Aaaaaand... WE'RE OFF!!!

The FtRob Twitter feed is abuzz today with everyone shoving off on the last legs of their respective Ft. Rob journeys, ending about 36 hours of monumental technological advancements.

Let's recap:

*Lots of new txt-ers out there, diving into Twitter just today (welcome to the year 2008, Melissa, Tara, Judy and Ruth), thanks to Paula and Dryden at WWCC (West Wilson Command Center) getting their cells all signed up. A giant leap for the Brewers and Jeff's clan. Maybe Scott, too, later.

*Ben Harless tested the Twitter waters a bit last night. I'm thinking he'll be game later on, which means Glenn will be, too.

*Gina has barraged the Petersens with pleas to get them to join in on Twitter. Might have to get them online on site as well, by force if necessary. Same goes for the Powell troops.

*And yes, we've let Dryden loose on the blog. Well... mostly. ;-)

—

Seems like a few folks have just arrived. Kim, Evan and I will be falling in last, I think, due to arrive sometime around midnight.

Drive safe. See you all there.

(Save me a bed!)

-G

The egg stands alone.

There's only one left.

After days of cooking and baking and slapping of hands, a single egg remains. What shall ever shall become of you, oh white orb of solitude?

Here's how the votes tally @ The Farm (EASTSIDE, homz!)

Gina — Make half a Crumb Cake.
Lynne — Leave it in the fridge.
Mike D. — Eat it for breakfast... I guess.
Lynne — Can I change my vote? BREAKFAST!

Time will tell what the outcome will be. For now, DDNette has mobilized the baked goods into the camper. I was informed that Chris counted the Crumb Cake before he left, so any sampling that occurred in his absence WILL be noticed... unless Gina's vote wins.

-G

2WC Squared OR Battleship remastered

2WC squared: aka West Wilson Command Center. The product of four hours of nigh fruitless toil and little light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

Objective: Twitter mobilization.

Location: Top secret

I'll explain. Paula and I have been slaving over hot laptops and overworked, underpaid cellphones for FOUR HOURS, sitting across from each other in Butch and Judy's living room. It's comparable to battleship. Except much, much more technological, and much, much more dangerous. Its been a brutal brawl of bandwidth, an intricate engagement of internet, a foul fracas of phones.

The outcome: Twitters have been obtained for all of (count 'em) TWO people. Myself, and my mother. Many questions have arisen, including "What is Twitter?" sent by my mother, uncannily late in the game. They have been forwarded to headquarters, at EWCC, and been turned over to the resident Twitter overseer.

The most eminent danger: All of the previous users are going to have to figure out how to "follow" the new ones, otherwise all our labors are truly for naught. We, being the brunt of the WCC, have legitimately considered using our overpowering numbers (again, 2) and password informant (Gina) to hack into every one of your accounts and force you to follow us.

More later, but as for now... our convoluted web of technology shall continue expanding... enveloping websites and phone lines and eventually... the world.

Twitterpated

(OK, I finally caved and used the obvious headline.)



Got a handful of folks signed up on Twitter "remotely" on Saturday, namely Ben, Glenn, Kelli, Mom and Michelle, with reserved interest from Dryden. Happy to extend the same service to anyone else...

But only on

SUNDAY!
SUNDAY!!
SUNDAY!!!


After that, I'm on the road myself.
Txt @ ya l8tr.

-G

We are GO for video!

This is my first video production — which should prove to be a fun dimension to add to the blog. (I'm still perfecting the sound aspects, so this one is a little on the loud side if you want to adjust your volume down a notch or two before you hit the "Play" button.)

Anyway, here's a quick look around the Dvorak family farm. Enjoy.

-G

Preparations and other fun stuff

Scrabble? Check!
Trivial Pursuit? CHECK! CHECK!
Clue? GOT ONE... no wait... we've got two of those, too!
Sorry? Don't be! I mean CHECK!
Twitter? Yes, please!

Mom and Kelli are finalizing their lists of to-dos and groceries. I've raided Mom's AND Janma's game closets, in person and remotely. And Dad pulled the camper around, so you know things are getting serious.

I've also cornered the Harlesses to get them set up on Twitter and made arrangements to set up the Petersen kids when they get on the road later today. Extending the same offer to the Powells via txt msg... and anyone else who wants to give me a call. (We can POSSIBLY set you up when we get there, but it will depend on what kind of signal we've got.)

T-minus 2 days, and counting...

BIG GROSS BUG

Before I'd even had my morning coffee, Dad brought in this monster he found in the garage (or maybe it was over by the shop). Mom thought it was a Hummingbird Moth, based solely on its size, but Dad disagreed. (I forget why... " ' Cause he knows stuff," Mom said.)

Anyway... it's gross. And cool. We're keeping him "on ice" until the boys wake up. OK, in a jar. Whatever.

This has nothing to do with Ft. Rob. Thanks for playing. :-)

Get a...

Much discussion about board games today. Not looking good for Killer Bunnies. I forgot mine, and Ben didn't think about it either. Erik doesn't have one. Maybe Dryden does? Otherwise, our hopes will hang on Jeff, who introduced us to the game in the first place.

Or there's Clue. Mom's anniversary edition is sitting on the table in its progression toward the camper; Michelle found one on sale at Target. (We told her she didn't need to pick one up, but it seems she's always eager to get a Clue ... har har.) Some version of Monopoly is bound to turn up, along with infinite decks of cards — and don't forget the UNO, preferably Gina style (more on that later). Becki's bringing some "next-gen" party game called Catch Phrase that I think has been a hit at the Powell household. And Trivial Pursuit is considered a staple at these things by now, isn't it? We'll see which version(s) turns up...



—

IN OTHER NEWS:

I raided Mom's refrigerator today. Had to. She had so many good pictures hanging on it, I couldn't resist scanning a few of them in and feeding them to Slideshow Bob.

It's also worth mentioning that I found a pic of Kelli and Mike playing box hockey. BOX HOCKEY!!! ...Good times...

—

ON DECK:

I sure hope someone remembers to bring food. I'd hate for us to starve while we're at Ft. Rob. Oh wait...

Airport haiku

Generic greetings.
Terminals without airlines
belong to no one.

ONT empty?
Isn't it cheaper to fly?
Don't go, ExpressJet.



-G

Doll heads and Twitter madness

You know that scene in "The Wrath of Khan" — the scene it's famous for, if only for its sheer spoofability?

"KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!"

This is how I'm starting to feel about Twitter.

If you're to believe my Twitter feed, I'm sitting on a runway in Ontario, but managed to be in proximity to my family in Omaha two hours ago. I know I'm awesome and all, but I left my cape at home... next to my TIME MACHINE.

*sigh*

ANYWAY... the Twitter site reports it's been having technical difficulties. Understatement. (Paula, that's why your txts weren't posting the other day.) But hopefully the Twitter feed will start living up to the level of awesomeness I once witnessed. Yar.

In the meantime, enjoy this photo from ONT. As promised... doll heads. Creepy.

Good timing

Of course.

Of course I have issues the first time I try to go live on vacation, despite a most successful test run. And of course I figure it all out when it's time to board.

Too bad, too. Had some interesting pics to download from the airport. Doll heads and such.

OK. Must go. On to Nebraska...

Good news, everyone...

When I promised everyone could play, I meant it. Finally, I can really deliver...

That's right: I HAVE TRIUMPHED OVER TECHNOLOGY.

I've figured out the Twitter feed, and now, if you can send a txt (that dork-speak for "text message"), then you can post to the Ft. Rob blog's Twitter feed, anytime, anywhere.

Here's how it works:

Sign up for a Twitter account, preferably using the invite I sent out (so you're automatically on the ftrob list), or go here. After that, all you do is send a txt to the phone number 40404, starting with "ftrob" or "@ftrob"... then txt away! Well, up to 140 characters... away...! Your txt will post to the "WILSONS TWITTER" feed on the blog instantaneously.

Pretty cool, huh?

P.S. - Need another invite? Drop me an e-mail or put up a comment on this post, and I'll get ya covered.

—

UPDATE: OK, there's another bug here. Looks like you have to LOG IN to the Twitter feed to see it (for now... I'll keep working on it). Just enter username "ftrob," password "wilsons" and you're in. ... And go, Paula!

DORK ALERT!

So I was on the hunt for an image to include in the blog when I stumbled upon an eBay auction for Trivial Pursuit Genus II edition. I didn't recall ever SEEING such an edition, so I was intrigued at what sort of price such a rare (?) item might be fetching.

At that moment: $2.99 (with five-ish hours left in the auciton)

"PFFFFFFF!!! I can do better than that..." I thought.

Now, it's at this point, I should tell you that I've hardly ever bid on anything on eBay (I did snag my own Whosit game a couple years back, though... SCORE!). I generally don't have the time/energy to keep an eye on how someone else's actions just affected me online. Anyone who's ever had a pillow fight with me on Facebook knows I'm a relatively easy mark.

ANYWAY... I put in a $5 bid figuring some geek watching that particular auction would swoop in at the last minute anyway and win the item while I was at "The Dark Knight." That's generally what happens to me.

But guess what? I won. Of course I did! I'm leaving town for two weeks on Thursday! Of course I'm having to figure out how to get a package mailed to me WHILE I'M ON VACATION. *sigh*

Someone on the Google Groups called me Gina the Genius, for creating this blog, I think. All evidence to the contrary.

Thanks for playing. :-)

—

UPDATE: A friend of mine helped me arrive at a most obvious answer to my dilemma: Have it delivered to my office. Nar. I knew that. ... OK, I didn't.

Ask and you shall receive

Paula Twitters!!! I was going into the Twitter site to grab the logo for my post just now and poof! There's Paula! WOO HOO!

Now, the bad news: Her tweet to ftrob didn't pull through to this blog; only to ftrob's replies page. Boo. But don't give up on me yet. I'm still working on getting those messages to post up here, too. Stay tuned.

Tweet tweet!!!

OK... back to Twitter.

This is a little application I got turned on to while attending a Society of News Design (international) conference in Boston last fall. Basically, you sent a text message to the SND Boston blog's Twitter name and it was immediately posted to the conference blog. They also projected the Twitter page onto the big video screen during the awards banquet which made waiting for your food almost the highlight of the whole evening.

There's still a few finer points I'm trying to work out. For example, I'm not sure that you actually have to have an account to play along or if you can simply send a text to the right address (I think you need an account, though). I also haven't been able to test whether someone else who tweets (that's Twitter talk for sending a txt) to my account will also post there because I only have one cell phone (THANK GOD!). But I'm curious to do a couple of test runs, if anyone is interested...

Any volunteers? Go to Twitter.com and set up your account. After that, send a tweet to ftrob, the Twitter account I set up for this blog. Oh, and if you IM, there's also a way to tweet through there (still testing that one out, too).

Hopefully, I can get all the technology down so that everyone can join in. It's much more fun when everyone can play.

Batman break

The only thing cooler than going to see "The Dark Knight" on opening weekend is going to see it opening weekend at a midnight showing in Hollywood. Yes, my friends, those are actual costume pieces from the movie.

I'm not saying anything more in case you haven't seen it. And if you haven't seen it, all I have to say is, "YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT?!?!" Well, consider this your one-week(ish) warning because I'm pretty sure it will be a topic of fairly wide discussion and a popular point of reference next week... and you may not get any spoiler alerts, at least not at the Killer Bunnies table.

Nananannnanananananananananana.... BATMAN!!!

In the FACE!

Sometimes it's the obvious things that escape us, no?
When I put up the post about Slideshow Bob, I really should have included a plea for any of you to send me your photos or Web site links, video? — whatever you'd like to share here on the blog. It's really no trouble. Just shoot me an e-mail.

a1warlord@gmail.com

Thanks to Paula for the nudge. Now we can ALL play!

Wherefore art thou, box hockey?

I'm told my folks actually DON'T have a box hockey. Boo. My next thought is that Butch probably has one (or more?). Hmmm... hope so. Can't imagine Ft. Rob without some little kid getting beaned by another one holding a broomstick. Stay tuned.

Three weeks and counting (or, LOW-TECH RULZ!!!)

Actually, by the time you read this, I'm guessing there will be a lot less than that. (Is anyone reading this right now at all, anyway? Hellooooooooooo...?)

Well, that's OK. From what I hear, there's lots of planning in the works... meals, vacations, driving arrangements.

And don't forget the entertainment. (Not that we're all not entertaining enough...)

My favorite memory of all Fort Robs is... BOX HOCKEY! YEEEAH!!!

Despite all the gizmos I imagine will be floating around the houses (DS and PSPs... DVD, CD and MP3 players... digital cameras, blog equipment *ahem*), box hockey will still be the coolest form of family entertainment there. ANYONE can play, and taking turns is kinda built in because you're bound to tire out if nothing else.

I'm not sure how many box-hockey games are out there. I know my parents have (at least) one, or used to. I know Butch built the one we used in the Fort Rob gatherings when I was among the youngest there. And I know there is a really funny video out there of "the Mikes" — Harless and Dvorak — playing box hockey (if I can figure out a way to get that clip posted, I definitely will).

—

Next time: Facing the mental giant (or, How to Avert a Rick Petersen Trivial Pursuit Victory)

Recognize anyone?

Once we get things rolling in Ft. Rob, I'll be posting a bunch of pics of our goings-on in Slideshow Bob, a gallery at the top on the right. Until then, I thought you might enjoy flipping through this family photo album I've compiled. Given the sheer number of babies, I'm guessing there's at least a couple people you won't recognize.

Admittedly, this is just a few of the people we'll be seeing there, but these are all the people I have pics of. We'll get a better sampling of the whole family while we're there. In the meantime, enjoy the show.

P.S. - There's captions. I'm told they're entertaining. Click into the album to read for yourself. Enjoy.