Now, it may come as a shock to some of you, but despite my fondness of the original Nintendo Entertainment System, and Super Mario Bros. 3 in particular, i have never actually played the game from start to finish without using a whistle. This means that up until a few weeks ago, there were levels in the game which i had never even played, let alone defeated!
I have also been known from time to time after i got really crazy about the game to "cheat" using the Nintendo Power guide. This basically means that i used the NP level maps on the rare occasion that i needed or wanted them and especially for obtaining and stocking up on powerup items through the card memory game (awarded each time Mario racks up 80,000 points). This time, however, i was determined not only to beat the game by playing from start to finish, but also not to use the NP guide for any purpose whatsoever during the course of my fantastical journey to defeat Koopa (a.k.a. Bowser, King Koopa) and rescue the princess!
I am now proud to announce that i have now (mostly) completed said feat. I didn't use the Nintendo Power, but instead tried my hand at the memory game using my own, um, memory. I say "mostly" because when i got to World 7--Pipe Land--i had been playing the majority of the day and Kirsten and i were supposed to go on a date that evening. I was really close to beating the world, but needed to shave some time off before finishing, so i finished stocking up on lives at the mid-world (secret coin stash!) castle and *gasp!* blew the whistle.
*Doo-doo-doooooo-doo-doo-doooooo!*
Bah! I would have given the rest of the world a beat down anyway...
So it came to pass that i as Mario heroically braved airship and flame, fireballs and Bullet Bill, molten lava and Thwomp!, Bob-omb and Boo Diddly, and finally faced the evil master himself! Besting Koopa with a surplus of 86 or so lives, Mario-me
smote his ruin upon the mountainside...er, defeated him...er,HE FELL DOWN THE HOLE!
Seeing as how jocular he always is, the moment i rescued Princess Toadstool, Toad said (as he tends to do at the demise of each preceding Koopaling-run castle), "Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!" But added this time... "Just kidding!" After which ran the REALLY GREAT credits featuring the complete cast of characters and specs on the game. After which fell the wondrous Red Curtain complete with excellent 80s/90s tag font reading: "THE END". Observe:
And here is a shot of the console in action! The SMB3 copy of Nintendo Power looks on from the shelf neglected while the Super NES makes a guest appearance in the background. (Needless to say, so much playing of the NES gave rise to Kirsten and i later putting in some time under the aliases of Donkey and Diddy Kong... Oh, and prior to
that we had been playing the Super NES Mario All Stars version of SMB2! Also a most excellent game!)
But wait, there's more!
The following day i was feeling a little guilty on having skipped out a *tad* early on my quest, so guess what i decided to do?!
That's right, i jumped right back into the thick of things, whistled my way to World 7, and defeated it from start to finish, no gimmicks, once and for all. And boy, am i glad i did! Do you have any idea what happens when you beat the castle in Pipe Land?! Well let me tell you.
Ok, so after the defeat of all 6 other Koopalings, Mario or Luigi (alas, when playing 1 player, one has no option to play as Luigi in SMB3, but it is possible for Luigi to receive this congratulatory letter in 2 player mode) receives a letter from Princess Toadstool with a head's up on what's to come and enclosed is a jewel that helps protect you (usually a P-wing or a cloud to pass over a particularly hard level).
This time, though, there is no note from the princess! Just a note from Koopa which starts off with a surprising, "Yo!" and then explains that he's got your regal babe, you'll have to come get her, yadda, yadda, yadda.
In closing, here is a cool image i gleaned from somewhere:
If you haven't played SMB3 or if you haven't played in a while, well then, play it, damn it! And of course you're welcome to come visit us and use the system (call or write first!).
?!?!?!??
The modern warrior.
Aren’t they great? I first learned about the existence of time capsules, at least in the sense of US cities creating them and later opening them, in the City of Downey, California. I went to Downey to visit my good buddy Dillon when he was working "Downey" there (that was for you, Aro) and Kirsten and i were still in SoCal at school. I went to Downey early to beat the traffic and ended up exploring the civic center area and Downey city hall looking for cool things to see and find out about. I discovered a theatre (which was closed) and explored the rather unexciting town hall, where i suppose i learned some things. But as i made one last visual sweep of the premises before leaving, what did i discover but a secret TIME CAPSULE!!!
Stanford University with its landmark Hoover Tower and more of the Peninsula:
The Dish from afar (there are actually at least two dishes--this is the big one):
A beautiful tree in bloom:
Kirsten on the trail, oak trees, golden brown hills, and dish:
Cragged oaks + hills + dish:
Another wide shot:
Extreme close up!
On the northerly side we came across this curious round building with some solar panels on top. From a distance and even close up it looks like the roof is only three feet or so off the ground! I suppose it must go under ground--let me know if you know anything about it!
Ah, beautiful, fragrant redwoods! In the second photo above you'll notice all the branches grow on one side of the tree only. Our guide said this was due to the mystery of the Mystery Spot (there were other leaning trees and still others with weird crooked growth patterns, probably due to abnormal magnetism or your hallucination).
This pendulum swung further on one side and was more difficult/heavier to push that direction than the other:
These are just some other random blurry people on our tour being perspecto-magnetized:
Although this last photo of us at the Spot is slightly blurry too, the blurriness is not due to the mystery, but rather our tour guide's unsteady hand and/or ineptness at taking clear photos with a digital camera!
Before we left i snapped a shot of my beautiful ballooning bride and our little baby bundle (we found out earlier that day too that it's most probably a girl--there's always that chance of error, but the ultrasound doctors seemed pretty sure!):
Destination #3 was See's Candies for a half-pound box of chocolate and at Dillon's recommendation destination #4 was Seabright Brewery where we happened to catch a cool blues band called Swing Shift in addition to some yummy eats.
Admittedly, i sometimes want to do this. Maybe it's more like often i want to do this. Especially in my younger days (hehehe...read: middle school and high school) i'd put music in my CD player and try desperately to zone out. Sometimes i still do i guess, every once in a while, just for the sake of zoning out.
The written caption reads: "Have you seen Paul Choate & Brad Pitt in the same room? Huh?"
Neither of these photos does the sight justice. That ivy has crept up the telephone pole ever so slowly, ever so steadily, with nary a soul to pay much notice. I like the first photo i took because there's a tree in the background which could very well be *El NUEVO Palo Alto* (The NEW Tall Tree) someday! (though likely not...see future post regarding El Palo Alto for more specs) The second photo i think shows a little bit better how the weight is causing the whole thing to lean over and i also like the framing and the cross-top look and cross-hatch feel of the telephone wires. More than a small part of me hopes that no one will notice and so it will remain untrimmed and sometime during the night or whenever the whole thing will come crashing down. It's the small victories in life you treasure. Even if they are just hypothetical. In the recent words of one Kyle Warner: "WELCOME TO MY MIND!"
Yet another case of photo documentation seriously failing to do a sight justice. This is actually the second pair of Tree Friends i've seen in Menlo Park. The first i noticed was in the Fair Oaks neighborhood. In real life they look like they're actually leaning in to talk with one another. Either Mr. Tolkein is continuing to excite my imagination, or i've just always known deep down that the trees could talk with each other...even move. Unfortunately, the Treeherders around here have either long since lost the Entwives, or (more likely) have been chopped or burned by metal-minded wizards-gone-wild. Or alternatively, the Last March of the Ents really was the last march. Whatever the case, i can't wait for Isaiah 55 and Psalm 96 to come to pass.
These beautiful, gnarly, local oaks are some good specimens similar to those which undoubtedly inspired the design of the Menlo Park official city logo.
Try to ignore those combustion engine machines in this otherwise excellent photograph:
Triple tree fiesta! Some red-barked thing, what i believe is a Colorado Blue Spruce, and some sort of cactus-tree thing.
Detail of the bearded cactus-tree thing!
Old magnolias, i believe, on Noel near our apartment. Look at those snarled old roots! If you come visit us, i will show you the "tree within a tree" phenomenon taking place in these babies. In my view, trying to take a photo that would convey the awesome factor in this case is simply not possible.
And across the street: more of the same trees! Probably also swarming with amiable honeybees!
When i was taking these i was thinking to myself, "MAN, these are going to be so great!" ... turns out they were a bit blurry. Maybe one day i will grow up to be a real insect and wildlife photographer. In the meantime, hopefully you still like these shots. :)
A nice wall of purple velvety looking flowers near our place. Occasionally i've sat for several minutes mesmerized by the honeybees who frequent this flower wall around this time of year. They are both numerous and awesome.
A lone pink azalea outside the Menlo Park Public Library.
Birds of Paradise on Laurel St.
Some sort of flowering tree, also on Laurel. I think it's a type of fruit tree, perhaps a cherry or an apple. If someone knows, please leave a comment and let me know! I guess i'll find out as spring flowers turn to summer fruit. Oh yeah, and i'll include more shots of these in an upcoming post featuring blurry bees!
Some cheerful daffodils near the curvy part of Noel Drive. I've seen several of these as well as the flowers featured in Friendly Flowers Part 1 in the roundabouts in the Fair Oaks neighborhood near one of my previous jobs.
And here is a shot of the console in action! The SMB3 copy of Nintendo Power looks on from the shelf neglected while the Super NES makes a guest appearance in the background. (Needless to say, so much playing of the NES gave rise to Kirsten and i later putting in some time under the aliases of Donkey and Diddy Kong... Oh, and prior to that we had been playing the Super NES Mario All Stars version of SMB2! Also a most excellent game!) 
But wait, there's more!
If you haven't played SMB3 or if you haven't played in a while, well then, play it, damn it! And of course you're welcome to come visit us and use the system (call or write first!).
