June 29, 2005
Ralphie, are you actually in the closet?
Could our premier be any MORE redneck and homophobic? (notice the lowercase p in Premier, that's how much he deserves the title) CBC News: Alberta may stop solemnizing marriages: Klein
Is he perhaps a closet homosexual, and that's why he is so afraid of a couple of people signing a document noting they are in love? Didn't he read the f#$@ing clause about Churches having the choice whether they wish to perform same-sex marriages?
I'd say he's got a nice set of +3 rose colored glasses of denial +6 vs reality +10 vs anyone who doesn't agree with him.
Song-a-day
After last nights Jam, a list of daily music stuff I have to do this summer
(this post is just a reminder to me)
1. Pick a new song
2. Play the melody
2. Listen to it (if I have it)
3. Play the chord changes on the piano
4. Practice soloing over the changes w/ trumpet, with metronome clickin'
June 27, 2005
Where hoochie mamas go to die
So I was at a gig HERE on Saturday. A country bar turned latin bar turned Friday night latin bar / Saturday night generic hip-hop/rap trash magnet bar. They had a dj sitting in, who obviously had no clue about the concept of taste, subtlety or the fact the place is supposed to be a latin bar. Why the f#$% do you hire a latin band if you are going to play f#$%ing shizzle fizzle music with the bass at a cardiac arrest volume?
They have latin dancing lessons on Friday nights, which is very well attended, they teach 3 or 4 styles of dancing and it's alot of fun. It's not completely packed but the people do drink, dance like crazy and the atmosphere is great. Saturday night the place turns into cheezy music and thug / hoochie mama night.
Your average woman on a attending Saturday night HERE has way too little clothes on for their body type. If you have two sets of hips when you wear tight jeans, or if you have an extra couple waists when you wear a miniskirt, maybe you shouldn't be wearing them. If your body greatly resembles an overstuffed sausage in the dress you are in, don't wear that dress. IF you that that just having big breasts is enough to shadow the fact that your regular diet is donairs and butterfingers, you are deluding yourself and damaging the vision of those around you.
The club used to be nice, almost classy, in fact. The bathrooms were always clean, you never had to wade through piss all over the floor from the toilet overflowing. You never had to wonder whether if you parked around back you'd walk in on some nogoodniks exchanging money/drugs, or piss the wrong person off and get shot.
I don't understand why you would want to have rivaling musical styles in the same club. What happens is you get the spanish speaking crowd coming, because they think it's a latin club, and then you get the black/white/other folk coming because they think it's a rap/hip-hop dance bar. Conflicting styles of music and people breeds conflict, and that's definitely been on the increase. My neighbors friends were both shot when they tangled with a guy outside the club.. Apparently the guy was part of a gang, and a week or so later his buddies shot them.
Saturday nights while the dj is on the dance floor is full of shuffling wiggling people, then when the band comes on the change in style is ridiculous; you go from Snoop Dogg to the band playing La Sonora Carruseles or Poncho Sanchez. The bands must feel so unwelcomed as the dance floor clears when they get up on the bandstand.
June 24, 2005
Birthday present
This year instead of buying myself a present, I get the joy of picking out a new tv. Oh joy it is. The old one reminds me of the 20 year old Zenith we had on the farm, where everything was a neat variant of pink and the greens are blue, the blues are purple... etc. Luckily now a replacement is 1/2 the price of the original, but god, I really don't wanna shell out the $300 CDN +tax for something I rarely watch.
What I REALLY want to spend the money on is this Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT... but that's another story.
This time of the year always seems to suck, so many things I want to do and no effin cash.
*update*
Well I spent more money than I planned, the flatscreen model of the tv was available for a deal, and then of course there's an environment levy of $25 that you pay on top... and $15 extra for 3 year extended warranty, grand total $427... yikes. Now no toys for Dave for many months... feh.
June 23, 2005
the jcb song
I was over at Geekward Ho! and she pointed to this wonderful music video called the jcb song". You have to go watch it, it's so simplistic yet tastefully done, and reminds me so much of riding on my dad's tractor on the farm when I was little.
Especially the line about the engine vibrating so hard it made his bum numb.
June 22, 2005
Why I got my driving license early
Taken directly from a schoolbus ride when I was in grade 11, upon the first ever black family moving into town:
Hick1: Hyuk! I saw a black person today in town!
Hick2: Really? Did they do anythin' diffrint?
Hick1: No but they sure wuz black!
June 21, 2005
Childhood Mememememe
Rocket Jones tagged me again, this time with a meme about my childhood. Once again I didn't catch it until later, this time I noticed a referral in my sitemeter from SilverBlue, went there and saw my name as one of the unsuspecting victims...
Five Things I Miss From My Childhood
1. The Farm. I whined, complained, bitched etc. when I lived on the farm about how it was boring, nothing to do, and then when there was stuff to do there was TOO much stuff to do. Now I miss the solitude, the quiet, the nature, farm animals, and not having neighbors breathing down my neck because I have something they don't like the look of in my back yard. If ever I were to come into mega money I would move to an acreage, I need more room than these claustrophobia inducing city lots.
2. Our Piano. I used to spend hours on my parents upright piano ever week, begrudgingly practicing my scales and etudes, and then later in life composing songs. We don't have a piano yet, just a little keyboard and it isn't the same. There's something about the feel of the wood, the ivory (it was old so it was real elephant tusk) and the resonance of the strings of a real piano, it inspires all by itself even if not perfectly in tune.
3. Great Neighbors. There were two houses of French people who lived within walking distance, one a retired couple and the other one was Mrs. Parkinson who had long outlived her husband. When I was a kid I regularly visted both, they were very nice people who I tagged along with around their yard/house, and of course they usually gave me chocolate bars. At Christmas time our family would go carolling to their houses and most times we'd go in for hot tea or hot chocolate and treats, it was nice. There was also a Ukrainian family who lived about a mile off named the Popowich's, we would sometimes go over for coffee and not 5 minutes after sitting down the entire table would be covered with food, amazing food.
4. Innocence. I had unwaivering confidence in everything my church / parents thought, I believed everything strongly and unquestioning. Somewhere along the way I started questioning and now things aren't so clear, and I see things I never ever wanted to see. People also aren't as nice as I originally percieved.
5. Family get-togethers Every year many times a year we would take the trek down to southern Saskatchewan for family reunions/weddings/etc. We'd have sing-alongs, campfires, potlucks and tours driving through the country.
Wow, that was harder than I thought it would be.
The rules:
Remove the #1 item from the following list, bump everyone up one place and add your blog’s name in the #5 spot. You need to actually link to each of the blogs for the link-whorage aspect of this fiendish meme to kick in.
Note-It Posts
Eat The Lettuce
Prochein Amy
Rocket Jones
Oorgo Blog
Next, select four unsuspecting victims, list and link to them.
June 20, 2005
Wet weekend
Wow, what a mess Alberta is! Calgary's got roads washed away, Red Deer is on a state of emergency, and Edmonton has rising rivers flooding homes.We are among the lucky ones, living on higher ground, and with a fully functioning sump pump.
My car is not quite so lucky though.
Last summer the inside of my car smelled mildly like a swamp or really dirty feet, water had gotten into the footwell in the back seat and had been sitting there for awhile (the mess and crap in the back seat hid it from view for quite awhile). Dad and I found a portion of the weather stripping that had become unstuck and affixed it back into place, all fixed right? No.
Over the weekend in the hard rain I noticed it once again had gotten wet in the back seat, no where but in the foot well. F$#@! THAT means that the car has rusted or been punctured underneath and is leaking water up into the car. I understand that the car is 12 years old, but it must last us at least another year or so until I can work up the means to dig myself into a car loan/lease.
We're off to my sisters on the second weekend of July, my parents will also be there visiting. My Dad is bringing some break parts for the car, hopefully we can get a piece of sheet metal and plug up the friggin hole in the flooring. This car and my bank account would be both be in the garbage if it wasn't for my Dad.
June 17, 2005
OMG OMG Fathers day gift fo sho
I was reading the Register today and came across something you can get me for fathers day - a Windup TV Remote
June 16, 2005
Tarpops and other treats
Some bits of things that Xavier has done to make me laugh lately:
A couple of days ago I was asking him what he wanted for supper, he wanted what he called "Tarpops", I pondered for a second, asked him again, same response, Tarpops. Ok, I thought for a bit , tried asking him "Is it .." for a few things that I knew he liked, or that sounded similar and no, none of them were Tarpops. Ok.I picked him up and he looked in the fridge "hmmm" he says, with his hand on his chin... (I chuckled a little, he's such a mimic), nothing peaked his interest. I put him down asked him what tarpops were, he looks at me as if I'm partially retarded and says "Tarpops!".
Fine, I'll figure it out, asked mommy she didn't know. I went to cooking supper and after a bit it came to me, so I asked him "Pork chops?". "Yes!" he says "Tarpops!". I laughed a little, and I could hear mommy laughing hysterically from the bedroom.
Sometimes he's such a serious kid even though he's only 2 1/2 now,
X-man (very seriously): Mommy?
Mommy: yes?
X-man: Change bum. (nodding)
Mommy: You need your bum changed?
X-man: Yes, come on. *grabs her hand*
And he's on to our tricks too. When he was sick last we tried so many different ways (I can't count them) to get him to take his cold medicine. On the penulimate attempt at giving him the tablet we tried replacing his vitamin with the medicine.
X-man I told you I don't Yike! *shudders* (after I popped a bit into his mouth and he chewed it a bit)
X-man: You can't fool me, I don't yike.
June 15, 2005
June 13, 2005
The past is now
Available! You can go back in time to the early years of my blog!
Bore yourself to tears with the drivel that is my inanity!
You know you want it!
It's a great substitute for sleeping pills, better than counting fleas or cat hair, it's even better than watching reruns of Martha Stewart!
Hey, but seriously, my posts are all restored, all the way back to Jan 2004, something like 213 posts in total. Thanks to Pixy at mu.nu.
Now get reading there are gems there underneath the dog poo.
Dragged, kicking and screaming
Every weekday I speak with people, some kind and patient, some rushed but still kind, others who are having a crappy day and whose only desire is to be difficult and inflict pain. Every weekday I talk to them, and attempt to walk them through things they have no clue about, sometimes almost dragging them, kicking and screaming into troubleshooting their problems. It always baffles me how some are afraid of the computer, literally afraid. They are unsure of themselves to the point of asking every time "Is that right click or left click?", "Do I double-click?". So many times I want to just scream, and I'm serious here, scream.
It would be a perfect day if I could have this recording at the beginning of every call:
"Thanks for calling, remember you are calling me to ask for help, I am not trying to make your life more miserable than it already is.
Please refrain from asking whether it's a right-click or left, left is to select, right is for options REMEMBER THAT.
Please just shut the $#@ up and listen, I'm trying to solve something without actually being there, YOU try fixing a broken light in a strangers house with a blindfold on.
If possible, please take your drugs before calling tech support, we don't need you going off on a tear about your kids or your dog.
Please relax, I realize you are rushed, and over-worked, but hello!! you are calling tech support, we are just as swamped as you are and make less money.
Thanks again for calling, please click 1 once you have completed the above."
June 08, 2005
Blogger burnout ?
I was reading todays wilwheatondotnet and he linked to Tony Pierce's "how to tell you are experiencing blogger burnout".
Lately I've been experiencing #6, concerning myself with hits, popularity and such. Yeah, it's dumb, and I admit it, why does one do it? I have no idea, maybe it's when you start typing as if you are speaking to other people instead of writing? I am a horrible public speaker, so I can see how that would translate badly. Does it really matter? Hell no, why am I posting about it? Cause it popped into my 'ead.
I've had some of the other ones too, but not to a great extent, although #7 is haunting me some too... but it kind of goes with #6. "when you believe the lie that what you think doesn't matter." Getting caught up in a popularity contest also tends to make you believe if people don't comment and visit that what you say doesn't matter. Hand in hand in my head.
blogs and bumper stickers
As I was heading home last night I saw a couple of bumper stickers that made me shake my head, one was "Marriage = " a cartoon man + cartoon woman (y'know, the ones from the public washroom doors) and another was something about guns and liberals. Last night I was also browsing through a swack of blogs, and was amazed at the amount of political, right-wing conservative and/or pro-gun and/or "anti-pc" and/or one or two left-wing blogs. I started to think of how these two things go together, blogs and bumper stickers.
Are blogs the 21st century version of, or in some way the evolution of the bumper sticker? It's definitely a bandwagon thing in many cases, one person gets a sticker, their friend sees it, they put it on their car, etc. etc. Now it's the same thing with blogs, we see a link, link to it and link link link etc.
Bumper stickers were/are used to convey mostly strong feelings about certain things whether political, environmental, emotional, or of course comedic, bizarre, and radio station stickers. Blogs fall right in line there too: you have funny blogs, family blogs, bizarre story blogs, ranting anti-this-or-that blogs.
Bumper stickers when applied en masse become invisible and meaningless, just like some of the icons, images and stories across blogland: how many times do you actually look at sidebar icons? Things are funny/interesting the first 2 or 3 times then boring or annoying the next 30,000. Reading the same story or different rants all saying basically the same thing adds up to following a van with the bumper sticker "Get in shut up hold on".
June 07, 2005
Miscellaneous stuff
TTLB Ecosystem - I couldn't wait for the dang thing to change my URL (mostly because it didn't seem to be working no matter what I tried), so I added oorgo.mu.nu as a new blog. We'll see how that goes.
Traffic - I'm still getting mostly hits on a post I did about Gurmant Grewal, and it almost seems I've lost actual hits, people reading the blog. Is that because it's almost summer and blog traffic is lower? Is it because I said some shit that pissed a bunch of people off and they stopped reading? Or is it just because I don't post about interesting stuff anymore... not that I ever did. OR is it because I whine and complain about how bad my blogging is? Comments, feedback, tripe welcome.
June 06, 2005
38 d to 36 y
Not that I think anyone who frequents this place has money to throw around, and I'm not blegging (a new term I learned today from Jen) but my birthday is coming in mid July and I just thought I'd pass on some things I would be pleasantly surprised to receive if you're so inclined.
Oh and if you've noticed I've done some housecleaning and my sidebar looks more logical... and I added a plug I received from blog extraordinaire RP.
June 03, 2005
Creepy
I don't know who's creepier, the guy who cut Neil Armstrongs hair, collected and sold it on eBay for $3K or the weirdo that bought it for $3K ... f*** man, my last car almost cost that much!
June 01, 2005
Family on the Foci
For the people not pouring over search engine results for Gurmant Grewal or Evangeline Lily:
I realize I'm lapsing in my proud father duties, as I have failed to notify people of the impending expansion of my immediate family.
Amber is due early Dec. so that puts the pregnancy at 11 wks. It's a little stressful to me, because of past complications, but I'm getting more excited the further we progress. Unfortunately she's not feeling all that hot, afternoon sickness, headaches, and some back pain if she over stresses herself. I'm just hoping it doesn't turn into a whole swack of bedrest and such like the last two times.
As for gender, I'm not sure, and it really doesn't matter one bit, but I have a feeling it's a girl. Her mom is already buying boys clothes, it's probably because everyone in the family has been having boys. Just to spite her I hope it's a girl.