Tag Archives: texas

USS Lexington

On a recent long weekend, the Kirsches from Austin went on a quick trip. Our goal was to stay within short driving distance. We decided on Corpus Christi because beach.

I had never visited Corpus Christi and didn’t know what to expect – I don’t think a Selena Shrine is a good enough reason to plan the trip.

But the USS Lexington is. I am embarrassed to admit I didn’t even know it was there. It’s an old WWII-era aircraft carrier turned into a museum and it’s just as cool as you would imagine.

I need help identifying that little brown computer or dumb terminal.

Not only was it extremely interesting to learn about the history of the ship and see its insides and look at the planes… they even have an Escape Room. That’s right: an Escape Room inside a 70 year old aircraft carrier.
We couldn’t solve it though.

At the range

The guy in the photo above, my friends, is yours truly at the shooting range. Not something I normally (ever) do. I turned out to be a pretty decent shot. I tried two handguns: a big one and a smaller one, and an M16.

Welcome to Texas

You can check out the targets below… all of them are with the handguns from 3, 7, and 15 yards away. Then there’s one from 25 yards with the M16. Not too bad, considering I didn’t think I’d hit anything at all.

Texas Renaissance Festival

Texas Renaissance Festival
Texas Renaissance Festival

It is the dream of every free man and woman in the world to re-live that glorious time period that woke humanity up from the Dark Age and propelled it towards modernity: The Renaissance. Or at least that’s what the organizers of the Texas Renaissance Festival in Platersville, Texas would want you to believe.

I attended for the first time ever a couple of weeks ago. First let me get this out of the way: As far as this thing is concerned, there is no effort whatsoever to portray things in a historically manner. Sort of how Taco Bell doesn’t try to accurately portray Mexican food.

Now that we got this out of the way and you are comfortable being surrounded by people dressed up as Romans, Greeks, Middle Age peasants, Star Wars stormtroopers, etc. you can get to the fun part. The festival is much bigger and interesting than I’d have suspected, but granted, my expectations were low. They have built this really large village, with actual permanent buildings. The thing is very large. And they filled it with people dressed in ridiculous costumes who speak with a funny English accent and eat turkey legs with their hands. And that’s all good because I like dressing with ridiculous costumes, I speak with a funny English accent, and I like eating turkey legs.

Read more to see more photographic evidence.

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Global Warming and Me

Three signs of how bad it actually is:

1. Lake Travis

I was in Lake Travis last week. The lake is emptier that I’ve ever seen it before. And the low water level means little water flow, which translates directly to a dirtier than usual lake. We need some rain badly. More pictures including girls in bikinis upon request.

Windy Point

Continue reading Global Warming and Me