Author Archives: Rob MacD

And It’s Goodnight From Him

When I was growing up, The Two Ronnies was a show (imported from the BBC to the CBC) I enjoyed.  I cannot remember any specific comedy from any of the episodes I saw, but I remember the show to be smart comedy.  Writerly comedy.  I appreciated that. 

The only thing I remember, really, is the sign off: 

Ronnie Corbett: "It’s good night from me…"

Ronnie Barker: "…and it’s good night from him."

Yesterday, Ronnie Barker passed away.  And I bet ten pounds I’m the only one in the world who will have thought to use that headline.

Change of Email Address

Anybody who cares, I’ve changed my email address again.
When I started with email, I thought I’d be clever and use sendit2me as my name.  You know: "Hey, what’s your email address?" "Send it to me at gmail dot com".  I was so clever.  In my head.
When I have to tell people my address, I quickly realised, I have to explain that the "to" in "send it to me" is the number 2, not the word "to".  A pain in the butt.

Fortunately, I was smart enough to also snag the name robmacd.

So, from now on, if you want to contact me, please do so at RobMacD at gmail dot com  (use capitals if you want, or don’t if you don’t want).

Update your address books, peeps.

I apologize for that "peeps" thing.

Good Night, And Good Luck

"We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."
Edward R. Murrow

I’m looking forward to this movie.

Shining

This is great.
Click on this link to see a (quicktime) redux version of a trailer for The Shining.  A post-production house had a contest to see who could come up with the best alteration to existing movie trailers, to make them seem like different movies than they actually are.  This one won.

I’d love to see more of the submissions.  If anybody has a link, let me know.

via Screenhead, via Waxy, via Tattered Coat

Free Nucular Missiles For US Children

Here is a link to a video of one of George W. Bush’s State of the Union addresses.  Well, okay, perhaps he didn’t say all of those words in exactly that order, but a little bit of judicious editing of the video gets to the real subtext of his agenda.

"Our first goal is to show utter contempt for the environment. I have sent you a comprehensive energy plan to devestate communities, kill wildlife, and burn away millions of acres of treasured forests."
"One by one, the terrorists are learning we are building a culture to encourage international terrorism."

Did You Try Rebooting Your Vehicle?

I guess I never posted the outcome of my stalling vehicle problem from last week.  How could you all go on with your lives without knowing the status of my car?  I am so sorry for leaving you in the dark.

So, last Monday, we called Dave’s Auto Electric.  They had, on Friday, put in a new alternator, and still our car was stalling pretty much all the time.  We suffered through it through the weekend.  On Monday, Dave’s Auto Electric tell us they can’t see us on Monday, maybe can squeeze us in on Tuesday.  We get tired of their apparent lacksadaisacal disinterest in our car and call up Walter Piccott Chev Olds.  Usually, I’m reluctant to take a car to a dealer for service, but this being third option, seemed like a good time to try them out, service charges be damned.  They can’t take us on Monday, but if we drop by, say 7:45 on Tuesday, they’ll look at the car almost first thing.
So, Karyn takes the car in for 7:45, and heads off for work.  I stay home, because last week I was a bum.  At around 10am, the phone rings and it’s WPCO, and the car is ready to be picked up.  My father graciously offers to take me there and I go to the service area.
They tell me, that because the new battery we got, the car’s computer system "wasn’t reading the codes right" and so they basically reformatted the computer, put in all the correct codes, and the car should be fine now.
Uh huh.  I’ve heard that four or five times in the previous week, so I’m skeptical.  I pay the 44 dollars (basically it cost me an hour of labour, or there abouts, no parts, so that’s good), and get in the car to drive it away.  As I’m driving off the lot, the car stalls, just as it had so many times in the past week.  Totally frustrated, I prepare to park the car, get out and try to be rational and calm as I tell them they’ve missed the problem, just like everyone else.  Instead, though, I decide to drive it a bit, to see if it works itself out.  I go to my parent’s for a tea, and when I leave the car stalls again.  Before I take it back to Walter Piccott’s, I decide to drive it around for a bit.  So, I take it on yet another drive around the north shore to see it the long drive allows the computer to reset itself.
Not once during the long drive does the car stall.  It still doesn’t sound so great, though.  I don’t allow myself to get any hopes up.  I decide to drive it around in town, a real stop and start test.  It doesn’t stall once, yet it sometimes sounds like it wants to.  That’s not enough of a reason to take it back to Walter Piccott’s though, so I decide to wait until it begins to stall again.
So far, knock on wood, it hasn’t stalled again since.  And each day, its idle sounds more and more healthy.
Maybe it’s fixed.

Arista (1997-2005)

Our cat, Arista, the fourth member of our family of three, as much a sibling as our only child will know, died last night.
We are all sad today.
We noticed she, curled up in a corner of the house, had been panting labouriously and fast,  as if not enough air was reaching her lungs.  In obvious distress, I tried to massage her, to feel if anything was perhaps lodged in her windpipe, but found nothing but a distressing cack on each short breath.  I lifted her and took her to her water dish, but she’d have none of it.  She went to her litter box and did some business of the solid sort (which we thought may have been the problem, but still the breath was not coming easily).  She wandered off (with us following) to another, darker corner of the house, as if she wanted to be alone to deal with this troubling annoyance by herself.
Petting and comforting her was doing nothing but apparently annoying her, and she wandered away again.  This time to behind the couch, a sure sign of "leave me alone".  She couldn’t be left alone, though, when she started meowing painful, mournful meowings.  Pulled the couch out and picked her up. Now her breathing was labourious and was beginning to sound phlegmy. Not a good sign.  Nor a good sign when liquidy discharge started to come out of her mouth.
We called the vet (this was at 9:30 at night) and told the symptoms and he said he’d meet us at the clinic.  Karyn went by herself, I stayed home with Cameron.
She arrived home about half an hour later.  Not good.  The vet would give Arista oxygen and call us with updates.  Cameron was, by this time, in bed.
Phone call another half hour later.  The vet was giving the cat oxygen, but it wasn’t doing much..  He believed Arista had suffered a heart attack.  Also, there was substantial liquid forming in her lungs.  Perhaps, surmised the vet, she had taken some poison?  None that we were aware of.
As we were wondering what the next step should be, the vet says "hold on, she stopped moving".  When he came back on the phone, he told us Arista had died.

I was the one who told Cameron this morning, and that wasn’t much fun.  She was the only pet Cameron had had.  He was the one who picked her out at the Shelter, when he was three or four years old.  He was the one who decided upon the name.  Immediately, she was house-trained, and a great addition to the family.  She played games with Cameron when he (or she) was bored, like Hide and Seek and Eat My Hair (don’t ask).  She was devoutly jealous of almost every one of Cameron’s friends, and would take every opportunity to hiss at them whenever they were occupying his time.  Those were the only times she’d show any hint of a negative attitude.
I’ll miss those nights when I was falling asleep, Arista would jump up on my side of our bed and curl up beside me for five or ten minutes before heading off to her other nightly pursuits, and those countless times she’d curl up beside me on the couch and we’d watch TV together.

She was a great cat.  We’ll miss her.

Talk Like A Pirate Day

Today is Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Just like last year, I choose to speak like a pirate who is a bit more educated, and has a better grasp of the English language, than your more typical (one might say "stereotyped") pirate.

So, in my finest pirate voice, I say:  a good day to you all, my friends.

Also, today is my 40th birthday.

I’m Feeling A Bit Sensortive

Sunday – One week ago today:
My wife calls me (I was at home) from church and tells me the car won’t start.  Ignition won’t turn over at all, car clock is dead.  Surmised that the battery’s dead.  Can’t boost it because she can’t (nor my father in law) get the hood open.  A couple of years ago, the plastic hood release latch next to the driver’s side seat broke, and it’s been more and more frustrating getting the hood opened, to the point in the past couple of weeks, where it’s almost impossible.  In fact, I think I am the one who knows how to open the hood.
So, her parents give her a ride home from church and take me in to see if I can open the hood and start the car.  Getting the hood open involves cutting the carpet on the floor and stipping the plastic cording around the release wire.  After about ten minutes, I get the hood open, put booster cables on the car and it starts immediately.  Drive to my in-laws and borrow their battery charger.  The charger tells me that the battery is basically fully-charged.  Hmmm, I think, doesn’t sound like a dead battery problem.  Assume, though, that it is.
Monday:
Car starts no problem in the morning.  At noon, I drive to pick up DaveS for lunch.  Get in the car, and ignition won’t turn over.  Swear a bit and get Dave to get his car and boost it.  Starts no problem.  I decide to take it to our mechanic.  I do, and tell him the problem.  We both agree that a new battery will likely solve the problem.  So, on Monday, the car gets a new battery.  Driving home on Monday evening, after picking up the car from the garage, it stalls at every intersection I come to.  I swear a bit at this new development.
Tuesday:
Take the car back to the mechanic, who says he’ll look into it.  I leave the car there all day.  Pick up the car (no charge for the second look) after mechanic’s gone home, and the same problem.  Car stalls at every intersection.  Plus it starts to stall if I’m driving down the road without my foot on the gas.  Zen training keeps me from swearing much.  Plus I was pretty much expecting it to be not solved.
Wednesday:
Take the car back to the mechanic.  Says he’ll look at it again, but admits he’s puzzled. If he can’t solve it, he suggests I take it to a place where they can run computer diagnoses on it.  I come back around noon and he says he was talking to someone at Dave’s Auto Electric.  He suggested that the computer needs to reset, and to do that, the car needs to be taken on a good long drive (he suggested 45 minutes).  Not allowing myself to believe this would work, I nonetheless go for a lunch-time drive around Brackley, the north shore, Tracedie, etc.  Car is driving better, but once I get back into town, it begins to stall again.  No swearing at all, because I knew the outcome and was prepared for it.
Thursday:
Call early in the morning to Dave’s Auto Electric (the place our mechanic suggested we go), but they say they’re booked up on Thursday but would try to squeeze us in on Friday.  Because my wife and I had places we needed to go on Thursday and Friday, and were totally frustrated by driving a car that continually stalls, my father graciously offered to loan us his car.  He says it sounds like a faulty sensor.  I agree and expect that’s what Dave’s Auto Electric will find. We leave our car at my parents.
Friday:
Drop car off at Dave’s Auto Electric, but because my wife and I are both busy all day, I ask my father if he’d be the contact.  Mid-afternoon, he goes to pick up the car.  They’ve installed a new alternator (that and labour = 225 dollars), they take it for a test drive and it’s still stalling.  They suggest to my father that we take it for a good drive to reset the computer.  There is confusion from them why they were not able to check the sensors.  I am totally deflated at this point and do not press the issue, so  we take the car for a drive.  No change. Still stalling.
Saturday:
Drive the car into town to do the things I had scheduled.  Car stalls continually.
Sunday:
My wife drives the car to church.  I didn’t ask her, but I assume it’s continually stalling.
Monday (the day after today):
I don’t know whether to go back to Dave’s Auto Electric, or to take the car to a certified GM Chevy dealership and let them gouge me with their exorbanent labour charges.  Of if I’ll be able to make an appointment at either or any place.

If the car doesn’t get fixed at the next place we take it, I’ll be officially pissed off.

Funky Waste Group: Compostables!

Tuesday was a very wierd day for me, as an actor.
In the morning, I did the first of my Stanley Theman appearances (see previous post).  Right after that, I donned the Big Donnie outfit, and with the rest of the Canada Rocks Garbage! characters, and a camera crew, we all headed to The Wave at UPEI to do a guerilla-style assault performance of the opening sketch from this year’s Sketch22.
We arrived, parked our cars in the visitor’s parking lot.  As we all got into costume (me as Big Donnie, Graham and Chewed Up Bubblegum, Andrew as a giant Plastic Bag of Dog Poop, Dennis as a Used Tampon, and Josh as Father Garbage), a couple of people scouted out the best location in the wave for us to perform.  We decided upon our plan of attack.
And then we ran it.
There were three video cameras catching all the action.
I rolled the green IWMC compost bin into positions, turned on the portable stereo which had the speech I mouthed on it, plus the music to the rap song, and away we went.
Some people knew what we were about, but others hadn’t a freaking clue.  By the end of the rap song, there was a pretty big crowd, and got huge cheers.  When we were done, we ran out of the building.
It went very well.  Then we decided to do it again, in the same location, basically to get some pick-up shots.  This time through, the crowds didn’t bother to stay and watch.  A few did though, and we got some more footage.
With Stanley Theman and Big Donnie, it was a pretty strange one-two acting punch in a couple of hours.