Here’s an excellent anti-whaling video I just had to share with you all. I don’t really have anything to add to what he said. It makes sense to me.
I have no idea which way President Obama will go on strengthening the International Whaling Commission’s ban on whaling. I haven’t been all that encouraged by him lately. I did sign the petition, however, and hope you do as well.
Douglas Adams author of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, died May 11, 2001. Two weeks later, fans of his work created Towel Day. According to this article at Wired.com, D. Clyde Williamson made the initial proposal May 14, 2001, in the “Binary Freedom” forum at System Toolbox:
Douglas Adams will be missed by his fans worldwide. So that all his fans everywhere can pay tribute to this genius, I propose that two weeks after his passing (May 25, 2001) be marked as “Towel Day”. All Douglas Adams fans are encouraged to carry a towel with them for the day.
Make sure that the towel is conspicuous — use it as a talking point to encourage those who have never read the Hitchhiker’s Guide to go pick up a copy. Wrap it around your head, use it as a weapon, soak it in nutrients- whatever you want!
The upcoming World Cup has just started to creep into my mind, what with England and the United States in the same initial group. That should be very interesting.
I caught this “commercial” this morning and after watching it not only is the World Cup very much in my mind, but I could strap on the old cleats and play a solid 90 minutes on the right wing just like the old days. You really have to watch the video to get the full effect. Enjoy! (watch it full screen for the best effect)
I’m cheap. Not “you’re not getting a birthday or Christmas gift” cheap, but I don’t like to spend more than I have to cheap. This has evolved slowly, pretty much since my daughter was born and we went from two incomes to one and yet added mouths to feed to the household. I just try not to spend more than I need to on things, particularly ongoing or monthly fees. This is why I don’t have a smartphone and also why I don’t have the most robust cable subscription.
This is why up until last Sunday I had not seen any of the new Doctor Who even though it has been playing on BBC America since early April. You see, I don’t get BBC America. I would have to spend $20+ a month just to get the cable package that includes that channel. I considered it, don’t get me wrong. In the end though, it was just too much.
Well sometimes lady fortune, she doth smile on me. A few weeks back, Comcast sent out letters stating they were upgrading everybody to digital and basically you could go along with it or only get 5 channels. They were sending everybody free converter boxes and the monthly feel was not changing so I went along with it. I was pleasantly surprised when I started to get a few extra channels including Versus (which allowed me to watch the abbreviated playoff run of the Penguins). I also got a magical button on my new remote labeled On Demand. Curious.
I find out right away I could use On Demand and get some kids shows for free. The daughter liked that. Well, surfing around last Sunday I discovered something even better. BBC America. On Demand. The new Doctor Who. Sweet!
I don’t know how many of you are Doctor Who fans. I know Diane is for sure. The rest of you should really give it a try too. It’s the one show my wife and I always make a point to watch together, although she’s usually the one curled up in a ball in crawling up the couch at the suspense of it. 🙂
The video at the top of this post is about Doctor Who and is by a musician by the name of Parry Gripp. He used to/is in a band named Nerf Herder who by the way did the theme song for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I like Parry Gripp a lot.
Last Friday I quit coffee cold turkey. For the past month or so I noticed that my heart was racing quite a bit at work and I was almost certain it was because of the amount of coffee I was drinking at work. So I figured I’d just stop drinking coffee and see what happened.
The whole reason I started drinking coffee in the first place was because of the birth of my kids in 2006 and 2009. It is quite a challenge to come to work every day when I’m not well rested, especially when a baby is waking me up every two hours. Caffeine certainly helps with that. It also sends my blood pressure through the roof.
Kid number one sleeps through the night nowadays. Kid number two doesn’t, but he only wake up once or twice. Not perfect, but not terrible. Plus, having gone through kid number one, I’ve conditioned my body to be able to function on less sleep.
So far it has worked out pretty well. Not terrible headaches and I haven’t fallen asleep at my desk. I can’t say I even miss coffee. I have switched back to my pre-coffee days with decaf tea. Maybe someday I’ll switch that to water. Not this day, however. One dragon at a time.
As you may have heard, my beloved Pittsburgh Penguins lost in the seventh game of their playoff series last night, eliminating them from the postseason. For the first time in three years, they will not be in the Stanley Cup Finals. What I mourn the most is that I won’t be able to enjoy the extra month of playoff hockey I was able to witness the past two seasons. In addition to that, last night was the last ever Pens game in the Mellon Civic Arena and it ended just as it began, with a loss to the Montreal Canadiens.
Sports fandom is a funny thing, and even more odd to me now that I have kids. I mean, as fans we “live and die” with our team, enduring heartaches, heartbreaks, stomachaches, and arguments for our teams. And for what? When the team won the Stanley Cup, it’s not like I got some kind of cash prize or something. And still I care.
So yeah, weird emotions today about the game last night, although not as bad as they would’ve been when I was a kid. I think I’ve matured since then, in that area at least.
To look on the bright side, I’ve been given some free time at night I didn’t think I would have. I plan on using it to resurrect my cobwebby dream of writing a novel. It’s gonna take some focus on my part, but I know I can do it. I just need to start.
He’s one of those who knows that life
Is just a leap of faith
Spread your arms and hold your breath
Always trust your cape
He did not know he could not fly
So he did
I heard this on XM this morning on my drive into work, and just had to share. Full lyrics here.
I’ve always meant to write a story about a character that embodied that adolescent feeling of invincibility and wonder, who tried things and was able to do them simply because they didn’t know they couldn’t. This song sums up that thought quite nicely, I think.
Recovering now from a second weekend of birthday parties for the girl and a 4 hour trip to the ER with the boy (he’s fine). Hoping to put my writer cap on one these days, even though it’s quite dusty at the moment.
Sorry I’ve been a bit scarce here lately. I just haven’t had the time in the past couple days to post. I’m not even really posting here right now. I mean, I am, but not really.
I normally write blog posts on my lunch break at work. I still have a decent amount of energy at that time, and don’t have a 1 year old walking up behind me, trying to pull the keys off the keyboard. I find that makes it more difficult to blog, to be honest.
Well, I haven’t really been at work during lunch the past couple days. Yesterday, for instance, I was out of the office in the morning from 8:00-12:00. Then, I had a meeting scheduled in the same building (not my office building) from 1:30 to 3:00. By the time I got to my office, it was 3:30 and I only had an hour and a half of actual work time available. Quite frustrating when you have a project that needs to be completed asap.
So, if you really really need to know what I’m up to (and I’m sure you all do lol), twitter is your best bet for now. Don’t worry, though. I’m not ready to abandon this little blog here just yet.
Well, the birthday party went pretty well, in my opinion, even though it was nearly 90 degrees outside. I’m pretty sure the ten or so kids attending had a good time, and I know the birthday girl did. That is what matters most, in my opinion.
A couple moments stand out for me. One, was the boys at the party. The boys were mostly brothers of my daughter’s girl friends (save for one boy classmate of hers). The boys had fun mostly playing in the sandbox, including my one year old son who seemed to get along quite well with the other, older boys (mostly 3 and 4 year olds). It was funny really. Five or six boys, all playing together elbow to elbow, without a word between them, but no fights, either. Boys.
Another was my daughter starting the singing of “Happy Birthday” for herself. We tried to hold her off, so my wife didn’t miss it, but it was just too cute.
I’ll get some picture out once we get a moment to transfer them to the computer. Right now we’re just trying to recover from the wild party. I’m yet again reminded that I’m getting old.
The Struggling Writer 