CyberWoLfman's Pix II
CyberWoLfman's Pix II
Just like on my first pictures page, these are pictures that I've taken myself. Some of these are cool, some might seem a little weird to you, and some might even get you to smile. Which is one of the main reasons for me putting them up here in the first place. Enjoy! :-)Please do not copy any of these pictures without my permission. If you would like to copy one or some of them to use somewhere, please ask me first. Depending on where you plan to use them (on a page of your own for example), I'll more than likely say yes anyway as long as you give me credit and a link back to my main page (this one's address might change).
Also, they look better when viewed with your computer set at 'true color' 24 bit, especially the sunset pictures, but I'm sure you can still enjoy them even if you have it set at 16 bit. :-)
THE PICTURE SETS
These are links to the pictures themselves
THE FIRST SET OF PICTURES
(I took these between May and August of 1998 i.c.c.)
The motherboard (TX-Pro II) that I bought from Computer Renaissance that I was going to put in my computer. Picture size: 46 KB. The rest of the pictures are either a little smaller in size or a little bigger, but not by much. Unfortunately, this motherboard didn't work. I later bought myself a different motherboard and upgraded to a Sexium (686) computer. :-)
Dunno who this guy is, but he kept throwing peanut shells on the floor. This was taken at the Lone Star restaurant here in Bloomington/Normal IL. I ate there only once, and I'm not going back! I ordered a steak extra rare, and it was served to me medium well and the edges were carbonized. Yuck! The manager - type dude tried to make it up to me and offered me my choice of dessert on the house. I accepted and got a cobbler kinda thing with ice cream on it. The cobbler was too crunchy to eat. About the only thing good about the Lone Star restaurant was the nice looking waitresses.
The base of 'the little Eiffel tower' here in downtown Bloomington. I can imagine how much interference this gives to anyone living anywhere near it!
The News 25 van by the old courthouse in downtown Bloomington. How many 'old courthouses' has Bloomington Illinois had? I think someone once told me that it's had 3 courthouses so far. Do they just call them each 'the old courthouse' until memory of the last one is gone? I think the news crew (one cameraman and a lady reporter, I think) was here to cover a band playing at the mini - bandstand that's set up there during the lunch hour some days.
It's a jungle out there. The next time someone gives you grief about your lawn needing to be mowed, you can show them this picture. I think there's a sidewalk in there somewhere, but I'm not gonna go looking for it. This was across from the Red Fox store on west Market street.
Part of the IWU (Illinois Wesleyan University) quad. I like bicycling through here. The trees are nice and there's usually some squirrels or rabbits wandering around. And hey, it's nice to do a little girl-watching when I cruise through too. ;-) I don't have enough guts to talk to them, but I can look at them while I ride by. This picture was taken before the storm in June 1998 i.c.c. that damaged a few of the trees.
A couple of the Bloomington cops on bicycles. Officer Yamada and I don't know the other guy's name. The thing I'm wondering is, why are they wearing body armor? Do they think one of the State Farm employees are gonna pull out an MK 760 and pop a cap in them or something? Hey, I understand. I don't trust suits either.
It's covered. In more ways than one. A car I saw at the University Cinemas parking lot in Normal that had most of its surface covered with State Farm insurance stickers.
Sunset pic. This one doesn't have the sun in it, it's just the cloudy part of the sky with some cool colors in it.
A very hungry human. You know, it's a bad sign when people in your society (like one of the homeless people here) start to go through dumpsters looking for food. :-(
Illiterate human #2. Looks like humans don't need to be able to read to get a driver's license. It's the only excuse I can think of since the sign is within 3 feet of the van and it's level with its windshield, thus putting it at eye level.
Historic downtown Bloomington IL
The old Castle Theater. No longer open. Looks a little sad, but I like the 'feel' of this place. Too bad they can't restore it like they did the Normal theater. I wonder if anyone saw the movie Forever Knight (or something like that) starring Rick Springfield? It was about a vampire who posed as a cop that only worked nights. Anyway, he lived in an old theater. On the marquee, he had "It's a wonderful life." ;-)
State Farm 'fire' building downtown. I've heard that the office on the 8th floor (that used to be the top floor according to what I've read) on the north end is supposed to be haunted by the guy who started the company. Me, I just wish I owned the building so I could throw water balloons from the top of a 13 story building. ;-) Not to mention the fact that I think it's probably got the best view in town from up there.
Here's a pic of it's northwest corner. It kinda looks like there might be a place to stand up there on the roof, but it's hard to tell.
One of the old ads on the side of a building in downtown Bloomington. Not sure how old it is, but it looks like an ad for chewing tobacco.
An even older ad on the side of a different building downtown. This one is barely readable.
A painting of Lincoln on a wall on Monroe street. Not all that old, but it's downtown and it shows someone from Bloomington's history, so I threw it in here.
Pictures of some of the local bars and my opinions of them
Fat Jack's. Haven't drank in here yet, but I went through it once to look for someone I thought might be in there. It felt roomy and the bouncer seemed to have more than three working brain cells. If I drink there in the future and spend a little time in the place, I'll try to remember to write something down about it.
North Pier. The most boring bar I've been in yet. They didn't even have a pool table. And most of the people in the place looked like they were brain dead or something. If you need a cure for insomnia, I suggest spending a few hours in this place. You should be yawning in no time. Also, I don't like this place because they barred a bud of mine because he didn't leave immediately when they said the place was closing. Guess you've gotta be a good little robot here and obey instantly when ordered to. Definitely not my kinda place. Another thing. What kind of bar is so desperate for business that they needed (no longer there) a billboard like this across the street to draw in business? Something tells me that I'm not the only one who doesn't wanna go there.
Killarney's Irish Pub. Snob hangout. Nuff said.
This group is from the Memorial day parade and the ceremonies after it at Miller park
The U-High band (I think) playing while facing a wall. Don't know if it was for the acoustics or to limit distractions, but I think they may've been just trying to warm up before the parade.
The Bloomington High School band warming up around the corner of the same building. I wonder what the people inside the building thought?
A Bloomington cop along with a boy scout that wants to be a cop. Why he does, I have no idea. I keep thinking of the Hitler youth whenever I look at this picture.
Flag drop. One of the guys (I think he was from some organization like the VFW) dropped a bunch of the little American flags he was passing out to people on the parade route.
Some photographer snapping pics of the parade route. Who watches the watchers, you ask? I do. ;-)
Vets marching in the parade. Not sure which group.
The U-High band. I hope the people directing the band don't trip over anything while they walk backwards like that in front of it.
The U-High band's flag wavers. Ah, girls in jeans. Now if only they were of legal age...
The Bloomington High School (BHS) band flag wavers.
The BHS band marching in the parade.
More of the BHS band looking at the female flute players.
A group of people carrying a big American flag by the edges asking for donations. I think they kept staring at me because I was standing by a concrete block and I had this really big grin on my face. Don't worry, I was nice. Besides, by this time, there were two Bloomington cops about 20 feet away from me on my right side. I wouldn't have done it anyway.
I'm about to get dive-crapped by a big eagle? That's what I thought when I saw this coming at me out of the corner of my eye. It had an ad for one of the local restaurants on it, but I cut it out. I don't believe in 'ad placement' in my pictures.
I think that this was called "The Fallen Soldier's horse", but please don't quote me. I didn't have much sleep before I went to this thing, and it was very humid out.
The U-high band flag wavers again. One of them seems to be having a little problem. Maybe she saw me and got confused. How did I get ahead of the parade once it passed me, hmm? Maybe I teleported? I won't tell. ;-)
The BHS band flag wavers again. When I look at this picture, I'm sometimes reminded of those advertisements about female freshness. BTW, if you look in the middle of the picture, you may notice a girl talking to another girl beside her about something and laughing. Gee, you mean only two humans noticed my spatial shift? Not very observant around here, are they?
Some of the parade spectators. I just thought I'd include some of them in here, too.
Adrienne Watson, 1998 Miss Illinois American Coed.
The Bloomington mayor Judy Markowitz and the Normal mayor Kent Karraker in the same car. Interesting. Why is it that everyone seems to know me?
Go, baby driver. (It's a KISS song, I couldn't resist) Okay, now this kid probably did get his license out of a crackerjack box. But why is he being allowed to drive a hummer?
Flag wavers for a school band that dresses in black and white. Normal Community High School (NCHS), maybe?
Here's the flute players for the same band.
Tin lizzys make their comeback. More closer than in the other picture. These guys run around in circle - 8s most of the time.
I'm about to get shot by a tank wanna - be. Go ahead, make my millennium.
The flag went by, and these guys seemed to think it meant something. Not sure if it's just because they don't want to think that the buddies they lost in combat died for nothing, or what.
The Bloomington cop's D.A.R.E. van. It was probably taken away from some poor guy when he got arrested for having drugs. I've heard that the D.A.R.E. program is a very bad thing for kids to take, because it makes them think that the cops are nice people. One kid I read about turned in his dad when he found a few pills of speed that belonged to him. The kid was expecting the cops to just come by and take the drugs away from his dad and tell him that drugs were bad. Instead, he watched horrified as the cops handcuffed and arrested him, took him to jail and had to listen to them lie under oath about what the kid told them. The parents both lost their jobs over it, had to spend thousands of dollars in court costs and lawyer fees, the dad spent lots of time in jail, and eventually it was the main reason for their divorce later. There's a lot worse things about the program, but I won't put it in here since this page is for everyone to look at. I'll just say I know it's a bad thing and hope you'll take me at my word. If you won't, I'm sure there are many pages on the Web you can find that tell why the program is a bad thing and go into details.
The memorial ceremony at the bandstand in Miller park
The photographer from before caught on film again. I like the lake in the background. :-) I think I'm gonna try to take a few pictures of it and the bridges on it in the future sometime.
Now he's looking around for a better place to shoot from. But I'm already in a good position here on the front row.
Bagpipes being played at the ceremony at the Miller park bandstand. The piper isn't quite in the same league as the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, but I like hearing Amazing Grace being played on the bagpipes too much to care. :-)
Bloomington mayor Judy Markowitz, Normal mayor Kent Karraker and I think that's Adrienne Watson, 1998 Miss Illinois American coed up there, but I'm not sure. If you look real close, you'll see the 'high - tech' equipment that WJBC uses for recording events like this one. Yeah, it's a simple tape recorder with a microphone laying on top of it.
Here's a closer view of it for those who don't believe me. I resisted the urge to lean a little closer and whisper "Redrum" or something like "Question authority or become sheep" into it.
The crowd at the bandstand ceremony. They don't look all that filled with patriotic zeal.
Same place, but a little more to the right. It almost looks like they've been drinking embalming fluid. Maybe they're all just couch potatoes and they've been trained by TV to just sit and be acted upon. Someone needs to tell people that life is a ractive, not a passive. Wakey, wakey!
For those about to rock, we salute you. Hey, look, it's Airforce one! Ready, aim, fire! Okay, so it's just a seven gun salute, but I can dream. ;-) My heart goes out to that poor little kid who's trying to burrow herself into her mom's chest on the far left side of this picture.
The Civil war memorial ceremony
The Civil war memorial. I think only about 25 people showed up for this one.
The Korean/Vietnam memorial ceremony
Like they care. If people really did, you'd think they'd at least wipe the bird crap off of the poor guy's stone, right?
The guy from WJBC with his 'high tech' equipment under his arm talking to some other guy. The music for the ceremony was being played from the pickup truck there on the left.
Monument to the Korean and Vietnam vets. If that's an 'eternal flame' on top of it, I think it died.
One of the McLean county board members, but I can't remember his name.
The main part of the Korean and Vietnam memorial ceremony. The guys're saluting and all that.
The piper returns to play at this memorial as well. It almost looks like the guy standing to the side there has a problem with guys in kilts or maybe he just doesn't like bagpipe music.
Somebody's little kid who was a little on the bored side and wanted some fun. He kept popping out from behind the tree beside me and then ducking back behind it again, so I went ahead and shot a picture of him. I knew my reflexes were a lot better than his.
The McLean county board guy makes a speech while the older guy on the far right keeps the clip-on mike in his jacket pocket. You could hear it rustling in his pocket while the board guy made his speech.
Bloomington mayor Judy Markowitz gets a hug from one of the Vietnow guys. The guy from the McLean county board looks like he's trying to separate himself from the group.
Now she stands back a little and looks at the plaque she just got. I did have some guy on the side of this picture who just had to get up in front of me to take some pictures, but now that I taught myself how to crop pictures, I cut him out. :-)
I worked up a lot of courage (trust me, this took a lot!) and asked her if I could take a picture of her holding the plaque. She agreed. She asked me who I was and I said "Nobody, really," and when she replied with "Everybody's somebody," I turned about 5 shades of red. I'm not used to humans being nice. Looking back, I guess it was just part of her job as mayor though. Yeah, it almost looks like she's standing in front of a blue screen. This is just a normal photo except for the text I put in. I think it may've been because of the really high humidity that day.
Photo op. Five guys standing in front of the memorial with a couple of them holding plaques.
The storm we had in June 1998 i.c.c. with all those tornadoes in it
Stormy weather coming in.
Storm damaged tree. This was over on the corner of Park street and Empire, I think. I'm not sure if any of the tree survived, but I remember that the next time I went by the house there on the corner that part of it was being re-built, so the storm may've damaged some of the house as well.
Storm damaged tree #2. This one was in IWU's quad.
Storm damaged tree #3. Also in IWU's quad. A bigger one this time.
Storm damaged tree #4. By the dorms at IWU.
I'm a lumberjack and I'm alright. Okay, so I just wanted to call it something else besides 'Storm damaged tree #5' and I couldn't resist a little Monty Python humor. ;-) This tree was by one of IWU's sorority houses on Emerson and Main street. Some guys were sawing it down and shoving the pieces into one of those grinder things that turn it into mulch.
Saturn's day, July 4th, 1998 i.c.c. (Independence day)
Fireworks picture #1. A small, single burst that doesn't have much color in it, but at least it's clear unlike most of the fireworks pics I took. I went and saw them at Fairview park and of course, I took my camera. I won't put up the bad ones here.
#2. This one's a small single burst too, but it's all red and looks kinda cool. :-)
#3. I caught this one before it exploded. It looks like a missile launch.
#4. Oh yeah, much better. :-)
#5. A couple of colorful ones at the same time.
Odin's day, July 15th, 1998 i.c.c. 'Hands around the Courthouse' or 'Not in our town' anti - racism event put on by the city.
Ordered chaos. I was out for a ride on my bicycle, when I came upon this sight. Kinda freaked me out for a second. I thought it was a demonstration until I noticed that all the signs people were carrying were the same.
Channel 31 news gets an interview. Check out the little kid looking over his shades.
News 25 cameraman and some photographer getting crowd shots. Kind of a strange way to take pictures by being down on your knees in front of a crowd, but whatever floats your boat, guys.
Crowd shot. Taken my way, from the side.
Crowd shot #2. Hmm... The female on the left seemed like a nice person, but I didn't have the guts to say hi to her. Besides, I've learned that appearances are deceiving, especially when they're humans.
Some human giving a speech. I think his name was Mark Miller.
The channel 31 people trying to decide what to do next.
Bloomington cop on a bicycle. Officer Johnson. Smile. Now you're on the Web!
News 25 interviewing a kid behind the mini - bandstand. Gina Morss holding the mike and Vance (or was that Vince?) Termaat holding the camera. You know what I really don't like about those cameras? The fact that you've gotta turn one lens one direction to zoom and the one right beside it in another direction to focus at the same time. If you time it wrong, it looks bad. Oh well, at least I don't have to vid tape any more governors who want to give long talks about their walk across Illinois, and then wanted to make sure I got a shot of the shoes he did it in. ;-)
Bloomington cop Yamada on his bicycle yammering with some woman.
I think they're confused. They started singing some christian hymns and surrounded the courthouse, but the humans couldn't get themselves to join hands. I was kind of expecting them to start singing 'kumbaya' (or however you spell it. My spell checker hates me anyway) next. Some blonde guy dressed all in black said that the last time he and his friends circled a courthouse and held hands, they made it rise. I asked him if it was some way of amplifying telekinesis, and he just gave me one of those looks.
A couple of marks. Mark Goldman and Mark Miller.
Back to this page's index, or just keep scrolling down.
THE SECOND SET OF PICTURES
I got these scanned and cropped by a nice lady in Florida. :-) I haven't gotten her permission yet to say who she is, so I won't.
Miscellaneous stuff
One of my sunset pictures with lots of red clouds in it.
Same sunset, but the colors are altered a little bit. Still kinda nice looking. :-)
Different sunset. Caught this one on west Market street.
A little tree with a red bow on it and little red balls tied to its branches. This was over at Franklin park when there was snow on the ground.
Graffito (singular of graffiti). An Anarchy symbol that I found spray - painted on the wall in the alley by Osco's on Center street in downtown Bloomington, Illinois. BTW, Anarchy means non - government not anti-government. Don't be fooled by people saying otherwise. There was no government in the beginning and that was Anarchy. How could it be anti-government when there was no government? To those that're curious, I'm more of a Libertarian.
Most of the pics in this next section were taken at the ICEnet customer appreciation Halloween bash on Frigg's day, October 31st (Samhain), 1997 i.c.c. at Bogie's Nightclub, while others were taken at Lizard's Lounge and Rhino's.
A couple of the tech guys. Arlan and Dave. Dave has since moved out of state. A while back, Dave decided to have some fun, and wrote a letter to the editor of the Pantagraph about why America should invade Canada. For some reason, the Pantagraph printed it. Don't think Dave was expecting that. ;-)Other pages on this site:
Unknown people in costume. I was being given free beer and since the music was so low and the music the d.j. was playing wasn't Halloween type music (guess he didn't have any songs like Alice Cooper's The Black Widow (Vincent Price talks like a crazy tour guide in this), Welcome to My Nightmare, Feed My Frankenstein, Nuclear Infected, Cold Ethyl and Fresh Blood, some NIN (Nine Inch Nails for the clueless), Elvira's Full Moon, I Was a Teenage Werewolf by The Cramps, Queen's Gimme the Prize (Kurgan's Theme) (If you saw and liked the original Highlander movie, you'll love this! It even has some of the sounds from the movie in it), KISS'Almost Human and Psycho Circus, Spirits in the Night (by Manfred Mann's Earth Band, and the female back up singers sounded good in it and the song had a nice vibe to it), Lost In The Shadows (The Lost Boys) by Lou Gramm, Howl off of the Howling II movie, Horror Movie by The Skyhooks, Oingo Boingo's Weird Science and Dead Man's Party, Warren Zevon's Werewolves of London, Veteran Of The Psychic Wars by Blue Oyster Cult (one of my favorites for reasons you might figure out eventually if you read enough of my pages) and Twisted Sister's Captain Howdy (I think there was a horror movie made that was based on the song). There's even a couple of songs off of the soundtrack album of Labyrinth the movie like Magic Dance and Chilly Down that're kinda cool. Humans have no imagination sometimes. Maybe they should let me d.j. on Halloween somewhere! Mu-ha-ha-ha-ha!), I was getting a little bored, so I started taking pictures. I don't know who most of these people are because only me and about 20 other people were actually wearing the name stickers. I decided to have a little fun and wrote my name on the sticker in runes. ;-)
Some of the crowd. I think that's the guy who came as Mr. Addams on the left.
A samurai, a monk, a priest and a cowboy walk into a bar... Sounds like the start of a joke, don't it? Here, it actually happened! LOL That's Rage wearing the outfit he bought at the Marilyn Manson concert.
The Addams family. They're up at the d.j. booth for the costume competition.
Another pic of them. But it's only three of them this time.
Cousin It without the hair over her eyes. She was also taking a lot of pictures here at the party.
Wednesday from the Addams family, I think. By this time, Dave and Arlan had a woman at their table. Lucky guys.
Renee from ICEnet. You've gotta love the blue hair. Desmond Crisis (from the Cnet show), eat your heart out.
Jerry Garcia and friend? Guess they're Grateful Dead fans.
A woman in black and a guy with an interesting looking beard.
A shot of the crowd at the bar. The Jerry Garcia look - alike is on the far right.
A vampire and his lady friend. Or is she gonna be a late night snack? *slurp!*
Here they are up at the d.j. booth to compete in the costume contest.
Time for the Grateful Dead fans to try too.
A Hollywood style Witch with some other costumed person. It's probably the christian's doing, making everyone believe that all Witches look like that. Maybe it was to cover up the christian's atrocities like killing millions of people in their god's name?
A couple of people at the d.j. booth dressed up in the same kind of cleansuits as the people in the Pentium II ads. You know, if a 586 is called a Pentium, wouldn't that make a 686 a sexium? ;-)
Meow! A catwoman with a nice smile. Did she eat the canary? ;-) Not sure if this was taken at the ICEnet party or if it was taken later on. Might've even been at the Lizard's Lounge.
A female bartender in a silver outfit. Nice bellybutton. I'm fairly sure this one was either at Lizard's Lounge or Rhino's and I had a lot of beer in me by this time. Hey, at least I'm not a violent drunk, and since I walk or take a cab instead of drive when I go bar - hopping, there's never any worry about a DUI. Whoo-hoo!
A couple of gothic ladies at Lizard's Lounge.
Some transvestites at Rhino's Pub. I stumbled in here after I left Lizard's Lounge and I found this. I hope some of the guys drinking at Rhino's didn't get too drunk, or they may've had a little surprise when they tried to find a woman to take home with them! ;-) Kinda reminds me of the guys on stage in the movie Escape From New York.
A couple of the nice female bartenders at Rhino's. I think one's supposed to be Cleopatra and the other one's a French maid.
Rhino with a Tina Turner look - alike. You know, I think I'll go hang with the Jagermiester girls instead...
This site's main page, 3D chat programs review page, stories, cool quotes, trivia, Laugh Machine, e-mail privacy / PGP.
Other pictures pages:
CyberWoLfman's Pix #3. Pictures taken in the ActiveWorlds 3D chat program.
CyberWoLfman's Pix #4. Back to the real world. Includes Halloween pictures, party pictures, more pictures of Bloomington-Normal Illinois including events, people, theaters and bars.
CyberWoLfman's Pix #5. Mostly pictures taken in bars, but also other places.
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