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BROOKLYN PARK, MINNESOTA (USA)
Where a "surfer" named Jesse "the Body" Ventura, who became Jesse "the Mayor" Ventura and now Governor Jesse "the Mind" Ventura got his start in politics!  (Yeah, I voted for him, both times!)

    It's where I live, where I work, and for the most part, where I play. Brooklyn Park is about the sixth largest city in the state of Minnesota and is a suburb of Hennepin County on the northwest corner of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. I first moved to Brooklyn Park nearly a quarter of a century back and have seen a lot of changes. The city now has nearly 65,000 residents with a diverse cultural and ethnic background. Originally Brooklyn Park had a large number of potato farms and now the local community celebration is known as "Tater Daze". Many residents are very active in crime prevention in our community and Brooklyn Park.

As you can probably tell, I'm interested in public safety and law enforcement. A couple of the sites I find interesting are Policescanner.com and the ultimate sheriff, Maricopa County Arizona's very own Joe Arpaio.   Go get 'em Joe!  If you're interested in law enforcement on the web, click the image to the right. Lots of links and other types of information information about law enforcement.

If you have been on the internet long, you've probably heard the "$250.00 Cookie Recipe" story. Or, maybe you got the email about it to "pass along to everyone you know". Get the scoop on this and other urban legends at Snopes.com and Urbanlegends.com.  You can check out the debate on whether Walt Disney was frozen, too. Maybe you heard about the "exploding whale" incident and thought it was another urban legend.  Well,  The Infamous Exploding Whale site has pictures and the local television report. (Be warned, It takes a while to download the video, but I think it's worth it. Just don't expect very high quality.) If you haven't heard the story, I'll recap: Take one dead and smelly whale, some people who just don't know what to do with it, a half a ton of dynamite, and mix them together. KA-BOOM! Definitely different! Next time you call your insurance agent, you might want to inquire about blubber insurance. Check the site and you'll know why.

Want to throw out your outdated roadmaps and get something more current?   There's several great mapping sites out there, including Delorme, Maps On Us and Mapquest.  You can plan trips and print out maps wherever you want to go. I use them often and their detail is incredible!  The best part is the price - they're free!

Screensavers really aren't of much use any more except for providing entertainment. So, what's wrong with your computer being entertaining? There's a myriad of screensavers available now so if you are tired of flying windows, lame fireworks, or a blank screen, check out Screensaver.com.  My sister clued me in on Johnny Castaway (now free). It's about a guy on a tiny island with all kinds of escapades. It's my overall favorite screensaver and the scenes change according to the holidays, but I won't spoil the surprise on what happens. You'll have to check it out for yourself.

My TV watching includes mostly comedies and some of my favorites are Married with Children, The Simpsons, South Park, Viva Variety, Politically Incorrect and the Red Green Show ("Spare the duct tapespoil the job").  Duckman was a great show, unfortunately it was cancelled, but rumor has it that it may come back on another network. Sure hope so. I also like keeping up on the news when I can. The two main Twin Cities newspapers are the StarTribune and the Pioneer Press. Both have pretty comprehensive web sites. The Brooklyn Park SunPost is the local newspaper for my city. Local Twin City TV stations online include WCCO, KARE, KMSP KTCA/KTCI and WFTC. KSTP finally got a web site up and running, but beware, it's very slow! A new show that's interesting is called Payne.  It's a take-off of the British comedy Fawlty Towers. It's got a lot of potential and I hope it survives.

I used to really enjoy camping and it's been quite a while. Hope to get back at it again this year.  Over the winter months I've been checking out web sites for camping info.  If you find a good side, tell me.  (Just remove the extra spaces before sending!)I found a few very good to excellent sites, some good ones and a bunch of others. Camping page is coming sometime soon, after I put together what I have. 

My Dad's side of the family is from Kandiyohi County, MN, near a small town called Sunburg. I still have relatives in Willmar. Like most of Minnesota, it's a very scenic and lake-filled area. There's quite a bit of history in the area, too. Great hunting and fishing out there, although I don't get to do either anymore.  Just not enough time! The Alexandria/Walker TV stations KCCO/KCCW are owned by WCCO and Channel 7 from Alexandria, MN is the station that has the best reception in the area (that is, without cable). The Willmar paper is the West Central Tribune and my Dad enjoys reading it to keep up on the news from his home town area and occasionally a friend or relative makes the paper for one reason or another. My Mother's side of the family was from Murray County, MN near a little town called Garvin. If you're checking your map, it's in the southwestern part of the state.

A favorite city to tour and visit is Duluth Minnesota, where it's currently
Duluth, MN and Superior, WI are twin port cities on Lake Superior. I like watching the ships come in and leave the harbor. There are a lot of grand old buildings to see, the Glensheen (a.k.a. the Congdon) Mansion and Fitger's Brewery to tour, a lot of maritime museums and a wealth of ship and shipping information.  The size of Lake Superior is awesome and the lighthouses along the north shore have a certain mystique and a trip that way makes for a relaxing weekend or a great vacation.  You can check out information on ships of the past, like the Edmund Fitzgerald and the controversy over its demise while watching modern day ships from around the world come into port. Care to take a Great Lakes Quiz? (Answers available at the site.) I visit the KBJR site in Duluth, MN, often since I have friends in the northland and it has a lot of information on the local news and happenings of northern Minnesota. Need a reminder every now and then?  One of the features available at Duluth's website is a service that will remind you of important holidays or whatever you tend to forget. They even let you add specific days that are important to you.  They email a reminder to you. It's easy to sign up for it and it's free! Like to keep up on the ships coming and going in Duluth?  Check out Duluthshippingnews.com. This is a tremendous site for ship watchers. Lots of pictures (some daily) of the ships coming and going. They have a schedule of ships scheduled to arrive and depart, together with information on their destinations, loads and even the size of the ships!

OK, so what happened to moving Ken's Place? Good question. Well it's simple. I never got it done for one, and the new place has too many requirements for me to accept. So Ken's Place is staying with Angelfire at least for now, and I'm pleased about it, or at least satisfied with the decision. I still object to the popup ads but understand why they do it. There are banner killers out there that you can use. Maybe I'll tell you about some later! So enjoy the site and make use of the features. (I still check it for weather often!)

It may be a bit morbid to some, but if you've ever wondered what was in the Will of Princess Di, Jerry Garcia, Jackie O, or Joe DiMaggio, stop by Wills on the Web. They also have Walt Disney's, Babe Ruth's and Benjamin Franklin's Will for you to read!

I've given up on using the ordinary search engines. Why just use one when you can search them all using "the mother of all search engines". Try Mamma! Another great one is Google.com. Ever wonder or need to know what the exchange rate is on, say, Canadian Dollars to American Dollars?  The Universal Currency Converter will tell you. If you like the live cams on the web like I do, "Tommy's List of Live Cams Worldwide" is a site to see. There are links to live cams all over the world! You can really snoop!

I've always had an interest in planes and ships and I've been fascinated by the controversy over the sinkings of the Titanic and the Edmund Fitzgerald. The Titanic, Adventure Out of Time CD game is interesting and has become more popular since the movie. You're an agent onboard the Titanic and can tour the ship or play the game. You need to do a bit of thinking though and it is challenging. They call it "a race to alter history on a ship out of time.."   Speaking of the movie, I finally did see it. It seemed to me to be historically accurate and all in all it was a pretty good movie. Guess what? The Titanic sinks at the end! ;-)   

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