My Uncle Benny
I’ve been out of town for a few days. We had to go to a funeral. My father’s adopted brother Benny Lopez was murdered in Albuquerque, NM at around 6 am, Thursday, August 18. He was apparently shot by a mentally ill man named John Hyde who was off his medication. Hyde went on to kill two motorcycle shop workers and two policemen over the course of the day. Hyde is now in custody. He has been positively linked to all five murders through the weapon, a rare handgun. Details of events and motive (if any) are still sketchy. But there seems to be no doubt that Hyde is the man responsible. Of course formalities must be observed. The whole thing is a huge story in Albuquerque.
Just to make sure there is no confusion, one of MY brothers is also named Ben. He is fine.
Benny’s mother died when he was young. His father traveled a lot so he left Benny in the care of his aunt, Annie. She was married at the time to my grandfather, Joe Lopez. They adopted him and that’s how he came to be Dad’s brother. They continued to regard each other as brothers even after Grandfather and Annie got divorced. We only learned this week that Benny’s birth name was Lopez as well.
Though Benny had no full blood siblings, through various remarriages, adoptions, and foster arrangements, he came to have twenty people he regarded as siblings. They all loved him very much. He was highly regarded by friends and coworkers.
Cpl. Adrian Morales, of Delta Company, 4th Recon Battalion, removes the flag from Ben Lopez's casket.
Uncle Benny worked for the NM Department of Transportation. He was considered to have died on the job since that’s where he was when he got shot. The whole Albuquerque division was given the day off for the funeral and the State Secretary of Transportation was there. Benny was a Vietnam vet, so he was buried in the national cemetery in Santa Fe with full military honors. The procession was quite long.
I'm sorry to say I din't not know Benny well. I only remember meeting him once when Grandfather was dying. I'm told I met him several times when I was a child, but I don't remember.
I just discovered the above webcomic,
Sore Thumbs. I highly recomend it.
My friend Bill and I have started a blog. It's the geekiest thing ever. It's called
Fanboy Vs. Zombie. What we do is argue about which is better...wait for it... wait for it... seriously it's major league geek...which is better, DC or Marvel Comics. Told you it was geeky. If any of you think you have big enough geek stones to chime in, we encourage your two cents. I made a logo and everything.
Awards pt. 2
Back from the awards now. Godspell got one award. Gabriel Juarez won for Best Supporting Male Actor in a Musical. I got a certificate for outstanding work with the Stagehands. Not exactly sure why, but thanks anyway.
Awards
The Permian Playhouse is having their annual awards ceremony tonight. My brother Danny and I are both nominated. This will probably be the last time I set foot in the place. I'll let you know how it went later.
SPAM!!!!!
Someone just left frelling spam as a comment on my blog. Oh, they tried to make it look like a real message, but they didn't try hard enough. I can't believe this. Is nowhere safe? Is this common? Man, I am pissed.
Microgames/Minigames
I used to love these things back in the Eighties. I hardly ever played them, but I sure did love buying them. Micro/Mini/Pocket Games were small war/strategy games that came in a plastic bag, plastic case, or cardboard box and usually sold for between $2 and $5. Several companies published micro or mini games beginning with Metagaming Concepts and including TSR, Taskforce Games, FASA, Steve Jackson Games, and Mayfair Games.
The Maverick's Microgame Museum is an excellent site devoted to the subject.
You can actually download some minigames at
Dwarfstar Games.
Pardon me for stealing
Steve Jackson's Illuminated site of the week, but you have just got to read this.
LINK.
Now I love
Bruce Campbell. I really do. I am a member of the Bruce Cambell Fan Club, seriously. I have a card and everything. If you haven't seen him in Bubba Ho Tep, then I recomend you go out and rent it right now. I even met him once. He was very nice and laughed at my joke. However, I just finished watching Bruce's latest TV movie, USA's
Tornado! It's the sort of movie that makes you wonder if Bruce has ever turned down a job. As David Spade would put it- I liked it better the first time I saw it when it was called
Twister. They should have just called it
Diet Twister.After
Tornado! USA is showing
Dante's Peak. I mention this because I am also a memeber of the Pierce Brosnan fan club, though I have not yet met him.
"Nanotechnology has been harnessed to kill cancer cells without harming healthy tissue. " Click the link above to read the BBC story. Man, science is cool!
By the way, if you haven't done so yet, please check out my other blog,
The International Vampire Hunter's Guild.
I'VE GOT A FEVER...
...and the only perscription is MORE JACKRABBIT!!!!!
Here it is folks, the world famous Odessa Texas Giant Jackrabbit. It's moved arround town a bit over the years. Currently it sits in front of the main post office.
A few years ago New York had a "cow parade" wherein different goups painted and decorated fiberglass cows which were then displayed around town. They got the idea from some town in Europe. Well, now they're doing a similar thing in Odessa, but instead of cows they are using... you guessed it, jackrabbits. I'll try to take some pictures of those if I get the chance.
Here is one of the historic markers next to the jackrabbit. I believe it contains educational facts about real jackrabbits.
And here is the other one which is about the world's first championship jackrabbit roping.
