Month: August 2005

WE DON’T NEED NO STEENKIN BADGERS!
Had Darren, Cam and Joe over tonight for a movie. We watched UHF, and to my surprise it still made me laugh, and in parts… guffaw!
Which got me to thinking: where did my sense of humour come from, anyway? Here’s a list of people or things I think have influenced my funnybone, in vaguely not-really chronological order:

• Monty Python and the Nesbitts, for dry wit
• The STS, for general geek humor
• Davin, for TYPEYELLING
• Almost Live, for making fun of Seattle suburbs, especially Renton
• Early 90s SNL, including David Spade (sarcasm), Mike Myers (kooky) and Dana Carvey (twisted)
• Dave Letterman, for deadpanning
• Greg at the UVic language center, for joy of general punnery
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for sarcastic wit
• Jon Stewart, for more deadpan.

That’s a few of them, anyway. I’ll add to the list as I remember more. Who influenced your sense of humour?

I hadn’t seriously considered it until last Thursday night. Sure, my phone crackled sometimes, and during those times I usually went through the somewhat embarrassing “Is that at my end?” “No, I think it’s me” “Yep, it’s definitely your end” back-and-forth. But my Sony IT-B5 had served me well for the last, oh… 13 years, and didn’t deserve to be replaced. It was built like a tank. No sharp edges meant nothing to break off. Good design. And besides, I’m sure if I threw it away if would find some way to climb its way out of the trash (on its own, of course).
That all changed when I tripped over the extension cord Thursday night. Unintentionally laying out, my left shoulder gracefully glid directly into my bedroom doorknob. God did that hurt.
That was it. No more! I already knew Cam had purchased a cordless phone recently and was happy with it. I trust Cam’s judgement on this one, since he (more specifically, Melissa) is on the phone way more than I am. In addition, it lights up when you’ve got a voicemail waiting, which I’ve always thought was the coolest thing. Plus there’s the whole thing about me needing that feature REALLY BADLY since I never pick up the phone. So, I made like Renée and THREW MONEY AT IT.
Unfortunately doing that meant a trip to Staples. Bad idea.
Okay, here’s the sitch. The power in Florida, in particular, the power in Florida in the summer, is ridiculously bad. Bad like I’ve never seen. Brownouts, and worse, full on multi-second power outages, are commonplace. So, put yourself back in Staples. Office equipment. Uninterruptible Power Supplies. 5 minute batteries. 18 minute batteries. 70 55 minute batteries, with the ability to protect your cable signal AND shutdown your Mac safely via USB? Now you’re talking. This thing is massive. I haven’t installed it yet, but I gotta say, I’m looking forward to NOT racing to unplug the computer and cable at 5 in the morning after being woken by thunder.
So that’s that. Okay, not quite. You didn’t think I could leave without a can of compressed air, did you? For the record it’s the first time I’ve ever purchased compressed air. It had nothing to do with the fact that I was paying by credit. At all. I swear.

I see the Middle Kingdom between Heaven and Earth
Like the Chinese call the country of their birth
We all figure that our homes are set above
Other people than the ones we know and love
In every place with a name
They play the same territorial game
Hiding behind the lines
Sending up warning signs
The whole wide world
An endless universe
Yet we keep looking through
The eyeglass in reverse
Don’t feed the people
But we feed the machines
Can’t really feel
What international means
In different circles, we keep holding our ground
In different circles, we keep spinning round and round
We see so many tribes — overrun and undermined
While their invaders dream of lands they’ve left behind
Better people — better food — and better beer
Why move around the world when Eden was so near?
The bosses get talking so tough
And if that wasn’t evil enough
We get the drunken and passionate pride
Of the citizens along for the ride
They shoot without shame
In the name of a piece of dirt
For a change of accent
Or the colour of your shirt
Better the pride that resides
In a citizen of the world
Than the pride that divides
When a colourful rag is unfurled

Rush – “Territories”.
Caught my ear while cleaning house this morning. Download my skippy AAC. Released on album “Power Windows”, from 1985. More about this song:

• Songfacts
• Songmeanings

It’s that time at work again, the time they refer to as The Crunch. Ack. It’s good work and I’m learning lots about things I never guessed I’d learn about (good!), but I’m tired as all get out (where’d that expression come from anyway?).
Anyway, just before leaving work, I told Jeff my plan: go home, write a blog entry, and go to bed. In fact, I was already inspired to write; I’d spent the last 20 minutes or so going through the photos on Jim’s blog. Man that guy knows how to take a photo. His latest picture just floors me.
Jeff suggested I post a picture of the “most artististic, most anonymous” CD cover, and try to get people to guess what it was. Great idea. So, I reviewed my CDs, and as it turned out, hardly any of them had anonymous covers, and those which did were really so obscure I could hardly remember what they were myself. So I took a few of the more artistic ones, and ‘shopped their names out. Can you guess what they are?
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Shuttle Discovery just landed safely in the desert! What a relief. Welcome back.

Saw this on the Rave Vic general forum while looking for information about Monday night’s fire. Oh man…. Couldn’t. Stop. Laughing. Rated PG-13 for language. Click!

Click -> big

That was the scene on Saturday, about five minutes after I finished up with the headlights. Dark clouds rolled in over the blue sky. It threatened, but did not rain.
Tonight I looked at bikes. As in, pedal power. I rode a few around inside Target (That’s Tar-get. Not Tar-jhay. Pretty simple). I zipped around a few aisles, even did a small catwalk, and no-one did so much as give me a funny look. Gotta love big department stores. Now I’m really wanting a bike again, but I should probably do some looking around. My only problem with a bike down here is that I can’t seem to find a model with A/C…

It’s been a while since we’ve talked. Sorry about that. But here’s a list of a few things that have happened to me over the past couple weeks:
-Random coworker discovery of my blog
-New runners (after 4 years, it’s just /time/)
-New tires (front, thanks for letting me guest on your major-chain-retailer account Cam)
-New headlights (it took 2 hours, but the next time I do it it’ll take about 15 minutes)
-Canadian Passport (re)application off… finally
-Fear of being a photographer (still; this goes way back)
-Helping a coworker get settled
-Actively building my credit rating
-Watched two great movies (Last Life in the Universe, comparable to “Lost in Translation” in style but much better; Runaway Jury, about manipulating a trial involving a major gun manufacturer. A thrill to watch. Hackman and Hoffman are great together; John Cusack is his usual down-played self and Rachel Weisz is, well… not too hard on the eyes 🙂
-I have unanswered email from a LONG TIME AGO. If you’re awaiting a reply from me, I’m sorry. I will try to write back soon.
-I am planning my birthday party! Not sure on the exact date yet, but it’ll probably be close to the 24th.
-Enigma’s album “Love, Sensuality, Devotion” is playing as I write this. I may end up writing another post about it, but I would just like to say this this album kicks my ass. I could listen to it all day. I borrowed it from a coworker, and I think I might just have to pick up the CD.
-Sasha’s album “Fundacion” is one of the best DJ mixes I have heard in a long time, maybe the past two years. What did I love about it? It surprised me, several times. In that good kind of way. Cannot wait to hear it on a big stereo. Here’s an interview Sasha did with about.com on the new album and how it differs from a traditional DJ-mixed CD.
-Finished Firefly a couple weeks ago. I almost didn’t want to watch the last episode because I was enjoying the Firefly universe so much. I am sad it only got a half-season run before Fox cancelled it and eliminated the possibility of the series being continued on television under the Firefly name. Fox said nothing about making a movie out of it, though, and I am heartened that the trailer for Serenity actually looks pretty good.
–iMovie rocks. Whoever designed the interface deserves some kind of award. Soo easy (and fun) to use.
-I am sleepy.
-It is probably time for bed.
-Thanks for reading this far!
-Bye!