Happy Birthday, John!

Today I'd like to wish John Morris a very happy birthday!

As the Germans say, Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!
and the French, Joyeux Anniversaire!
and don't forget those fun-loving Greenlanders who wish you Inuuinni pilluarit!

Sad little boy

I saw this in an article on CNN about the big outbreak of mumps currently developing in the midwest.


The caption reads: "Greg Cox, left, looks at his friend Jon Douglas while he recovers from mumps in this 1957 photo."

That's just the cutest, sadest picture.

The current article reminded me of this article I read earlier this month that had a paragraph I found amusing:
"Iowa has seen an epidemic of more than 600 suspected cases since December, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman. Other states reporting cases are Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and Wisconsin. The agency has not yet released the name of the eighth Midwestern state."

Dude. That's just a weird thing to say. Are they treating the state like they would the victim of a crime? Do they have to inform the next of statekin before revealing the name?

Chucking "Wood"

I was listening to my P.M. Dawn CD two days ago. Good stuff.
However, I've found myself with their version of the Beatles' song "Norwegian Wood" stuck in my head, refusing to be expunged no matter how many other songs I listen to. I really don't even like that song in the first place, which makes it all the more frustrating.
I'm yearning for some "Tom's Diner" to replace it. And there's zero sarcasm in that. Mock the song if you must, but I'm a loyal fan of DNA's version - the one with the kickin' bass. Sadly, I have misplaced my "Tom's Album" CD - a collection of remixes and parodies of the song. I'm sure it would do the trick.
I'll have to search elsewhere in my iTunes library on my work computer today for a suitable replacement for "Norwegian Wood". What about some Cranberries or Erasure? Maybe some Simon & Garfunkel or Tears for Fears? Where are the Pet Shop Boys when you need them?
PLEASE!!!!! I'm dyin' here!

[Edit: 4/20/06 @ 7:30pm ... SCORE!!! You'll think I'm making it up, but the song that was playing on the radio when I turned my car on after work was none other than DNA's version of "Tom's Diner"!!!!!! No joke. It was freaky. I hardly ever hear it on the radio anymore. So I cranked it and rolled down the windows. Aaaaahh, satisfaction.]

Gas jerky

CNN asked for readers' comments on rising gas prices...

"I fill my car with 50 dollars worth of gas. I drive to the store to buy a 6 dollar bag of beef jerky. It takes me 3 dollars to go 14 miles to buy the jerky. I eat it all before I get home so I must go back to the store to buy more jerky for 6 dollars. Again it costs me 3 dollars in gas. I finish the jerky just as I arrive at home only to get an upset stomach from 1/2 pound of dried beef swelling in my stomach. I now have to spend another 3 dollars in gas to buy a 7 dollar bottle of Rolaids. This 1 hour of my life cost me 28 dollars. With the price of gas these days I think its time to give up on beef jerky. Another pleasure gone due to gas prices."
-Joe Stain, Atlanta, Georgia

This doesn't even need a witty response.

Peep Research

For those with an interest in scientific research, take a moment to study current research on peep health at http://www.peepresearch.org/index.html

Sno-to-Go

It opens on April 17th.
I need to plan a weekend to visit and endulge myself in the frozen deliciousness

Sno To Go is one of those cherished memories of mine from my days at W&M.

Easter Bunnies

Word of the Day: Malfeasance

Malfeasance (n.) - misconduct or wrongdoing, especially by a public official.

Can I have the origin?
Latin via Old French

Can I hear it in a sentence, please?
All this malfeasance is starting to piss me off.

LARPing

"Perhaps sports and LARPing are mutually exclusive. If you like sports, you have probably never been exposed to the horror that is "Live Action Role Playing". If you like larping you most probably do not enjoy sports in any way. I saw people larping once and it was like watching the drama club meet at Denny's. It was just a bad scene to me.
If you don't know what larping is or you can't envision it, I will give you the key to the domain of larp: Try this google image search and it will tell you a lot about larping. Except imagine those guys running around in the parking garage of a university with all their capes and everything on, yelling, "OBFUSCATE!!! I OBFUSCATED! I'M INVISIBLE NOW! I'M ALSO A MALKAVIAN! MALKAVIANS ARE VIOLENT AND LOVE DENNY'S!!!!!!""

I read this on the toothpastefordinner blog and laughed out loud because I knew a bunch of people in high school who were into LARPing. Just say "BayCon" and Shallcross will erupt into laughter remembering the stories I've told. BayCon is the annual Bay Area Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention that I found myself following my friends to one night in high school. I was transported into a world of, what I'm not ashamed to call, freaks.

(I found the page this quote was on after stumbling across the NatalieDee website while looking for pictures of dinosaurs. I think they're really cute drawings. Maybe it's because her cartoons are primitive like my brother's. Disclaimer: The Drinky-Drink Kids tend to cross the line.)

God bless duct tape, tool that I love

On the radio this morning I heard about an article in Forbes magazine about the 20 most important tools, the "devices that have most impacted human civilization and shaped the course of history." While it wasn't on the official list, duct tape is celebrated for being The Other Greatest Tool Ever, as Forbes shares in this article.

The irony of duct tape: professionals say it totally sucks at taping ducts. No joke. It works miracles on everything else, but it can't do the job it was created for. Go figure.

So for those of you who found Jack Bauer's use of duct tape to effectively seal off a room from deadly nerve gas at 7:28pm, eat your words.

Duct tape - it's the stuff of legends.

Buffy & monkeys

I recently visited my friends Krissy & Yurii up in NOVA and received some shocking news. A long-time friend of Krissy's got her hooked on the show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." I thought she was joking when she began to sing its praises, but she was dead serious. (Ha! - pun not intended, but I'll still take credit for it.)
I've probably seen less than 10 episodes in my lifetime and I considered it so cheesy that I felt ashamed to admit that I hadn't stopped at 1. However, that weekend, during the viewing of my 11th episode, I came to understand a fraction of the attraction. The dialogue is corny, but it made me laugh. The perfect example:
The main characters were sitting around trying to decide if they were going to raise someone from the dead that night and the character Anya said, in all seriousness, "But the Discovery Channel has monkeys and our tape machine is wonky."
This is funny for many reasons. There's the obvious, then there's the use of one of my favorite words: wonky.

Happy Birthday, Ceeece!

You've always been a star in my book, even before you became famous!

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