route to Chicago, and that's another area I really want to avoid based on previous hideous experiences.

So, yeah, Iowa. In August. It could be worse.

Departure: Crossing the line

"It's never too early to think about leaving."

I thought that was a line from some song or poem, but Google can't seem to find it. Anyway...been thinking about the route I'll need to take out of here to wherever it is I'm going to be working in Virginia, and it came to me that the best route from all perspectives is to leave Minnesota the way I arrived: by way of Iowa. Not literally, mind you; the last leg of the trip up here in 1983 sucked ass for numerous reasons and was a boring drive on top of it all, straight up I-35 from Mason City into Minneapolis. I came here in a Torino station wagon loaded with books and clothes and furniture and all kinds of stuf, to say nothing of my new bride; I'll be leaving alone in a Kia with just a suitcase, a laptop, and a bare minimum of other stuff. The symmetry appeals to me, and I've always liked the drive down US 52 to the Avenue of the Saints, Waterloo, and Cedar Rapids. Sure, part of that was knowing I had AI or Icon or something else fun ahead of me (well, usually) but I do like the scenery, much more than the view along I-35, I-90 or I-94.

Especially I-94. Every time I take that route out of the Twin Towns of Terror, there's long stretches of it being screwed up by the State of Wisconsin, and this year's no different. Yeah, I know there's nothing marked on their website, but I have faith that something will go wrong. Besides, if I take that route (or US 52 to I-90 east) there's no escape from the Illinois tollway en route to Chicago, and that's another area I really want to avoid based on previous hideous experiences.

So, yeah, Iowa. In August. It could be worse.

Ralph Bakshi meets Dame Rowling

Hey, everybody! What if the Harry Potter series ends the same way as that old movie Wizards? Wouldn't that be cool? Professor Death thinks so, but he allows as how other people might not agree.

No kidding. IMNSHO, it would suck worse than just about anything that has ever sucked before in the long history of science fiction/fantasy suckitude. It's been almost thirty years since Bakshi ripped off Vaughn Bode to produce one of the most cynical and ugly pieces of animation ever made, which proved to me that Bakshi needed to stick to p0rn and stay the fuck out of my ghetto. As God is my witness, I've seen tentacle pr0n with more redeeming social value, and I'm pretty sure Flesh Gordon had higher production values. Jesus X. Christ on a crutch. While I usually agree with these law profs' tastes in SF, in this case they're way off base and should be sentenced to read several megabytes' worth of HP fanfic (preferably selected from fandom_wank for their extreme excrescence) as a punitive measure.

Ralph Bakshi meets Dame Rowling

Hey, everybody! What if the Harry Potter series ends the same way as that old movie Wizards? Wouldn't that be cool? Professor Death thinks so, but he allows as how other people might not agree.

No kidding. IMNSHO, it would suck worse than just about anything that has ever sucked before in the long history of science fiction/fantasy suckitude. It's been almost thirty years since Bakshi ripped off Vaughn Bode to produce one of the most cynical and ugly pieces of animation ever made, which proved to me that Bakshi needed to stick to p0rn and stay the fuck out of my ghetto. As God is my witness, I've seen tentacle pr0n with more redeeming social value, and I'm pretty sure Flesh Gordon had higher production values. Jesus X. Christ on a crutch. While I usually agree with these law profs' tastes in SF, in this case they're way off base and should be sentenced to read several megabytes' worth of HP fanfic (preferably selected from fandom_wank for their extreme excrescence) as a punitive measure.