The caption on the back:
WILL ROGERS FIELD
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Will Rogers Field, Oklahoma City's Jet-Age Airport, with five scheduled airlines operating daily offering approximately 60 flights per day and the latest in Jet air service.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Wednesday Postcard blogging
Today's postcard:
The caption on the back:
WILL ROGERS FIELD
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Will Rogers Field, Oklahoma City's Jet-Age Airport, with five scheduled airlines operating daily offering approximately 60 flights per day and the latest in Jet air service.
The caption on the back:
WILL ROGERS FIELD
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Will Rogers Field, Oklahoma City's Jet-Age Airport, with five scheduled airlines operating daily offering approximately 60 flights per day and the latest in Jet air service.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
"The Merlene Show"--A Right Good Thing
"The Merlene Show" was a skit that the funny and talented folks at Yard Dog Press performed on Saturday evening at SoonerCon. I thought it would be a good idea to discuss it in a separate post since a lot of people may not be familiar with the history behind it.
Several years ago, the writers at Yard Dog Press came up with an idea for a collection of humorous stories about a plague called Yuppie 25 that kills off most of the people on Earth and turns them into brain-eating, yuppie zombies, or "Yumbies." The only survivors of the plague are the "Bubbas," the redneck, white-trash, trailer park denizens who are rendered immune to the virus by the ingredients in the cheap barbecue sauce that they put on everything they eat
The first collection of stories was called Bubbas of the Apocalypse, followed by The Four Bubbas of the Apocalypse: Flatulence, Halitosis, Incest, and . . . Ned and International House of Bubbas. A fourth collection, .Houston: We've got Bubbas, is currently in the works.
(Still with me? Good. If you're not, it's not going to get any clearer. Sorry.)
"The Merlene Show" was intended to be the Bubba version of "The Martha Stewart Show"--arts and crafts and home decor with a redneck, white-trash twist, plus a beauty pageant between a couple of trailer park beauty queens, Harley Dee and Nova Dawn. The final production was loud, raunchy and incredibly funny, and I hope whoever took the video of the show will post it on the net sometime soon. (If I see it posted anywhere, I'll post a link here or send it out by e-mail, or both.)
Here's the cast:
Merlene--Sherri Dean
Billy Dee--Bill Allen
Nedina--Selina Rosen
Security guards--M.H. Bonham and Rie Sheridan
Rhonda Lee--Rhonda Eudaly
Harley Dee--Audree Hitchcock
Nova Dawn--Sally Allen
Pearl Mae Ledbetter--Susan Satterfield
Glen Tirwiliger--Glenn Sixbury
David Lee Anderson--playing himself
Bennie Grezlik--also playing himself (I think)
Plus the Stonebender Sisters:
Cary On--Cary Osborn
Berly Ann--Beverly Hale
Katie Ellen--Katharine E. Kimbriel
Ruby Sue--Kristi Hutson-Price
If you have any questions about "The Merlene Show," SoonerCon, or any of the pictures I posted, please e-mail me or leave a comment and let me know.
Several years ago, the writers at Yard Dog Press came up with an idea for a collection of humorous stories about a plague called Yuppie 25 that kills off most of the people on Earth and turns them into brain-eating, yuppie zombies, or "Yumbies." The only survivors of the plague are the "Bubbas," the redneck, white-trash, trailer park denizens who are rendered immune to the virus by the ingredients in the cheap barbecue sauce that they put on everything they eat
The first collection of stories was called Bubbas of the Apocalypse, followed by The Four Bubbas of the Apocalypse: Flatulence, Halitosis, Incest, and . . . Ned and International House of Bubbas. A fourth collection, .Houston: We've got Bubbas, is currently in the works.
(Still with me? Good. If you're not, it's not going to get any clearer. Sorry.)
"The Merlene Show" was intended to be the Bubba version of "The Martha Stewart Show"--arts and crafts and home decor with a redneck, white-trash twist, plus a beauty pageant between a couple of trailer park beauty queens, Harley Dee and Nova Dawn. The final production was loud, raunchy and incredibly funny, and I hope whoever took the video of the show will post it on the net sometime soon. (If I see it posted anywhere, I'll post a link here or send it out by e-mail, or both.)
Here's the cast:
Merlene--Sherri Dean
Billy Dee--Bill Allen
Nedina--Selina Rosen
Security guards--M.H. Bonham and Rie Sheridan
Rhonda Lee--Rhonda Eudaly
Harley Dee--Audree Hitchcock
Nova Dawn--Sally Allen
Pearl Mae Ledbetter--Susan Satterfield
Glen Tirwiliger--Glenn Sixbury
David Lee Anderson--playing himself
Bennie Grezlik--also playing himself (I think)
Plus the Stonebender Sisters:
Cary On--Cary Osborn
Berly Ann--Beverly Hale
Katie Ellen--Katharine E. Kimbriel
Ruby Sue--Kristi Hutson-Price
If you have any questions about "The Merlene Show," SoonerCon, or any of the pictures I posted, please e-mail me or leave a comment and let me know.
Monday, June 25, 2007
SoonerCon 2007 Pictures and Review
Finally got all of my SoonerCon 2007 pictures resized, tweaked and posted. Just click on my Photobucket link in the sidebar and look in my sub-albums. I have a separate sub-album for my pictures from "The Merlene Show," but I'll post more about that tomorrow. Most of the pictures I took came out pretty well, but there were a few that were too dark and needed to be lightened and a couple that came out fuzzy and had to be sharpened (and even then they don't look as good as they could have).
I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I intended to, usually because I'd see someone or something interesting, think "I really need to get a picture of him/her/that before the weekend is over," then I'd get lazy or sidetracked and never get around to taking one. I already promised myself I'd take more next year (and anyone who reads this has my permission to nag me next year to make sure I do it!).
This year's SoonerCon was very well-run and very well-attended--the last attendance estimate I heard was about 1000 people, which is very good for the second year of a convention. It was good to just hang out with friends for three days, including a few that I hadn't seen in a long time.
Correction from the comments: the actual attendance this year was around 700 people. Thanks to Angie for posting the correction.
The art show and dealer's room were both good, but the dealer's room really needed a button dealer, since buttons are inexpensive and one of the things that lot of people (including me) usually look for at conventions.
The programming schedule had a good selection of panels and other activities, and the ones that I went to, or saw in passing, were usually well-attended. (The children's writing workshop I went to on Sunday morning didn't attract any kids, but the adults that were there had a lot of fun.)
The con suite seemed a little small for a con this size, but it was always kept neat and clean and had a good selection of consumables available (including fresh fruit, which is always a nice change from cookies and donuts).
The one big disappointment about the con was the lack of room parties. At a convention this big, there are usually at least one or two open parties on Friday night and three or four on Saturday night. This time, however, there was one party on Friday (hosted by the ladies of Yard Dog Press, who can always be counted on to throw a good room party) and none at all on Saturday. I know there were two local clubs that usually throw parties that decided not to this time, but nobody knows what happened to all of the groups from other conventions that are usually on hand to throw parties to promote their cons. Hopefully this was just a fluke and we'll have a lot of parties next year.
The con hotel (the Biltmore at I-40 and S. Meridian) handled their first science fiction convention pretty well (or seemed to) from what I could see, although I heard about some problems some other folks had with them later on. The sleeping rooms were clean and comfortable and reasonably priced and I hope the con can arrange the same price or something close to it for next year. The hotel restaurant was good and also reasonably priced, although the wait staff was sometimes a little slow about bringing drinks or refills. There were plenty of couches and chairs in most areas of the hotel, so there were always places for the fans to sit and visit.
My one big complaint about the hotel (and the weekend in general) had to do with the location of my room. The hotel is divided into three buildings--the main building, the south wing, and the west wing. All of the convention function areas were in the main building and the south wing, while my room was in the back hallway of the west wing, which meant a seven-minute walk to get from my room to the art show/dealer's room area. (The only way my room could have been any farther would be if it had been across the hall and up on the second floor.) Needless to say, I didn't make any trips back to my room unless I absolutely had to.
Next year, the con needs to strongly encourage the hotel (and maybe require it via their hotel contract) to keep all of the convention sleeping rooms as close to each other and to the convention function areas as possible, and they have enough rooms available that this shouldn't be a problem. The only convention guests who need to be in the west wing, IMHO, are the ones who specifically ask to be there for any reason.
Overall I had a great time and I'm already looking forward to next year (and I'm already thinking about volunteering to work on the con next year, but I haven't made a final decision yet).
I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I intended to, usually because I'd see someone or something interesting, think "I really need to get a picture of him/her/that before the weekend is over," then I'd get lazy or sidetracked and never get around to taking one. I already promised myself I'd take more next year (and anyone who reads this has my permission to nag me next year to make sure I do it!).
This year's SoonerCon was very well-run and very well-attended--the last attendance estimate I heard was about 1000 people, which is very good for the second year of a convention. It was good to just hang out with friends for three days, including a few that I hadn't seen in a long time.
Correction from the comments: the actual attendance this year was around 700 people. Thanks to Angie for posting the correction.
The art show and dealer's room were both good, but the dealer's room really needed a button dealer, since buttons are inexpensive and one of the things that lot of people (including me) usually look for at conventions.
The programming schedule had a good selection of panels and other activities, and the ones that I went to, or saw in passing, were usually well-attended. (The children's writing workshop I went to on Sunday morning didn't attract any kids, but the adults that were there had a lot of fun.)
The con suite seemed a little small for a con this size, but it was always kept neat and clean and had a good selection of consumables available (including fresh fruit, which is always a nice change from cookies and donuts).
The one big disappointment about the con was the lack of room parties. At a convention this big, there are usually at least one or two open parties on Friday night and three or four on Saturday night. This time, however, there was one party on Friday (hosted by the ladies of Yard Dog Press, who can always be counted on to throw a good room party) and none at all on Saturday. I know there were two local clubs that usually throw parties that decided not to this time, but nobody knows what happened to all of the groups from other conventions that are usually on hand to throw parties to promote their cons. Hopefully this was just a fluke and we'll have a lot of parties next year.
The con hotel (the Biltmore at I-40 and S. Meridian) handled their first science fiction convention pretty well (or seemed to) from what I could see, although I heard about some problems some other folks had with them later on. The sleeping rooms were clean and comfortable and reasonably priced and I hope the con can arrange the same price or something close to it for next year. The hotel restaurant was good and also reasonably priced, although the wait staff was sometimes a little slow about bringing drinks or refills. There were plenty of couches and chairs in most areas of the hotel, so there were always places for the fans to sit and visit.
My one big complaint about the hotel (and the weekend in general) had to do with the location of my room. The hotel is divided into three buildings--the main building, the south wing, and the west wing. All of the convention function areas were in the main building and the south wing, while my room was in the back hallway of the west wing, which meant a seven-minute walk to get from my room to the art show/dealer's room area. (The only way my room could have been any farther would be if it had been across the hall and up on the second floor.) Needless to say, I didn't make any trips back to my room unless I absolutely had to.
Next year, the con needs to strongly encourage the hotel (and maybe require it via their hotel contract) to keep all of the convention sleeping rooms as close to each other and to the convention function areas as possible, and they have enough rooms available that this shouldn't be a problem. The only convention guests who need to be in the west wing, IMHO, are the ones who specifically ask to be there for any reason.
Overall I had a great time and I'm already looking forward to next year (and I'm already thinking about volunteering to work on the con next year, but I haven't made a final decision yet).
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Birthday Greetings and Sunday Photo Blogging
Happy Birthday to my niece Emelia, who's celebrating her first birthday today! Bev and I went to her party earlier this afternoon and I got a lot of pictures, mostly of her enjoying her cake:
I've got more, but I need to resize all of them and get them posted in my Photobucket album later in the week.
(A big "thank you" to my brother Tom for loaning me a couple of batteries for my camera to get me through the party--mine were about to run out of power and I didn't realize it and I carelessly forgot to bring my extra pair.)
I've got more, but I need to resize all of them and get them posted in my Photobucket album later in the week.
(A big "thank you" to my brother Tom for loaning me a couple of batteries for my camera to get me through the party--mine were about to run out of power and I didn't realize it and I carelessly forgot to bring my extra pair.)
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Wednesday Postcard Blogging
This week's postcard:
The caption on the back gives the same information that's on the front.
Does anyone remember when we stopped calling it the Municipal Auditorium and started calling it the Civic Center?
The caption on the back gives the same information that's on the front.
Does anyone remember when we stopped calling it the Municipal Auditorium and started calling it the Civic Center?
Monday, June 18, 2007
Birthday Greetings and Some Yahoo! News
Happy Birthday to my friend Ted (whose birthday is today and I almost didn't remember to post about it).
************
I found out something about Yahoo! recently and I've been intending to post about it but didn't remember it again until tonight.
I said in a recent post that I was planning to add more pictures of my niece Emelia to my Yahoo! photo space sometime soon. I went to my photo space a day or two after that to upload some pictures and read that Yahoo! is planning to shut down its photo hosting service sometime this fall to focus more attention on Flickr, so I'm not going to add any more pictures to my Yahoo! photo space after all.
Later in the summer I'll have the option of moving all of my current Yahoo! albums to another hosting service (which would probably be Photobucket since I already have an account there). However, all of the photos I have on Yahoo! right now are older pictures of Emelia, so I may decide to just take them down and work on posting some newer ones (and I have plenty of those to work with, thanks to Tom).
In the meantime, I've added a link to my Photobucket account to my sidebar and I've posted two new albums of pictures of Emelia there for anyone who's interested in seeing how much she's grown. (I'll also have a couple of albums of SoonerCon photos posted soon--I had hoped to have those posted by now, but I keep managing to get behind on everything.)
************
I found out something about Yahoo! recently and I've been intending to post about it but didn't remember it again until tonight.
I said in a recent post that I was planning to add more pictures of my niece Emelia to my Yahoo! photo space sometime soon. I went to my photo space a day or two after that to upload some pictures and read that Yahoo! is planning to shut down its photo hosting service sometime this fall to focus more attention on Flickr, so I'm not going to add any more pictures to my Yahoo! photo space after all.
Later in the summer I'll have the option of moving all of my current Yahoo! albums to another hosting service (which would probably be Photobucket since I already have an account there). However, all of the photos I have on Yahoo! right now are older pictures of Emelia, so I may decide to just take them down and work on posting some newer ones (and I have plenty of those to work with, thanks to Tom).
In the meantime, I've added a link to my Photobucket account to my sidebar and I've posted two new albums of pictures of Emelia there for anyone who's interested in seeing how much she's grown. (I'll also have a couple of albums of SoonerCon photos posted soon--I had hoped to have those posted by now, but I keep managing to get behind on everything.)
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Father's Day Greetings and Sunday Photo Blogging
Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers I know (especially my brother Tom, who's celebrating his first Father's Day today).
I looked through some of our old photos to see if I could find a good picture of me (or me and Tom) with Dad, and this is the best one that I could find right away:
This was taken in November, 1963 at Red Rock Canyon State Park near Hinton, OK (west of Okla. City). Tom was a little over a year old and had recently learned to walk, and keeping up with him was a bit of a challenge that day. (I'm not sure why we had our eyes closed, unless it was because we were facing the sun for the picture.)
I looked through some of our old photos to see if I could find a good picture of me (or me and Tom) with Dad, and this is the best one that I could find right away:
This was taken in November, 1963 at Red Rock Canyon State Park near Hinton, OK (west of Okla. City). Tom was a little over a year old and had recently learned to walk, and keeping up with him was a bit of a challenge that day. (I'm not sure why we had our eyes closed, unless it was because we were facing the sun for the picture.)
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Wednesday Postcard Blogging
Today's postcard:
The caption on the back:
PARK AVENUE
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Looking east on Park Avenue, one of the beautiful and principal avenues in the heart of downtown Oklahoma City, with the Municipal building pool and fountain in the foreground.
The caption on the back:
PARK AVENUE
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Looking east on Park Avenue, one of the beautiful and principal avenues in the heart of downtown Oklahoma City, with the Municipal building pool and fountain in the foreground.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Birthday Greetings and Feelin' The Blues
Happy Birthday to my friend Nancy (who I shared a room with at SoonerCon this past weekend) and a belated Happy Birthday to my friend Rosemary (who I also saw at the con and whose birthday was a week ago when I was taking a break from posting).
The con was great and I had a wonderful time, but I'm still incredibly tired and sore and feeling generally lousy, so it may be a few days before I'll feel up to posting a con report and my con pictures. I'm also having a really severe bout of the "post-convention blues"--which, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, is the condition of feeling depressed about a con being over or about to come to an end and having to go back to dealing with the "real" world again. It's a pretty common condition among science fiction fans, and I've discovered today (from doing a couple of Google searches) that it can affect anyone who attends any sort of special interest convention or gathering, not just science fiction conventions. (Do your own search of Google Groups if you want to learn more--you can also search using "letdown" or "depression" in place of "blues" to get some alternate results.)
The con was great and I had a wonderful time, but I'm still incredibly tired and sore and feeling generally lousy, so it may be a few days before I'll feel up to posting a con report and my con pictures. I'm also having a really severe bout of the "post-convention blues"--which, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, is the condition of feeling depressed about a con being over or about to come to an end and having to go back to dealing with the "real" world again. It's a pretty common condition among science fiction fans, and I've discovered today (from doing a couple of Google searches) that it can affect anyone who attends any sort of special interest convention or gathering, not just science fiction conventions. (Do your own search of Google Groups if you want to learn more--you can also search using "letdown" or "depression" in place of "blues" to get some alternate results.)
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Taking A Break
Next weekend I'm going to be attending SoonerCon, so I was planning to be away from my computer from Thursday evening until Sunday evening/late night or maybe even Monday morning (depending on what time I get home from the con and how much energy I have left by then).
However, I still have a lot of things I still need to do before then, so I've decided to start my "vacation" from posting today. Once the con is over I'll be in a better frame of mind to deal with blog stuff.
Hope everyone has a good week, and I promise to be back on my blog a week from tomorrow.
However, I still have a lot of things I still need to do before then, so I've decided to start my "vacation" from posting today. Once the con is over I'll be in a better frame of mind to deal with blog stuff.
Hope everyone has a good week, and I promise to be back on my blog a week from tomorrow.
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