Ice Rink Zamboni Operator Charged With DUI

Ice Rink Zamboni Operator Charged With DUI

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

(06-28) 13:47 PDT Newark, N.J. (AP) --
You can't drive with alcohol in your system, even if the vehicle is a four-ton ice-cleaning machine at a skating rink.

Zamboni operator John Peragallo was charged with drunken driving after a fellow employee at the Mennen Sports Arena in Morristown called police and reported that the machine was speeding and nearly crashed into the boards.

Police arrived after Peragallo had parked the machine after grooming the ice during a break in a public skating session.

Police said Peragallo's blood alcohol level was 0.12 percent. Levels of 0.08 percent and above are considered legally drunk.

Zamboni privileges were revoked for Peragallo, 63, who has worked for the Morris County park system since 1994.

</laukaisyn>

<Music!!!!!>

Yeah, as some of you may have noticed, I've figured out the <embed> tag.

At first, I thought it'd be cool to have the Mister Softee theme play for eight seconds.

I thought the better of that, only because, y'know, it's their trademarked theme.

So, as of right now, I have Droopy saying "Y'know what? I'm happy."


But I'm looking through old Cartoon Theme Songs.

First off, what the hell is a Snork? And why are there three seperate versions of the themesong -- 1984, 1986, and 1989? I mean, seriously. One wasn't enough?

And, y'know, sad as it is, I still know all the words to the Sailor Moon Themesong. Even though I haven't watched it since the seventh grade. (Honest.)

Did anyone else know there were two Popeye theme songs? One from 1933 (where he's singing "I'm Popeye, the sailor man") and one from 1961, which is just the music to the first song.

There was a PacMan show?! What are you going to make a show about PacMan about? Seriously, that's like making a show about Tetris. Or Pong.

Am I the only one that finds Woody Woodpecker's laugh really, really annoying?

I remember Bobby's World! I honestly don't remember what it was about, but I kinda remember it! That fat guy that does family fued did it!

The Brady Kids?! Now we're beating the Brady Bunch concept to death with a shovel.

Bucky and Pepito. Now, see, that's a good name for a show. Bucky and Pepito. That's intriguing. That sounds cool. I have to go look that up now.

I remember the Chipmunks! (I always thought Simon was the coolest of the three. See? I was always a geek.)

Now, see, this is cool. This is one of those thing that's just plain cool. Even if you've never heard of Colonel Bleep.

Doot-doo-doo--doot-doo--doo-doo--doo-doo--doo-doo--doot-doo-doo--doot-doo--doo-doo--doo-doo--doo-doo-- Come on, sing along. (Because we all know the show was better when it was stilll on Nickelodeon, before ABC took it over, gave him longer sleeves, and an extra strand of hair.)

</laukaisyn>

Rain!

That's what DragonCelt has to say about Sixty Percent Chance of Rain.

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Drug-induced link of the whenever I damn well feel like it...

This one is soooooo cool. You poke a penguin.

Yup.



</laukaisyn>

Link of the whenever I damn well feel like it... with a twist!

Has anyone been to General Electric's Imagination Cubed? No? Well, it's really cool. You get to draw stuff. And, as if that's not cool enough, you can invite you friends to help you.

Even cooler, you can save it, and they'll send you the link where your art can be found. You can replay the art (I know that sounds funny, but go with me on this) and watch it being drawn again.

How awesome is that?!

I present to you, my stoned smiley face.

</laukaisyn>

Cats Start Fire by Peeing on Fax Machine

TOKYO (Reuters) - Two kittens picked the wrong place to relieve themselves when they urinated on a fax machine, sparking a fire that extensively damaged their Japanese owner's house.Investigators in the western city of Kobe have concluded that the fire in January was caused by a spark generated when the urine soaked the machine's electrical printing mechanism.

The fire damaged the kitchen and living room before it was put out by the house's owner, who was treated for mild smoke inhalation, said Masahito Oyabu, a fireman at the Nagata fire station in central Kobe.

The kittens quickly ran to safety, he added.

"If you have a cat, or a dog for that matter, be careful where they urinate," Oyabu said. "Especially keep them away from electrical appliances and wires."

</laukaisyn>

Schröedinger's Roommate.

Okay; so, let's say that you've been assigned a roomate; and they signed in.

They exist somewhere, but we don't know where.


There's a strong a possibly that they're living across the hall, too.

But, if you go to find out where they're living, you'll automatically kill them.

So, therefore, they're somultaneously living in your room and in the room across the hall.

</laukaisyn>

Photobloggy!

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It's not just raining. It's like a thunderstorm.

First off, I apoligize for the sheer length of the road blog.

At any rate, I promised you guys a "Super-happy bonus chapter."


It's not particularly happy.

But, err... yeah. It will lead to exciting new adventures for Lorelei, Midge, and Frank.

</laukaisyn>

Road Blog: Day III (June 24)

They told us, at 11:30 last night, that we had to be at the Public Policy building at 8 this morning. I knew I'd get lost, so I set out early. I show up, at the Public Policy building, at 7:40. The head of the program I'm in sees me walk up, as she walks out.

"Are you lost?"
"No, I'm here."
"But, are you lost."
"No, I thought I'd get lost, but that's why I set out early. So now I'm here."

The next part is her explaining that we're all supposed to be at the dorm, (in fact, I think she said she thought I went "back to the hotel") and we went back toward the dorm, and I told her that we were told to go the Public Policy building...

So, yeah.

---

"I'm Clifford Robert Rafeal Williams III, otherwise known as Tim.".

---

"So, wait, I can't pronounce that. Do you have a nickname?"
"My friends call me 'Chemistry'."

---

"I am smart. I am smart. S-M-R-T -- no, wait --A-R-T. I am smart."

</laukaisyn>

Road Blog: Day II (June 23)

This is us, mocking all of those Father Knows Best type shows.

"Well, Bud, if you're going to kill your girlfriend, you shouldn't leave her in the trunk. imagine what would happen if your mother went to put groceries in there and found her?"

---

This space has been intentionally left blank.

---

The instructions on a bar of soap: "To use, use like any other bar of soap." I'm sorry, that's just wrong.

---

A bald man, with furry shoulders. "It's Bigfoot Bob!" It was kinda funky. He was bald, and then, he had a burgandy tank-top, and these super furry shoulders. It's like, how'd he do that?

---

If you wash a window, but you always leaves streaks when you wash it, is it ever truly clean?

Are the streaks dirty or clean?

---

World Building, Silver Springs, Maryland.

(You all know what I'm talking about.)

---

Why are [were] there police at Montgomery Blair High School? I see yellow tape, and the police, and it's about 10:03 in the morning... and I see people on the other side -- are they protesting?

---

"Y'know, it's really sad when you have to admit to cheating at Candyland."

---

I found out what the deal was with the police and all and Montgomery Blair High School. The President was there, apparently. And the, uh, protestors...

Well, one was one, like an island or a median, all by herself, and they roped her in with tape. There was another small gaggle, who, I've been told, were just there, ("They were just being liberal", I was told.), and then there was a group of Middle School students who was told, by a twenty-year-old Republican, to "go back to Summer Camp".

You can thank someone who was, like, actually there.

---

The Honors college decided that the regular Roman alphabet was boring. So, rather than be in groups like "A" and "B", we're in groups like "pi", "omicrom", "psi", "alpha", "beta", "gamma" "upsilon", "zeta", "xi", "kappa" and "sigma". It was interesting.

It got confusing, though, because they put the name in Roman letters and the actual Greek symbols on the signs that they gave our groups leaders. And the group leaders for "pi" and "psi" just had to stand next to each other.

And, y'know, yeah, I really know what a psi looks like.

(For those that also don't know what a psi looks like: ψ)


---

Okay, so, I set up my stuff in the dorm. I was literally the second person to sign in. (I decded being first would be a bit... I don't know, pushy.) So, I'm doing my thing, and my room mate for the orientation comes in, says hi, puts her stuff down, and excuses herself to use the bathroom.

(So, now, just so you understand, it's two dorm rooms sharing one toilet/shower. )

She comes back out, and says, "We don't have any toilet paper."

So, we go around, knocking on doors, asking if anyone else has toilet paper (and by "we", I mean "she followed me".)


So she declares that there was a communal public bathroom downstairs in the lobby. We could raid that! So I go bolting down the stairs, three at a time, through the throngs of people, and into this little bathroom; she follows me; and I start unravelling that roll, into a wad.

We go running back, like it was some kind of Mission Impossible sort of thing.


I told someone else that there was no toilet paper. He said "Ok," and calmly walked down the hall toward the stairs. He came back, a little while later, with a roll of toilet paper. Not a wad, a roll.

"Hey, you got the plastic thing open!"
"No."
"No?"
"I went down to the desk, and asked for it."
"Oh... Well, my Mission Impossible thing was so much cooler."
"Ok."


</laukaisyn>

Road Blog: Day I (June 22)

This one goes out to the fine folks of Hamilton Township, New Jersey.

Y'know the Cracker Barrel? Right on Spirit of '76 Boulevard?

In the dining room, right over th efire place, they have a picture of a guy. We're not sure who he is, he's just a random guy. When you go and read the litle caption, it explains that he was the first customer ("guest") to walk through the door of that particular store ("unit").

I'm just curious as to who he is.

---

This one goes out to the people of Delaware. You guys have the coolest looking cops. They swagger. Thay have that look-at-me,-I'm-not-a-Jersey-state-trooper sort of swagger.

---

Another question for the folks of Delaware: heading south on 495 (at least, I think it's 495), near the signs for the exits for "Wlmington/Newark (South)" and "Philadelphia/New York (North)", there is a sign that looks lik this:

New Castle             Airport
Dover

Is it New Castle, the Airport, and then Dover? Or is it New Caslte Airport, which is followed by Dover?

I'm so confused.

---

"It's like the Northern Boulevard of Maryland."

---

When you see a bowling alley, and the big sign that says AMF... what does that mean?!

---

I don't know, maybe this is just me. But I thinkk it should be a rule, that when a candidate loses an election, you should have to take their bumper sticker off your car.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm getting kinda tired of seeing Kerry/Edwards '04 stickers.

---

On the corner of Reedie and Georgia Avenues, in Wheaton, Md, there's a sign for the Metro. *(It's like the MTA/LIRR up here, I guess.)* Fine. In big letters, on this sign: Metro / Kiss and Ride.

[insert your own dirty joke here]

No, I mean, I'm sure that either means something, or stands for something, but it was just so... random.

---

In case you haven't noticed, we're wandering around, aimlessly, in Maryland. See, I just got a cell phone. It's really cool -- it was free, and it's a step up from my 6-year-old Motorola. When I started up my old phone, I got a message, that said "welcome to Omnipoint". Omnipoint became VoiceStream. And VoiceStream became T-Mobile.

Now, if I had any kind of forethought, I would have bothered to set up an audioblogger account. (There again, if I had any kind of forethought, I would have bothered to bring my camera.)

So now I have a flip phone, capable of color, text messaging, games... and at the heart of it all, a little yellow chip that says "Omnipoint" across it.

---

"Welcome to Privacy World"



</laukaisyn>

Guess how much I hate [insert company logo here]?

Okay.

It has been a time-honored tradition, here at Nowheresville Memorial High School, that the Graduation rehearsal is the Thursday morning, at least a week after school has ended. The Senior Prom is that evening. The actual Graduation is the following Sunday.

It's a tradition.

It hearkens back to the days when our football team didn't suck.



At any rate, the school ran into a problem: that Thursday morning is the date of the state mandated Math B regents exam, which some people take it in the tenth grade (that'the advanced class), some take it in the eleventh grade (that's normal). *(The A/B track is a three year track; year-and-a-half for A -- regents exam in the middle of either ninth or tenth grade -- and a year-and-a-half for Math B.)*

Fine. Then there are the ones that feel they need extra time with the material. They get a full two years for Math A -- ninth and tenth -- and a full two years for Math B -- eleventh and twelfth.

That Math AX and BX.

The Math BX exam was scheduled for that very same Thursday Morning.


So, with a class full of seniors, who wouldn't be able to attend the Graduation Rehearsal, they pushed it up to Tuesday Morning. (Today).



Right. Okay. So, the company that Nowheresville Memorial has used for, like, forever, for the Caps and Gowns, has either been aquired by, or merged with, another company, and the new company is completely incompetent.


...And here is the explaniation in terms of iChat (because I'm lazy and I don't feel like typing anymore):



</laukaisyn>

I can't leave you guys with sunshine and no rain.

I'll be away from the computer Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

I'm going to Maryland again.


And before you ask (because I don't feel like playing with font tags right now), it's for placement tests and orientation.


So I'm putting up this week's chapter now, and, with any luck, you'll get a super-happy bunus chapter.

</laukaisyn>

Somehow, I doubt there's a group called iMovie Anonymous

No, no, I'm not kidding.

See, I got an iSight, as a graduation present.

(Macintosh is an elite group, that has to give special names ot everything. We don't call it a laptop, we call it an iBook. We don't call it Instant Messenger, we call it iChat. We dont call it a WebCam, we call it an iSight.)

At any rate, I've got an iSight. So, I hookk it up, and, naturally, no one online has one for me to test it out with.

So I change the iChat preferences, and I take it into iMovie. And I'm making an especially freaky movie for all of you, now.

Happy, happy.

</laukaisyn>

Photobloggy!

Happy now?

</laukaisyn>

Ooooooooh, look at the pretty colors.

Alright, first off, with that last Quote of the Day, my mom does Research and Development for Costumes & Makeup, and other random seasonal items.

Anyway, with the airconditioning kicked all the way up, they're wandering around in stray 'clothing' as extra layers... in the form of a "Mad Scientist" costume.

It was just funnier out of context.


Also, the countdown to Graduation? It's Javascript. But my Javascript really sucks, so it was a "plug numbers in here" style Javascript.

I'm trying to get one that goes by day/hour/minute, but, y'know, I'm still looking.


Oh, and Frank becomes a main character. Later. When I actually finish that chapter.

</laukaisyn>

Quote of the Day

I just walked into my mom's office.

The first thing I see is the President of the company, in a bloody lab coat, screaming, at the top of her lungs, "I can't find the wire cutters!"

</laukaisyn>

This is a letter to the innocent little seventh grader who is assigned locker #1202

Okay. When I was in the seventh grade, I had no idea what was going on around me. I had just come up from one of the grade schools, and Nowheresville Memorial was just so freaking massive.

The upperclassmen were massive. The teachers were massive. The school itself was massive.


At any rate, I was rather randomly assigned locker number 1202. I opened it up, and I found two Pink Floyd stickers stuck in the back. *(One was taken out two years ago; the Custodians opened up all the lockers in that hallway after a fire in an art room, and cleaned all of the soot out of those lockers. The sticker for Dark Side of the Moon came off then.)* A large chunk of the left wall of the locker has been colored black, with a magic marker -- but there are boxes that have been left blank. Y'know, like, whover was there after the one with the Pink Floyd stickers colored in around his stickers, but had the decency to take his stickers out.


Okay. That's the locker I've had for the past 6 years.


1202.


Okay, skip to today: I was cleaning it out -- Kathryn was helping -- when it suddenly occured to me that I needed to leave something for whoever had that locker next. I searched the floor *(that's where everything was -- I just pulled everything out, onto the floor)* but I only saw my old notes, and my purse... and the only thing I had in my purse was a silver Sharpie™.

*(Now, I'll be the first to admit that this is vandalism, but it's no worse than the guy who had that locker before me, with the black magic marker.)*

I wrote, in silver letters, on the black parts, on the inside, lefthand wall, in my freaky, stalker-like, blocky handwriting, DON'T WASH ME AWAY MY LEGACY IS ALREADY DEAD.


</laukaisyn>

Quote of the Day

"I believe that sometimes, you have to wreck the truck, to get the insurance money, to make the truck payments."

</laukaisyn>

First of all...

Allright, I'm going to let the lot of you in on a little secret.

I have no emotional attachment to the Incorporated Villiage of Nowheresville.
Honest.

I am aware that I probably should feel something -- but I don't.

Nothing for the villiage as a whole; nothing for the high school; nothing even for the individual sections, divided by elementary schools, of Nowheresville.

I don't know. I mean, this isn't just the sort of thing I'm just blindly posting. I've been thinking about this since I posted my Road Trip Diary to Maryland. And that was in March.

Y'know, not for anything, but I can tell you all kinds of inane trivia about how Nassau County was formed -- in 1898, because the eastern, rural half of Queens county didn't wanted to be incorporated into the city. And there was a great deal of bitterness, and bickering, until the governor stepped in, and made it (Nassau) it's own county. And, I could tell you about how Nowheresville was originally settled in 1667, by Quakers escaping religious persecution, but we didn't officially get our firehouse or post office until 1882.

But that's beside the point. That's random trivia. I mean, that's up there with the history of the handkerchief. That's the kind of thing that no one really cares about -- including me.

</laukaisyn>

I was wrong. It's the end of an era.

...There'll never be a class quite like us, ever again. Ever.

...The coolest of the three Mass Media teacher is retiring. The other Mass Media teacher is going to manage to mess up the project to the point where next year's movies will be the last of Nowheresville's Mass Media Movies.

...The school newspaper is pretty much just a rag. It's awful.

...According to some of the things people wrote in my yearbook:

"...I love the way you yell at teacher..."

"...You're probably going to take over the world, or, if not, some poor innocent third-world country..."

</laukaisyn>

Okay. For the record: I hate you all.

Just wanted to let you know.

At any rate, Sixty Percent Chance of Rain is having fun with itself, dwindling into a sin-bin of drinking (chapter xx), assault (chapter xvii), Grand Theft Auto (chapter xvi), and cursing (the entire thing).


Oh, yeah -- I hate car alarms. Just letting you know. Y'know what I hate even more than car alarms? The "Panic Button" on cars. That way, my idiot classmates -- who are trying to not graduate, by getting themselves into trouble -- decide to set off the panic buttons on their cars. But, of the two of them, only one has a panic button. So the other goes out, and sits in the car, honking the horn.

So, they go back inside, and play with the one car, until the Principal comes out. She demands they come out to talk to her. So, they go flying out the cafeteria window.



& DragonCelt says hi. (Well, no, not really, but he may as well have.)

</laukaisyn>

Nowheresville Memorial will never be the same.

We've left an indellible mark on the school.

Really. The Mass Media Movie Awards have an addition; a list of "banned awards"; all the stuff that isn't supposed to go into the movies. Cigarettes. Alchohol. Moving Cars. Drugs. And the most offensive overall.

The school newspaper has a new masthead.

The underclassmen have had people to laugh at.

The Model U.N. has gotten its reputation back.


...Fifteen more days ('til Graduation)

</laukaisyn>

Quote of the Day

"If you burn it right, it tastes like peanut butter."

</laukaisyn>

Quote of the Day

"Obviously, if you're a criminal, you're not going to go somewhere where there's a high crime rate; you'll have a lot of competition."

</laukaisyn>

The 2001: A Space Oddessey essay. An excersize in avoiding the subject.

I didn’t see the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey in class. I don’t remember the movie all too well. This essay is about a cartoon parody. The Cartoon “Recess”, which chronicles the lives of the 4th graders at Third Street Elementary, recreated the film, without anyone dying.

It begins with “the dawn of man”. No monolith, but it did have monkeys. And the fight scene. And when the Alpha Monkey throws the bone up into the air, it turns into… a football.

Cut to: the modern day. It’s recess, and the main characters are outside, playing. (Hence the name “Recess”.)

The school clock, and bell system, is being taken out, and is being replaced with a SAL 3000 system. Gretchen (the geek) thinks it’s great and wonderful and the advancement of science in our lives and she starts using a whole series of words that fourth graders shouldn’t know.

Okay. Fine. So, the school continues to function relatively normally, until SAL goes completely insane. It’s cuts recess short. It insults the teachers. So on and so forth. T.J. (another main character, and the equivalent of Dave) gets the others to crawl inside the Jungle Gym, where SAL can’t hear them, and they plot to dismantle SAL (against Gretchen’s wishes).

SAL can read lips (big surprise there).

AL decided the teachers aren’t necessary, dismisses them, and takes over in teaching. In the process of explaining it to the students, SAL insults Gretchen’s intelligence (which is bad, because she’s the smartest in the school, and, until that point, SAL’s only remaining supporter).

The main characters sneak down to the basement, through the ventilation ducts, and shut down the computer. In it’s final coherent moments, it sings “School Days” (which I think is from the original movie) before it finally shuts down.

Yay. The School is saved.


</laukaisyn>

This is the Psycho essay... just to give you an idea of how much we don't do.

The movie would have been a lot better if a certain somebody didn’t keep asking, “Yo, is he the Psycho?” “Yo, is she the Psycho?” every five minutes.

Also, that “Eeee! Eeee! Eeee!” noise – the one that only shows up when someone is in mortal danger of being stabbed (or does actually get stabbed) – well, it was really annoying when everyone around me was going “Eeee! Eeee! Eeee!”

On that note, there’s this really terrible movie, Called Looney Tunes: Back in Action. It’s a live-action/animation mix. It’s awful. Truly, utterly awful. The only good scene in the entire film is when Jenna Elfman walks in on Bugs Bunny in the Shower. Everything suddenly goes to Black-and-White, and Bugs screams. The “Eeee! Eeee! Eeee!” sound plays, and he topples back. Jenna Elfman just stares at him funny. He falls to the floor, and his hand reaches over, and pours Hershey’s Syrup down the drain, so it looks exactly like the blood going down the drain.

Yeah.


*(that was the entire essay.)*


</laukaisyn>

The School's Computer Lab says Hi.

Yeah.

Remember that whole bit with Mass Media being the second half of twelfth grade English? And, as we all know, you're required to pass English every year in order to graduate.

So, rather than actually give us tests, our teacher shows us a movie, and assigns an essay -- to be completed in the computer lab.

Well, of the three essays -- Hoop Dreams, Psycho, and 2001: A Space Oddessy -- I'm the only one who's actually done all three.

</laukaisyn>

Oh, yeah...

Sixty Percent Chance of Rain went up.

We get a rare, fleeting glipse into Pierpont's personal life. And we get to meet his scary girlfriend.

If I don't get bored and wander off into the realm of car chases and explosions, this'll probably be the beginning of a story-arc.

(Yeah. I kinda stopped writing them months in advance. Ran out of them. And, uh, I wrote this one on Tuesday.)


</laukaisyn>

Today was Senior Cut Day™

(You can tell I'm really enjoying the ampersand codes.)

And, well, technically, it was yesterday. But yeah.

At any rate, yes, tody was Senior Cut Day ™. Now, the deal with Senior Cut Day™ is, it was always traditionally the friday before the Memorial day.

So, the school decided to give out the Yearbooks that day, and say, "Well, if you're not in school the entire day, you don't get your yearbook." --Of course it's really "you don't get your yearbook 'til next tuesday," but that's really beside the point.

So, our class, being the really, really smart group that we are, decided we all wanted our yearbooks (last friday), and, therefore, declared that this friday would be Senior Cut Day™.

I don't beleive in Senior Cut Day™ -- see, as far as I'm concerned, there has to be a small clatch of students that actually show up to each class, just to say, "Ha ha! Sucks for you! You don't get this period off!" to all of the teachers.


So, next tuesday is Ki Cut Day™.

</laukaisyn>

Quote of the Day

"So... you're making fun of me?"
"No, I'm just pointing out the obvious."
"So, you're making fun of me."
"No, I'm just pointing out the obvious."
"So... you're mocking me."

</laukaisyn>

Awards Ceremonies Suck.

I mean, seriously.

We just had the Senior Awards Night.

They had alot of really strange, off-the-wall awards. There was a Drivers' Ed. award. There was a Family and Consumer Sciences award -- which was awkward, 'cause it was presented by a gym teacher.


So... yeah.

</laukaisyn>

Quote of the Day

"I mean, really. It's a schoolbus. Paint it yellow and invite children to sit in the back."

</laukaisyn>

Count the Typos!

We just got our yearbooks... So now, I'm officially obliged to play "count the typos".

No, no, I'm serious. They've managed to mess up the spellings of names; they've completely messed up the layout; were it not for the fact that it's actually my yearbook, I would just shrug it off as another Nowheresville Memorial Publication™.

So... yeah. Now, I'm just getting people to sign it. Kathryn said she had to think about it... she had to think of something wise and wisdomy to write. Sledgehammer simply has no idea what to write. And the extremely white Jewish girl hasn't even seen the book yet.

So, what am I going to write in other people's books?

Random stupid quotes.

It'll be awesome.

</laukaisyn>