I am the Shire-reeve.

Today I had the opportunity to pick up and help transport the block of a 396 cubic inch 475 hp 1965 Corvette engine. How much does just the block (no pistons or nuttin) weigh? Well my not so expert opinion is a metric shit ton which apparently is about 300 pounds. Bet you didn't know that one metric ton equates too 300 pounds but it does. The reason for all this lifting was that SG's Dad spun a bearing on said Corvette and is now getting the last bit of work done on his engine. Something that I like about this car is that it isn't just a classic car, it was his primary form of transportation, it was used driven loved and modified for racing. The modification most noticable is the giant fat tires that the wheel wells had to be hollowed out to take. These wheels are giant and give you the impression that it could drive over Ford Festiva's and not feel anything. This in my mind makes it completely different than other classic cars, sure the mint cars are pretty but there's something about a car that was actually used, something with memories not just something that was restored and then brought out on a trailer for car shows. Anyway we had to take the engine over to SG's Dad's brothers house over in Gahanna which means one thing, old style pre video game penny arcade games W00T!

SG's uncle is one of these people who is one these rare people who just seems to have been meant for early retirement. He's hobbies and accomplishments to date are doing things like fixing up two Camero's and soon to be a 1965 Corvette with matching numbers. He has bought and fixed countless juke boxes, player pianos, built his own deck, put siding on his own house, makes wooden toys for his grandchildren and has collected and fixed up penny arcade games. The basic concept for all of these is that they have a gun at the one end of the game with some manner of targets at the other end. The basic concept is the same put a nickel/penny into the top of the gun, pull a lever and shoot ball bearings until the gun won't let you shoot anymore. One of these, "Junior Deputy Sheriff Pistol Range" (In the above link), has you shooting at a Wild West Saloon where little faces of "bad guys" appear in and around the saloon. As you hit a face another one will appear and will continue until you cannot shoot anymore. As you hit the "bad guys" your score goes up by ten points and your title goes from Corpse (0 points) to... well I don't know as I only got up to Sheriff however I beat SG which was excellent. Every time I got Sheriff I would shot into the next room, sadly SG did not take or did not realize there was a competition going on this however did not stop me from cavorting into the next room. Chalk one of these games up to something else that I'd love to pick up and then learn how to restore. Strangley I have a strange feeling that it would live out in the garage, something about ball bearings slamming into metal surfaces till odd hours in the night.

Talking of people of a different type I got to meet Brian the sword guy finally when we went to see Rocky Horror at Studio 35. The theme at the showing was "Punk and Bondage" and all I've got to say is mesh on flesh, tape over nipples, leather jackets, and dry humping and that was all in the pre-show. I had an alright time but would have enjoyed it more had they had some system where they could help the virgins join in on the callbacks instead of having a couple guys wandering around belting the callbacks out, say transparencies on the wall or something. I will say that the pure energy that the cast put into it was impressive and the fact that there seemed to be a pretty good turn out does make me want to go again sometime. Since Studio 35 does it twice a month I would have thought that the crowd would have been small however I'm guessing since it was a Valentines day show that the turn out may have been larger than normal. Where was I? Oh yes the sword guy. So Brian collects antique Samurai swords and I'm not talking about the World War II officer swords which were mostly mass produced junk given to officers to help instil Samurai virtues in them. I'm talking about 15th century Warring States period, when for about 200 years Japan was in one constant civil war. What amazes me is that Brian is relatively normal I mean other than that he goes Black Powder hunting, plays in a band and carries a 9" long (opened) bayonet styled black bone handled switchblade. Really it just amazes me that someone other than one of the original stockholders in Microsoft stock would be able to purchase a 400 year old sword. It makes my $100 fake sword that I bought from an Oji-san in Nagoya seem positevly dreary, then again I'm not ready to throw down thousands of dollars on a sword just yet. I mean knowing me I'd get drunk and pull it out and accidentally cut a cat in half or something and you know that's a lot of blood.