I'm taking a break...

... Or maybe killing the blog.

Haven't decided yet.

In the meantime, may I suggest Savage Chickens?

Pickles! Revisited

I finally tried one of my pickle pops.

Well, um, yeah...

It was disgusting.

I so wanted to like them.

Sigh.

No Like Boom

I decided not to go to the annual Hyack Festival Anvil Salute this year. Just didn't feel like leaving the house.

But that didn't mean that we missed out.

This was shortly after the first boom:



Doesn't really translate well in this crappy YouTube video, but the dog was vibrating so hard, it felt like I had stuffed a quarter up her butt. </magic fingers>

It also took a few takes to get it right. Apparently I shouldn't try to talk before I've finished my first coffee:



Ehhhh, whatever. Think I'll keep my day job.

Deck Furniture

So we got new cushions for the deck chairs:



And the dog inherited our old cushions torn cloth barely wrapped around fibrefill:



Classy!

Rated E for Eyeball Damage

Once upon a time I started a web site. And being the cheap bastard that I am, I built my web site mangled bunch 'o crap on Geocities.

Thanks to the fine folks @ the Internet Archive Wayback Machine I managed to find a 2001 version of my page.

Note: It was much, much worse when it was live. Pages on the Internet Archive are often stripped of some of their elements. In may case it's missing the bee-you-ti-full background image plus the wave file of Pachabel's Canon. Also, the pull down links do not work anymore due to a complex (and archaic) redirect system that I used @ the time.

I will admit that I couldn't remember my Geocities URL, but I actually found it linked on this genealogy page. I don't have a clue why they linked to me.

A few years later I moved my site to Telus since they offered free (limited) web hosting with our account.

You can see from this earliest version that I simply cut and pasted the code from one site to the other. I changed it a bit by the end, but it never evolved beyond an online bookmark list.

The page is technically still alive, but is just a redirect here.

As bad as my early web page was (And I'd like to think the design of this site is an improvement), my page was pretty damn subdued. Perhaps because I was in my 30's when I built it. But my God did Geocities help people produce a lot of crap. Since it was free, anyone could have a web site, and everyone did. They supplied an editing interface so that no coding ability was needed. And the masses responded by putting everything, including the kitchen sink, on their sites. And to be fair, other free sites such as Angelfire and (to this day) Myspace gave people the opportunity to ruin the Internet.

And yes, I understand that I'm just as guilty as the next person in that respect. So no need to comment about calling the kettle fuchsia, with a dancing baby gif, and a sound clip of Hungry Eyes.

And speaking of dancing baby gifs (and really the whole point of this post). Did I discover a doozy of a web site. Introducing The Geocities-izer. The tagline says it all "Make Any Web page Look Like It Was Made By A 13 Year-Old In 1996"

And that's exactly what it does.

Here's where I work.

And here's where where I work on Geocities-izer

Dear sweet moccasin snake in a sand pit. Is that ugly or what?

One more treat and I'll let you go play with the site yourself. Here is the new, improved version of Days of Whine & Wieners.

Note: If you have the security settings on your machine cranked up to paranoid, you may get a warning about the results being a hoax. And I guess in way they are. But they are not dangerous, except to your eyes and sanity...

Exterminate, Exterminate!

[Ben Golub's Photos]

I enjoy an incinerated marshmallow as much as the next person. But I'm not a huge fan of Peeps. I can handle a few, and they sure are darn cute. But they basically are sugar, coated with sugar, with a side of sugar. A little goes a long way.

However, they sure do make a pretty microwave show.

Let the destruction begin.

A few peeps:


Or the entire box:


Happy Easter everyone!

Addendum: Would you like to see a peep show?

A Quinn Martin Production

I was having a discussion about old television shows with a friend the other day, and we came to the conclusion that ol' Quinn must have thought his entire audience was illiterate.

Proof:


Produced by Quinn Martin for Desilu.


Chikka bow, chikka bow bow.


Confession. I loved this theme music when I was a kid.


My Mom loved this show.


My God, he couldn't even leave them there foreeners alone. The narrator's voice is completely wrong.

See this is why I don't watch as much tv as I did when I was a kid. No-one will read the credits to me.

I would also like to make it perfectly clear that all these shows were aired years and years before I was born. My grandparents told me about them. Really.

More theme music fun here & here. Warning: the second link will cause retinal bleeding.

No Kicking Penguins!

[Sidereal's Photos]

A fairly recent find that I'm just getting around to posting.

There is a young boy named Colby that lives in Newfoundland.

One day his mother while walking around the house kicked a toy penguin out of her way. Colby then drew a picture and posted it on the fridge. The new house rule:



Colby's uncle heard the story and had a graphics artist @ the Telegram clean up the image (Here's the original). It was then posted on Reddit and went viral.

Next thing the family knows, the American military based in Antarctica has made "No Kicking Penguins" official policy.

And you may ask "why not kick penguins?" The answer (and official webpage tagline) is: "Because you just shouldn't. What did they ever do to you?"

Sounds like a pretty good policy to me.

I'm a sucker for the cute & I couldn't resist the shirt. All proceeds to various agencies that assist with autism. (Colby is autistic).

Cool CBC story here...

And the official No Kicking penguins site.

Pickles!

In the past I have posted some odd, odd, odd, things that people are willing to spend money to get. There just doesn't seem to be any limits to people combining really odd ideas with a marketing plan.

I, however, have never actually seen the above products in person. Not so for today's intriguing entry.

Introducing Bob's Pickle Pops



This was a gift from my brother who ordered them online. I have a feeling there isn't going to be any middle ground for this one. It's either going to be fantastic or disgusting. I'll let y'all know.

Apparently they are quite popular:



Anyone out there ever try them?

...But We Call it Home

I just love this ad. Beautiful scenery, inspiring message & famous BC stars:



BC stars?

The ad features Michael J. Fox, Ryan Reynolds, Eric McCormack, Kim Cattrall, Steve Nash, and Sarah McLachlan.

Fox, Cattrall & McCormack all have American citizenship, and except for McLachlan, none of them live full time in BC.

I'm ok with that. Hell, you go where the work is.

But then please don't call it "home"

The sad thing is that I know why they were used. This ad is meant to attract people from outside BC. And frankly, how many celebs do we have living in the province that would be recognized outside of it?

If my readers (both of you) can up with a few good examples, I be happily proven wrong. And those example can't be a band you really like, or an actor you think did a great job last year on that CBC documentary. I talking about names that would be recognized in South Carolina or Gdansk.

So go ahead, and please prove me an idiot.

Oh, and By the way - It's a Government of BC video

Olympic Cuteness

Now this is an Olympic mascot.

I have no love at all for these guys.



I don't find them cute or interesting, just a little embarrassing. Of course if you know me, you know I generally hate mascots. Heck, I love Disneyland, but won't go near Micky or his minion.

Completely non PC side note. Can we stop feeling collectively guilty over injustices against First Nations people and not give everything we do a native theme or component? For example I was pretty sure that Chinese New Year was about Chinese culture, but apparently not.

As usual I used Wikipedia (motto: the guilty secret of library staff since 1842) for my "research", and I think I discovered the bestest mascot ever.

Introducing Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat.



Dude!

Another side note. I don't plan to write a lot about the Olympics because most of it bores me. But then again, it is an easy topic, so you never know.

Olympics.... Oh, Yay

Why I'm glad I'm not working the first full week of the Olympics (and why I wish I was off for the whole thing). Yup, right in the thick of things:



I am working till 6:00 the first day, that will be a fun commute home. "Official" word is that I should expect waits of up to an hour for the train in the evenings.

This is why I'm glad I am working on the 9th. Again, right in the thick of things.



Good times

Happy, Happy,

2010.

My best wishes for a wonderful year to all (both of you) my readers.

Ho, Ho, Ho &

Merry Chrismas!



I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday with family, friends and loads of good eats.

A Century In Video - 1924

The MGM lion understood in 1924 that there was no point in roaring. Who's going to hear it?



Except for the roar, the logo hasn't actually changed much over the years:



Leo the MGM lion actually started out in 1917 as the mascot for the predecessor company Goldwyn Pictures.

Here he is in 1923 the year before Goldwyn Pictures, Metro Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures merged. I'm not sure if it's a half yawn or half assed snarl in this clip:



The lion logo has been parodied many times, mostly by MTM Enterprises:

The Mary Tyler Moore Show



Remington Steele



Newhart



St. Elswhere



And the depressing end credits for the last episode:

Is This the Real Life? Is This Just Fantasy?

Caught in a landslide. No escape from reality

Well this is an escape from reality.

Love the Muppets? (yes!)

Love - or at least like - Queen (yes!)

Well don't say I never give you anything.

Enjoy

Weed

Well that title grabbed your attention, didn't it?

Sorry, wrong kind of weed.

My context here is the weeding of a library collection. Libraries are buildings with finite space. And to make room for the new, we need to weed out the old.

Each library has it's own set of weeding criteria defined by the library collection, mandate and user group. But one thing most libraries (in theory) agree on is that obsolete material must go.

(OK, I'm over simplifying things here, but I'm hardly writing a policy and procedure manual. If you want the details on weeding policy, get a diploma, or a degree.)

Weeding the collection isn't always easy, and it's also very time consuming. So this chore sometimes get pushed to the bottom of the to-do list. The end result is that we often have material on our shelves that really shouldn't be there.

From this collection of crap archive material sprung forth Awful Library Books. A wonderful witty site dedicated to user submitted books lurking in library collections.

And it's gone Hollywood.

The proprietors of this great site, Mary and Holly, appeared recently on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Share and enjoy:



Here are the specific posts of the books discussed in the show:

• What's Wrong with my Snake


• Jewish Chess Masters on Stamps


• Do-It-Yourself Coffins: For Pets and People


• Dee Snider’s Teenage Survival Guide


• Knitting with Dog Hair


• Gary Coleman: Medical Miracle


• A Passion for Donkeys

Full disclosure: I checked the Vancouver Public Library catalogue for each of these items.

Alas, we have two:

• Do-It-Yourself Coffins: For Pets and People


• Knitting with Dog Hair

29% failure rate. That's not too bad, is it?

Don't. Fall. Asleep!

For completely incomprehensible reasons Michael Bay has remade A Nightmare on Elm Street.

The original 1984 version scared the shit out of me. But somehow I can't picture this 'new' Freddy Krueger having much of an effect on me. I mean for crying out loud - this is Freddy?



OK, he's a bit older now:



And they do give him a bit of makeup:



But still...

And to all you kids out there who don't know what I'm rambling about. Jackie Earle Haley was originally famous for a amazingly popular 1976 film: The Bad News Bears.

Sweet dreams...

Miniature Fun

I love Disneyland, and I love tilt-shift (Particularly in this context).

How could I not love this?



This was created completely with tilt-shift still photos. No video involved.

More cool tilt-shift examples here. Create your own here.

Cheers from a Disney dork

Brrrrrrrrrrrr

Of course the hot water heater and the boiler picked the same day to crap out.

The hot water heater is dead, but the boiler is repairable. Leaky pump or something.

I was under the (erroneous it seems) impression that a hot water tank should last longer than 12 years. Goodbye giant jiffy pop:



I can has hot water please?



50 gallons and set to 120° Just about boiled myself with the first shower.

It was the red thing near the topish left that died on the boiler. Something widget garble thingly sprocket derbble technical stuff. Translation from Hubster. "Booster pump fucked":



The Hubster has it covered:



Soon, soon, soon there will be heat again.

But in the interim; Usually a freezer. Today a workbench:



FYI, I'm currently in long ski undergarments. What? TMI?

Well thbbbt to that.