Oorgo

3 months on a nail?

Hey, so ... how weird is this, I've apparently been driving for 3 months or more with a nail in my tire, a big one. How the hell does that happen?

I noticed a while back a clicking in my front wheel, so I checked it, more than a few times, for rocks etc.. I drove 6 hours at approx 125 kph (78 mph fer ye Yankees), can you imagine if the front tire blew at that speed? Yeah, nasty business.

What's even more bizarre is I didn't even have a slow leak, and it's a cheapass economy tire.

Hey Crackhead

YOU ARE A CRACKHEAD. WHY DON'T YOU OWN A CRACKPIPE?

Narcissism

In a fleeting blast of narcissistic glory I threw a "Best of Me" section to my sidebar. I also deposited a few of my favorite posts, ones I perceived stood out and perhaps showed gears working upstairs in this clatterhouse of a brain I have.

Maybe it was in celebration of my 4620th visitor! Naw, it was just to took my own horn gahdammit! TOOT friggin TOOT!

[resume your regular blogreading now]

ohandifyouthinkofsomeotherpoststhatdeserverecognitionletmeknowiwillthrowthemovertheretoo

Chaos in Cowtown

Well my holiday (such as it was) is over, back at work, grind grind grind.

Quite the interesting weekend though, one of the bands I play in was opening for a big named (not to be named) merengue (pronounced mair-en-gay) bands from New York both Friday and Saturday night. I was fairly excited, even though I'm not a big merengue fan, because they were billed as an 18 piece band, that's gotta be good.

Friday's gig went fairly poorly, we didn't play at our best, it was kind of loose etc. Saturday on the way to Calgary I heard there were a few complaints about the friday gig, but not about OUR band, about the big NY band. Turns out they showed up with 7 singers, a set of congas and a turntable. They went from a cool big live band to a karaoke show.

Saturday we played at the latin festival and it was lots of fun other than the sweltering heat, later that night was our second night opening for the NY band. Everything seemed to be going ok, the crowd was really enjoying what we were doing, my chops felt good, and I wasn't screwing up very often (always good).

The big NY band comes on stage about 45 minutes or more after we get off. It was just as I feared, bad. These 6 guys and 1 girl were up on the stage singing, or some extremely loose definition of the word; it sounded more like a lame dj, not an exciting show worth the $35 admission.

The lady that had organized the event was not happy at all, after their first set she apparently had a conversation with them saying something like "I'm not paying you the 20 some THOUSAND we agreed, as you are not the band that you portrayed yourself to be". Over twenty freaking thousand dollars USD. They asked us to get up and play another set, offering us more money to do so, of course we agreed. As soon as we were ready to play, the dj music went down and one of the putzes who organized the event got on the mike saying how the NY band wouldn't be playing again tonight bla bla bla bla, it didn't sound too flattering even though my Spanish is not that hot. The crowd started yelling and booing and chanting the other bands name. We started playing and they continued for a little bit until they realized how good the music was. In between tunes we still had the odd straggler yelling moronities, but all in all they settled down.

We only were on stage for about 15 minutes when the organizer came up and asked us to stop as there was an incident, the police were there and they were shutting the party down. We stopped, the dj came back on for about 10 minutes, then the lights came up and about 5 police approached the dj, he shut down the music and they announced the party was over because there was an "incident" with the other band in the hallway. You thought they were upset before! Now they started chanting "REFUND! REFUND!" and other obscenities, and 1/2 hour later after 50% of the people STILL hadn't left, we had drunken fucks banging merengue rhythms on the stage, getting up and playing the congas and just being pains in the ass.

I found out later that a member of the other band pushed the organizer lady when she told them she wasn't honoring their contract, so she called the cops and they shut the place down. What kind of cocaine haze were these guys in when they decided that they could get away with a scam like this? Did they actually believe Albertans were so gullible and naive that they wouldn't notice the missing band or the general lack of quality of the music? Maybe they thought there were no latin bands in Alberta and we would worship them like gods when they arrived in their huge Hummer limo. Maybe it was delusions of grandeur for the singers, thinking that THEY were all that mattered in the band. But really, for 20+ K they could ship out at least 4 horn players, percussionists, bass and piano.

The brighter side to all of this, the pressure must have lit a fire in us because we performed better than we have ever before. I had chops I haven't seen before, everything was tight and the rhythm section rocked.

1 - 2 = huh?

So I haven't had much chance to blog this week as you 6 readers have probably noticed, I've been busy not getting anything done in my yard, cleaning carpets and cleaning the house instead. Oh the wonders of 2 days of straight rain.

Anyways, so the mu.nu server went down what... tuesday? Yeah, and so my blog has not changed other than 2 things: I have regular google ads other than ones about blogs or blogging, AND I'm now a Flappy Bird in the TTLB Ecosystem. Oh well I'm sure it's a bit of lag from the server death.

The ads for today were about hair nets and hair cuts and stuff. It's interesting to see them actually friggin work.

Requesting anti-tank support!

So it's the first day of my 5 days off... I've probably killed enough people and died enough times in Battlefield 1942 to fill a medium sized cemetary, but I've also gotten other things accomplished. We're getting X-man's room ready for his toddler bed, cleaning up stuff that should have been done ages ago, and later I'm going to start working on the yard... yikes. Didn't win that lottery, stupid lottery gods...

Posting will be sparce (as it's been lately anyways).

Wheeeee!

Oh man oh man, it's the last 10 minutes of my Friday work day, and it's almost the start of my week off.

I'm excited, oh yeah I almost forgot, I'm scheduled to win the 14 mil lottery tomorrow too, so that will be cool.

The down side to the upcoming week is the foreseen backpain from digging dirt ... raking dirt... and lifting dirt.. that I forsee in the near future.

Hey so I was going to post a before and after picture (beard/goatee) but all the ones I took I hated. I think that may mean I really don't like the after, I saw some better pics of me before, maybe I'll put those up. Of course that would be entirely narcisitic of me though wouldn't it?

Have I mentioned I love fridays at work? We usually have a drink (rye/coke) at around 3, sometimes 2, and bullshit for awhile. Good times

Hmmmm

I don't know what to say

Edit: Oh, maybe this is a good time to post a Too Much Coffee Man comic.

This seems to be a trend

Jack Johnson "Good People"

Whatever you say,
Turn on the boobtube
I'm in the mood to obey
So lead me astray,
And by the way now…

Where'd all the good people go
I've been changing channels
I don't see them on the TV shows
Where'd all the good people go
We got heaps and heaps of what we sow

First it was Sam Roberts "Where have all the good people gone" now it's Jack Johnson, it's a great song if you haven't heard it yet.

I along with many folks lately have been wondering exactly that, where are all the good people, are they laying silent? Are they becoming slowly extinct or endangered? I don't know, but I'm trying to make a point of being nicer to people, saying please and thank you and going out of my way to show my appreciation when people reciprocate.

Less hair but not hairless

Friday I finally had enough of this bad haircut I've had for the past month so I went back to the salon where I got it cut last and got someone else to do it. They did a fine enough job but because it was not too too long, it's now very short (we're talking army short). I've also been wanting to shave my beard down to the way it used to be, just a thin goatee so I decided what a perfect time to do it, one hour before my gig Friday. Yeah, great. So 15 seconds after finishing I regret it, terribly, I'm stomping around the house grumbling "F#$K! I F$#King hate this!" etc..

It seems my beard gave me some definition for my jaw so I might as well have taken an eraser to my jawline, it's almost gone. Oh, and apparently my face has filled out more with age but at the same time with less hair I look younger, maybe 18 maybe 20. Perhaps I need to worry more and get more wrinkles then I'll look my age. It may be possible but I highly doubt it.

On the plus side not many people have laughed and pointed fingers, I say not many because my boss still can't quite get over how difficult I look. One of my co-workers said I look 14, yeah, thanks. People on the street seem to react better to the beardless Dave, especially women. Maybe I don't look like some snotty artsy guy who is going to tell them everything they're doing wrong, maybe the look is softer, friendlier, or maybe some people just have an aversion to beards, or specifically the modified Abe Lincoln.

Thoughts? Beards? Beardless? Fu Manchu? Goatee? Fuzzy stubble? Hairless?

Daaaaviiiid

Fear of the dark, or Lygophobia, yeah I've got it, just like Shank apparently has it. It's not so bad now that I've grown up and have kids etc. but every once and awhile when I'm sleep deprived it seems to rear it's ugly head, it's definitely not as bad as Ted's appararent fear of household appliances.

The root of my fears probably stems from my 2 older sisters, one 5 one 7 years older. When I was say... about 4 or so, I distinctly remember them torturing me on "babysitting" nights. I'd be doing something, who knows what, and suddenly all the lights would go out and they'd be running around saying "Daaaaaviiiid..... DaaAAAAaaaviiiid"... (Funny... I get the sudden urge to punch someone right in the kisser). And of course that would result me yelling, screaming "I know you're there" "I know you're there" etc. etc. until either I frantically found the light switch or they gave in and turned the lights back on. They apologized many many years later for it, or at least my oldest sister did, but I still wanna give them a swift kick.

The house we lived in when first moving to Alberta was another contributor to the fear. It was about 60 years old or more, and many local people new it was haunted when we moved in. Not until we had been living there for a good 10 years did we find out that about 4 people had died in the house, one in a not so natural death. Both parents who built the house died in it, one son apparently didn't want to go to war or something, so he hung himself in the attic, and the other died of a heart attack in the room that would be my parents. They didn't find the last one for a good 2 week or more, in July. An odd nasty odor could be smelled in my parents room when the wind was right.

We noticed the ghostly housemates early on, things like books falling off the music holder on the upright piano down onto keys while we're eating supper in the next room (no-one in the piano room). Mom had a guitar hanging in their bedroom, we were all sitting in an adjacent room and heard it strumming, we all went to look, no one there. My oldest sister slept on the second floor, one of the bedrooms under the attic, she used to hear footsteps upstairs all the time, like someone walking around.

My own personal experiences were bizarre. I was almost asleep one night (I also slept on the second floor) I turned over and noticed kind of a fuzzy figure tiptoeing into my room, then disappearing into the window. My parents told me that it sounded like I jumped from the top step to the bottom, and came skittering into their room, I didn't sleep in my bed that night. One morning I got up earlier than everyone else, in our stairs down to the kitchen there was a sliding peephole so you could look down into the kitchen, I looked through it and saw something I denied for a long time. The cupboard doors were swinging, and not just a couple but almost all of them. I ran back to bed in disbelief and tried to go back to sleep.

You can imagine why my lygophobia was so strong. The fear of the dark was still alive and well in our trip back home from Victoria, at about 2 in the morning we stopped at a roadside stop for a nap, at some point I woke up to relieve myself, got out of the car, started my business, thought I heard something in the bush, hurriedly finished, got in the car and drove the rest of the way home... it being something like 5 in the morning, bleary eyed and delirious. Of course that time of day in Jasper National Park is scary because the wildlife take back the road, they are everywhere, it's like mountain goat slalom with your car.

Weather the storm

As the rampant abuse and madness continues on in the world of media and wanna-be-media, as some opinions are stomped into the ground using name calling and ignorance, and the din of the yelling is too loud to hear yourself think, I think it's time to turn around, take a stand and stop feeding the frenzy.

Silence, give them silence.
When logic and fact fail, stop all conversation and turn your back.

Silence is more powerful than pandemonium. In a recent parade in my home town, folks cheered for an opposition party leader but when the current premier showed up, silence. It was more deafening than any jeers or shouts, saying he's not worth the air coming out of your lungs, not worth the vibration of your vocal chords. Just think of the "silent treatment" you were given as a child by your mother when she was really infuriated by you.

Let them scream at the brick wall. Brick walls give no feedback, they don't feed the frenzy by retort, they simply stand, silent. There is no argument when there is no one to argue with. Yell at your wall in your room, tell me how rewarding that is.

When the time is right, speak in volume. When it comes time to vote, speak then, but speak with your pen. If there is an issue that affects you, write to your local legislator, speak/write to like-minded people and encourage them to do the same.

Return namecalling with nothing.
Liberal, redneck, peacenik etc.. these words are meant to inflame. If the fuel they are trying to ignite is dampened by common sense and calm, there is no flame except perhaps contempt and disbelief at the ignorance. My wife once said, after hearing me swear about something "Could you not have come up with a more intelligent way of saying that?". She was right, bursts of profanity shows lack of self control and lack of diction, I'm working on it but I have a long way to go.

"The fool speaks, the wise man listens." as the African Proverb says.

n.b. I'm not saying that I haven't done my fair share of inflammatory statements etc. but I think it's time to stop the foolishness.

Cursed by the Goooooogle

I have been cursed by the google ad gods.
All I see now are ads about blogs
Tried all I can, screwed with some things
Now I'm writing a pathetic limerick that doesn't even work.

[voice of good] The village store is nearly out of food! [whisper] deaaath

Oh I'm excited, the sequel of one of my favorite games ever is coming out in Sept 27 or Oct 14th..

If you haven't seen them yet, here are some screenshots of Black and White 2. I want to have this monkey as a creature. He looks creepy but cool.

barely contained exuberance

Caca Fracas

Ok I don't know if you guys have heard about this, and yeah, ok I may be way behind in the world (what else is new). It's a story about an internet mob that created itself to destroy a young woman's reputation for simply not cleaning up after her dog in a subway in Korea.

Online discussion groups crackled with chatter about every shred of the woman's life that could be found, and with debate over whether the Internet mob had gone too far. The incident became national news in South Korea and even was discussed in Sunday sermons in Korean churches in the Washington area.

Pure madness, but entirely believable, especially when you look at the size of the blog mobs that are out there. What would happen if someone did something that mu.nu folks didn't agree with as a whole... would they rise up, gang up and smackdown that person? Probably. Would they go to the extent of finding out everything about that person, where they lived, history of their life, sexual practices, etc.? Who knows, people act strangely when in large groups, and when all their peers are egging them on and ranting and raving. Look at the madness around the mobs for/against the braindead lady whose husband wanted to end life support and starve her to death. (purposefully leaving out name) That was nuts!

Something to ponder when you are lashing out in a fit of crazed lunacy about someone spitting on the sidewalk, or forgetting to zip up their fly, or picking their nose in their car, or not flushing the toilet. All social norms yes, but to what extent should we enforce them or feel entitled to enforce them?

Chemistry will save our asses

Unfortunately I almost failed Chem 30 so... I'm no help at all.

These guys over at Air Products though.... they've designed a pretty sweet Power and Hydrogen Station

The HES ... is being designed to co-produce electricity and hydrogen for vehicle fueling and electrical power from a single system capable of using a variety of gaseous feedstocks such as natural gas, propane and anaerobic digester gas from municipal and industrial wastewater treatment facilities.

Future auto mechanic stereotypes will have to shift from grease monkey to the thick-rimmed lab coat wearing stereotype. You'll have to know more about resistance, amperage, ohms and all that stuff, than compression, timing, oil pressure etc. It's a whole new world baby. Shank, you're gonna hate it man.

Loooong Weekend

Things that can make your long weekend seem extra long:

1. Weddings
2. Inlaws
3. Family pictures taken outdoors

Ok so we were dragged invited to a wedding which took place outdoors on a farm on Saturday about 45 minutes out of Grande Prairie. We were bribed enticed there by the fact Ambers mom booked us a room with a king size bed and a jacuzzi, but the drawbacks of course filled up a list of it's own:

1. We couldn't afford the gas, the dog kennel, the present, etc.
2. We couldn't actually get a dog kennel booked for Ajax, since it was last minute and it was the long weekend
3. It's on a damn farm in the middle of nowhere.. with inlaws

Luckily our friend Dan was able to drop by a few times to our house to look in on the dog, and I've had enough gigs in the past while so we're not hardcore in the red.

The drive was fine, nice weather, Xavier was very good, he's a good traveller because everything is exciting to him, clouds, hay bales, cows. The car ran perfectly fine, other than the leak we thought we had fixed in the AC is not fixed, so the condensation leaks into the passenger seat, Amber gets wet feet.

The bride was beautiful, the dress was ridiculous though, here they are on a farm where there's grass and mud and cow dung in some places and she's got a train(sp?).. YEah, that's what you want, something draggin around behind you..in the aforementioned places. Oh but they had Corona so that brought them up in my books, but then they made you pay for it so... neutrality it is.

Weather was nice, cloudy but no rain for the wedding day, sunny and hot the next day for the family pick chores (yeeehaw! We is city slickers but we is on tha fahm! Weehoo!). The unfortunate thing about Ambers family is they are all fair skinned, so ... yeah, sunburn city. Stupid people had a 9 month old out unprotected for 2 hours, poor baby.

The best thing about the whole trip was spending time with MY family. We don't have many days where we spend that much time together, so that was nice. OH yeah and making her cousin uncomfortable (the one that's feuding with her), that is always fun.