Graveyard Guess

Growing up, my Mother's family threw the best Halloween parties. They were very elaborate. We had a haunted house, haunted path, haunted talk show, and a freak show/carnival. I love parties like this and the sky is the limit when it comes to ways to entertain people. My family had that. One of the items that was featured at each of these parties was Graveyard Guess. I am not sure who thought of this, but it was a classic way to enjoy Halloween Trivia and to see who kept up on things like this.

Rules:
a. 10 headstones with clues on them, which relate to a celebrity who has died.
b. No googling or searching on the Internet for the answers.
c. Death occurred within this past year.
d. Example: Clue says "Superman's Earth Father". The answer is Glenn Ford.
e. First and Last Name gives one full point.
f. I suggest using notepad to put down your answers before you post your answers, since others will have posted theirs.

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Then my tauntaun will see you in hell!

My friend at work, B, and I quote Star Wars pretty much all day. I told B yesterday that his lines were sounding a little wooden and were not matching up to the proper emphasis that was used in the movie. So we had a little practice session.

+ You must learn the ways of the force if you are to come with me to Alderaan.
- Alderaan? I'm not going to Alderaan. I'm in for it as it is.
+ She needs your help, Luke. I need your help. I'm getting too old for this sort of thing.

So each day B makes me laugh with some quote interjected into everyday conversation. Like, when L asks us to go to lunch with him and I am mulling it over since I brought my own lunch... "You must do what you feel is right, of course."

Or when M is not in his cubicle, you will hear "TK421, why aren't you at your post?"

Actually, these examples make a little too much sense. Usually when B does it, there is no context at all. We will be in a meeting with other people in the company and from out of nowhere he will say: "And now your highness. We will discuss the location of your hidden rebel base." Or "...heaaa you will be. You will be." Or while tapping his notebook "You want thissss."

Rat Pack Jacob

So I guess I am a packrat.

I have been trying to clear out a room upstairs to make room for a new roommate. But, I cannot throw things away.

I have this conch shell which has a big gaping hole in it. Not the natural kind of hole. It is the broken kind of hole. I picked this up when I was in the Bahamas. And, I suppose I illegally took it off the island. But I really like it. Well, I really only like it when I go through my stuff trying to organize. You see, I do not use it or even put it anywhere to view, except in a box. Its primary use for me is to remind me of the Bahamas trip and the symbolism of a broken shell of a man who walked around the island by himself because he had no friends with him. The fact that it was broken made it much easier to take with me. I was not sure of the law, but I am sure no one would object to a broken conch shell.

Back to the room. I also have lots of tv cable. I have speaker wire and a shoebox full of various wires, connectors, and old electronic things. Some may think this stuff is actually cool electronic gadgetry. Not even close. I am not that type of guy. I just have this inane sense that I will need something in this box one day. Like, a giant Nokia cell phone is going to come in handy at some point... The crazy thing is that I have lived all these years and never once have I used anything in there since it got stowed away. Not that I am old. It just seems like if I was a MacGyver type person, this box could have some purpose. And, I suppose that I am thinking that one day I will be like MacGyver. Why am I thinking this?

Earlier this year I dug out a spot for a tree and I kept all the dirt and rocks. One day I was sorting the rocks into respective buckets and my wife came over to ask what in the world I was doing. And somehow, it made sense in my mind that we may one day need lots of little stones and rocks for some sort of area in the yard.

It is almost like I am coming out of the Great Depression. I do this for everything. I have papers and software at work from 6 years ago. It is stuff I will never use. I get these magazines and I think that one day I will have the desire to actually read them. MSDN and SQL Server magazine! Woo hoo! Bring 'em on! My parents went through their attic a few years ago and counted 17 boxes that were mine. What am I clinging to? There were homework assignments from high school up there.

This is kind of freaky. The more I think about it the weirder it gets. I suppose in a way, it is some sort of tracking mechanism. Because I do not take enough pictures and write enough down, I have to preserve my memories and identity within other items. But those things are starting to tie me down. It is a pain to have to decide what to do with all this stuff.

I need to start coming up with rules. This will require some deep thought. Basically, if I cannot foresee some way of using the item, I need to throw it out. However, I need to really think about it before I toss it. I do not want to get careless. I do like to be prepared for things, but I think this stuff is becoming junk.