Mardi Gras and my Birthday!

One more day of work and Diana and I leave for Louisiana on Friday!  My birthday is the following Monday and Mardi Gras is the Tuesday... we are going home to see friends, family and how our old home town has changed after hurricane Katrina.  I have bought (my first) digital camcorder to chronicle the event (I am returning it to Wal-Mart after everything is over as it is not the one I really want- I will get a better one for Dragon*Con this year).

Anyway- I am very excited to be off work for six days with no way for them to reach me if a server crashes! yippie!

Dream

Ok, bizarrely strange dream...

The beginning is already fading from memory, but it was me taking something- food or something from a room that was sealed off and had a camera on it.  I took some stuff and left and then went back- but somehow I had started a lava flow when I left, so when I returned, the room was unnavigable...  I returned to my escape vehicle (an orange Nissan, I think) and then the dream no longer had me but it was a 3rd person dream.

Something else had escaped from the lava flow and it possessed the bodies of humans turning them into zombies bent on killing other humans for food- and the number of zombies grew exponentially.  The lava flow contained and it set off chain reactions of volcanoes that forced the humans away and the zombies followed.  At first the zombies were not so smart, but they started getting smarter.

It came to a zenith in some city a surrounded by lava except for one side with access to the ocean.  The uninfected humans were all headed here as the zombies followed.  They now looked and spoke exactly like humans- to the point they infiltrated a stadium and started pulling teenagers down through the bleachers as they were next to them.

The some force (vacuum) pulled the uninfected humans from the top and a perimeter was established around the zombies- high chain link fences, guards on horseback, the whole lot.  Other people were saved at the last minute, including one Asian scientist that was infected.  It was determined that he would find a cure or die in isolation.

The initial plan was to firebomb or nuke the zombies in the isolated area, but an ultimatum was discussed.  A group of zombies were selected and sent to another planet to see if they could find a habitable world- they were actually shot into the lava and destroyed- while the rest were given other food sources (turtles, I think) and meant to live out the rest of eternity in the area encircled by the lava.

All the time the zombies were acting smarter and more social- learning to attack the remaining humans trapped in the zone from above, organizing hunts, and just in general dialog sounding more intelligent.  They were concerned that their numbers were still growing while their food supply remained constant or was diminishing.

Then the lava began to retreat- and the zombies followed.   They stopped on the way to dance on abandoned churches that were not destroyed by the lava (actually appeared to be under construction) and hunt.  When they arrived at the original origin of the lava flow, they found a huge room with a large door.

The outside world is much more high-tech- something along the lines of star trek and the 24th century federation.

A few of the zombies heard clicks and felt sick- they had been exposed to a special radiation and were then pulled through the door.  They were lead through and airport like facility and told they had been cured.  They passed through an energy field that caused some discomfort to scan them and verify that they were no longer infected- an infected zombie would have been killed.  All of the former zombies were no longer hungry and most felt sick- they were told this was due to their former diet of humans.

One zombie challenged that he was still infected, so a call was made to bring an untreated zombie out of the perimeter- enticed by small packs of blood.  The zombie paused at the energy field for a while- not sure to go through or not.  Then it bolts through -unharmed- and grabs the blood packets.

All hell breaks loose and the scientist that had earlier escaped looks in shock- and then he suddenly realizes the zombie element inside himself he though he had destroyed had been controlling him and guiding his actions.  He reverts to the zombie form at this moment and the camera pans back, exposing others that are reverting to a zombie form in the outside world....

Now the dream goes over to a column of very large space ships parked in a vertical stacked dock.  One of these ships has an uninfected captain and a cargo of 50 'pure' humans in cryogenic stasis.  As the news gets out of the betrayal, the ship's engines fire up and it begins to back out of the dock- heading for another planet where the human race can start over again.  Other engines begin to fire up as well- some headed down to the earth as a distraction for the zombies so they cannot follow the true 'Ark' ship(s)

And then I awoke....

it was a very vivid dream- lots of detail and dialog- almost like watching a B scifi movie.  

Jabber...

Ok- not a lot of big things going on in my life, but a lot of little things seemed to come together over the weekend..

• I found a camcorder for Mardi Gras- a Panasonic PV-GS19 from WalMart.  Wal-Mart has a 30 day return policy on camcorders, so I can use it for my trip back to New Orleans and return it if it sucks (which is questionable at this time).
• We received about an inch of snow last night- but it should melt off by mid-day... looks real cool though
• I think the last piece of my MCE setup will be in today- an old GeForce 6200 w/ HDTV out (component).  PCI-E is the main deal for this guy- the X300 card works, but overscan really is not like it should be (and the DVI-component adapter for ATI does not work on the X300!)
• The new Google desktop has a lot of plugins - like a del.icio.us plugin that works pretty well
• I am off pager duty for another 4 weeks! yay!

I think I am getting a cold or something- I guess I shouldn't sleep with the window open when it is 25f outside! 

I was going to the gym this morning, but the snow deterred me- I ended up trying out another of the yoga videos... that in itself was a pretty decent workout...

Sarah from The Cruxshadows is looking for a place to crash in Atlanta while she is auditioning for Americas Top Model- I am thinking of offering my place, but I don't want to come across as a weird-o.  I am pretty much in awe of her as she is a member of The Cruxshadows and she is definitely a hottie- but then I will have to tell the roomies "Hey, this chick from The Crushadows is going to crash here for a night- Ok?".  Ah well- I will think about it today if she does not get an offer from someone that she knows...