Category Archives: Uncategorized

Last night, for whatever reasons, I didn’t feel like going to bed at the usual time (and when I finally did go to bed, I was wide awake), so I was up until 2am, farting around on the computer.  Actually, farting around on the blog here, seeing what’s what.  I spent some time trying to increase the number of archive pages that are listed.  Currently there are only ten month’s worth of archives.  Since I’ve been doing this since 2003, there are many more months that are at least two-clicks away (Can You Imagine!).
Failing to find a solution, I sent off an email to the Typepad people, asking how to rectify that issue.
This morning when I wake up, the reply is waiting in my inbox.  Prompt service.
Unfortunately, one cannot list all the monthly archives on the ‘front page’.  It’s limited to ten.  But, Carla suggested, one could add a Typelist link to my full archives page (even though clicking on the word ‘Archives’ achieves the same thing).  So, that’s what I’ve done.
I’m happy enough.

Tonight on Canada Now, there was a report about high storm surges due to the recent inclement weather.  A part of the report showed (what I assume to be) a fisherman standing on a rocky shore.  He was holding the  microphone, which was odd in and of itself, and talking about the potential dangers of the tide pulling the earth back into the water.  The reporter (off camera) asks, barely heard (because the guy being interviewed held the mic): “are you worried about having to protect your yard, fields and whatnot?”
I found the *unprofessional* use of the word “whatnot” rather humourous.

That is all.

I may have written about this neurosis of mine in a previous post, but it bears re-posting because it’s still, inexplicably, present in my life.
I have a fear that if my son sleeps longer than his usual wake-up time, that he has died in his sleep.  When he was a baby, and he slept beyond his anticipated waking time, I would begin to think that he wasn’t waking up because he had died.  Of course, as I was talking myself into this irrational fear, I was
also simultaneously telling myself how unlikely that was, and how silly
I was for still fretting over such a thing.  Yet, no matter how much I tried to convince myself that I was being irrational, the thought just wouldn’t leave my mind until he woke up. Sometimes, as minutes passed, I would be almost totally convinced that
he had died.  I’d prepare myself to walk into his room and see his
lifeless body.  When he was very young, the fear had, perhaps, a greater potential to be true, what with SIDS and all…
He never did die.  Not yet, at least.  Now that he’s 12, I still find myself (not as often, mind you) preparing myself to see him dead when I walk in to his room.
These days, he’s usually up well before 9am each day, whether he has to be or not.  I got up at 10-ish and realised that he was still in his bedroom.  Notice I didn’t just say “realised he was still asleep in his bedroom”. Yes, again I began to think that, since he wasn’t up, he was dead.  And so began another battle in my mind regarding the life-status of my son.  As much as I’d tell myself the notion is preposterous, and as much as I’d agree, completely, with that line of thought, the ‘he is dead’ concern wouldn’t completely leave my mind.
He came skipping down the stairs at around 10:45.  I think it was the latest that he’s ever slept in.
Now that he’s entering those awkward teen years, I’m going to have to adjust my “he’s dead” clock to accomodate his upcoming predisposition to sleeping in.

I may have written about this neurosis of mine in a previous post, but it bears re-posting because it’s still, inexplicably, present in my life.
I have a fear that if my son sleeps longer than his usual wake-up time, that he has died in his sleep.  When he was a baby, and he slept beyond his anticipated waking time, I would begin to think that he wasn’t waking up because he had died.  Of course, as I was talking myself into this irrational fear, I was

also simultaneously telling myself how unlikely that was, and how silly

I was for still fretting over such a thing.  Yet, no matter how much I tried to convince myself that I was being irrational, the thought just wouldn’t leave my mind until he woke up. Sometimes, as minutes passed, I would be almost totally convinced that

he had died.  I’d prepare myself to walk into his room and see his

lifeless body.  When he was very young, the fear had, perhaps, a greater potential to be true, what with SIDS and all…
He never did die.  Not yet, at least.  Now that he’s 12, I still find myself (not as often, mind you) preparing myself to see him dead when I walk in to his room.
These days, he’s usually up well before 9am each day, whether he has to be or not.  I got up at 10-ish and realised that he was still in his bedroom.  Notice I didn’t just say “realised he was still asleep in his bedroom”. Yes, again I began to think that, since he wasn’t up, he was dead.  And so began another battle in my mind regarding the life-status of my son.  As much as I’d tell myself the notion is preposterous, and as much as I’d agree, completely, with that line of thought, the ‘he is dead’ concern wouldn’t completely leave my mind.
He came skipping down the stairs at around 10:45.  I think it was the latest that he’s ever slept in.
Now that he’s entering those awkward teen years, I’m going to have to adjust my “he’s dead” clock to accomodate his upcoming predisposition to sleeping in.

Whether you celebrate the winter solstice, the birth of Jesus, your African roots, the birth of Mithra, Hannukah, or just that it’s a Sunday, I hope your day is pleasant.

I saw this hypothetical question asked elsewhere and it immediately piqued my curiosity.

How many 5 year-olds could you take on at once?

Here are the factors to take into consideration:

You, nor the five-year olds, have any foreign objects.  It’s hand-to-hand only, and no protective padding, other than a cup, and normal, everyday street clothes.
The arena is roughly the size of a basketball court, and it’s enclosed.  Nobody can touch the walls.
You lose when you are knocked unconscious.  They lose when the final five-year old is knocked unconscious.  Once a kid is knocked unconscious, that kid is “out”.
The kids all receive one day of hand-to-hand combat training,  designed specifically to teach them how to team up to take down one adult.   You receive one hour of “counter-tactics” training.
The kids are motivated enough to not get scared, regardless of what occurs.  Even the very last one will give it their all.
The kids are all “average” healthy kids, half of the number you choose will be female, the other half will be male.

So, how many could you take on without being defeated?

I think I’d try to take on 12. 

The Fam and I went to see King Kong at a Wednesday afternoon matinee.  I like the holiday matinees because they usually aren’t as busy as regular movie nights and matinees.  There weren’t a lot of people in the theatre for this showing, and that is always good.

The movie was fantastic.  Yes, perhaps a bit too long (but still entertaining) to get to Skull Island, but man oh man what a rip-roaring old-fashioned adventure once we got there.  It was pure excitement and thrill.  Fun fun fun.
My only complaint with the movie were the actions of the heroine at the end of the movie.  Without spoiling it for those who haven’t seen it, I’ll just say that the efforts she makes at the end of the movie are wholly not believable.  I don’t care what your motivations are, but when you’re standing on a 15 foot wide dome plate, a thousand feet in the air, you’re going to act like you’re afraid of falling.  And, I may be wrong, but I believe the winds at the top of the Empire State Building are blowing a lot stronger than it appeared in the film.

So, a great adventure movie that is only slightly tarnished by the ludicrousness of the final scenes at the top of the building.

Absolutely worth seeing at the theatre.

You know how a lot of people who are overweight complain that their problem is glanular?  It’s not that they overeat or eat bad food, necessarily, it’s just in their genes.

Well, what happens to starving Africans who have the same glanular problem?  Do they end up being Super Models?

Maybe this will kick start my desire to post to this blog again.
Here we go, the first ten songs to randomly show up on my iTunes playlist:

1)  Elvis Costello – Tokyo Storm Warning:  I quite like this song.  It “moves”, you know?  Elvis’s voice is fully there, vitriolically spitting out the words, as only he can.  I think Costello has one of the best voices in Rock.  I’d put him up there with John Lennon and Joe Strummer.  This is from his Blood & Chocolate LP.  I have the impression that this album was underappreciated.  Not by me, though…. Okay, it’s been a while since I’ve heard this song, and after typing all this, it’s still on.  I realise it’s 6:25 long.  Probably a minute or two too long.  I like quick, in and out songs, and this one just wore out its welcome at the five minute mark.

2) The White Stripes – Let’s Build A Home: From the De Stijl album.  The White Stripes were all that for a couple of months.  They are still churning out some pretty good material, but I’ve pretty much lost my woody for them.  This song is pretty much a bit of nothing.  But well done, rocking nothing-ness.

3) The Dry Branch Fire Squad – We Believe In Happy Endings:  I don’t know anything about this group, but it comes from a compilation album of Rounder Records recording artists.  This is a right purty song, kind of a slow-tempoed bluegrass thingy.  Nice close harmonies, simple instrumentation.  I could listen to this kind of music all day long.

4) Baaba Maal/Monsour Seck – Lam Tooro:  Apparently this comes from an album called Djam Leeli.  This is one of those tracks that I read about, positively reviewed on some music blog, and download out of curiosity.  It then gets added to my large library and gets forgotten about until it pops up in some random shuffle, like this one.  This is World Music, I suppose.   It’s not doing much for me.  I’m trying to decide whether to keep it in my library, or delete it.  I’m kind of like a pack-rat when it comes to songs.  I hate to delete anything, unless it is really unappetising to me.  Because you never know, the next time you hear it, you might be in the right mood and there it’ll be.  But, you know, I don’t think I’m going to bother to save this one.  It’s just a bit too much of a repetitive loop of a guitar phrase, going nowhere really.  To the Dust Bin with you.  Nothing personal, ‘kay?

5) Neil Young – Sugar Mountain: From the Decade album.  Classic live acoustic Neil Young.

6) Hank Williams – I’m A Long Gone Daddy:  Hank has at least three types of songs.  Heartbreaking songs of misery.  Lighthearted songs of misery.  And religious songs of misery.  This fun song falls into the middle category.  A great song.

7) Tears For Fears – Head Over Heels:  One of those 80’s duos where you wondered exactly was the other guy’s role.  This song has a great big 80’s sound.  Just listen to those trumpet-blast keyboard stings.  Somewhere, right now, Molly Ringwald’s ears are perking up.  In 2 more minutes, they’ll perk down and she’ll return to present-day anonymity.

8) They Might Be Giants – Chess Piece Face:  TMBG make kids music for grown-ups.  Totally off the wall nonense type stuff a lot of the time.  What the hell is this song about?  Whatever happened to Chess Piece Face?

9) Elvis Costello – All This Useless Beauty:  A second Elvis song in the ten.  Well, whattya know.  I’ve always loved the title of this song.  The song itself is a lovely piano ballad.  What shall we do with all this useless beauty?  I’d like to see the musical that this song could be from.  Which reminds me, I’ve had the idea to write a musical but use already exsiting songs from other artists as the score.  It would be great!  Yeah.  It would.

10) John Lennon – Real Love:  From the posthumous Wonsaponatime album.  This sounds like a demo version of the song.  Sometimes I get sad thinking that John Lennon is gone, lamenting all the great songs that he might’ve written if he were still alive.  This song usually takes me to that sad place.

Maybe this will kick start my desire to post to this blog again.
Here we go, the first ten songs to randomly show up on my iTunes playlist:

1)  Elvis Costello – Tokyo Storm Warning:  I quite like this song.  It “moves”, you know?  Elvis’s voice is fully there, vitriolically spitting out the words, as only he can.  I think Costello has one of the best voices in Rock.  I’d put him up there with John Lennon and Joe Strummer.  This is from his Blood & Chocolate LP.  I have the impression that this album was underappreciated.  Not by me, though…. Okay, it’s been a while since I’ve heard this song, and after typing all this, it’s still on.  I realise it’s 6:25 long.  Probably a minute or two too long.  I like quick, in and out songs, and this one just wore out its welcome at the five minute mark.

2) The White Stripes – Let’s Build A Home: From the De Stijl album.  The White Stripes were all that for a couple of months.  They are still churning out some pretty good material, but I’ve pretty much lost my woody for them.  This song is pretty much a bit of nothing.  But well done, rocking nothing-ness.

3) The Dry Branch Fire Squad – We Believe In Happy Endings:  I don’t know anything about this group, but it comes from a compilation album of Rounder Records recording artists.  This is a right purty song, kind of a slow-tempoed bluegrass thingy.  Nice close harmonies, simple instrumentation.  I could listen to this kind of music all day long.

4) Baaba Maal/Monsour Seck – Lam Tooro:  Apparently this comes from an album called Djam Leeli.  This is one of those tracks that I read about, positively reviewed on some music blog, and download out of curiosity.  It then gets added to my large library and gets forgotten about until it pops up in some random shuffle, like this one.  This is World Music, I suppose.   It’s not doing much for me.  I’m trying to decide whether to keep it in my library, or delete it.  I’m kind of like a pack-rat when it comes to songs.  I hate to delete anything, unless it is really unappetising to me.  Because you never know, the next time you hear it, you might be in the right mood and there it’ll be.  But, you know, I don’t think I’m going to bother to save this one.  It’s just a bit too much of a repetitive loop of a guitar phrase, going nowhere really.  To the Dust Bin with you.  Nothing personal, ‘kay?

5) Neil Young – Sugar Mountain: From the Decade album.  Classic live acoustic Neil Young.

6) Hank Williams – I’m A Long Gone Daddy:  Hank has at least three types of songs.  Heartbreaking songs of misery.  Lighthearted songs of misery.  And religious songs of misery.  This fun song falls into the middle category.  A great song.

7) Tears For Fears – Head Over Heels:  One of those 80’s duos where you wondered exactly was the other guy’s role.  This song has a great big 80’s sound.  Just listen to those trumpet-blast keyboard stings.  Somewhere, right now, Molly Ringwald’s ears are perking up.  In 2 more minutes, they’ll perk down and she’ll return to present-day anonymity.

8) They Might Be Giants – Chess Piece Face:  TMBG make kids music for grown-ups.  Totally off the wall nonense type stuff a lot of the time.  What the hell is this song about?  Whatever happened to Chess Piece Face?

9) Elvis Costello – All This Useless Beauty:  A second Elvis song in the ten.  Well, whattya know.  I’ve always loved the title of this song.  The song itself is a lovely piano ballad.  What shall we do with all this useless beauty?  I’d like to see the musical that this song could be from.  Which reminds me, I’ve had the idea to write a musical but use already exsiting songs from other artists as the score.  It would be great!  Yeah.  It would.

10) John Lennon – Real Love:  From the posthumous Wonsaponatime album.  This sounds like a demo version of the song.  Sometimes I get sad thinking that John Lennon is gone, lamenting all the great songs that he might’ve written if he were still alive.  This song usually takes me to that sad place.