…this is so damned true:
Archive for December, 2006
30
Dec
I love YouTube, but…
29
Dec
But I have hair!
Your results:
You are Lex Luthor
|
A brilliant businessman on a quest for world domination and the self-proclaimed greatest criminal mind of our time! |
One of the circuit breakers went today, and the control panel is in the suite downstairs. We’d seen the tenants moving some stuff out yesterday but had no official notice they were actually fully gone yet. We were worried that a few of them were vacating but one or more might stay behind defiantly until the police had to be summoned to boot them out.
I knocked on the door to see if they were in and the door opened inward — not only was it not locked, it was ajar. I shouted “Hello!?” in and got no response so I went in and the place was almost completely empty! They’re out! I flipped the circuit breaker back on and took a look around.
There’s a support column in the middle of suite that looks like someone took a baseball bat to one side of. The drywall on it is totally smashed in. There’s writing in pen all over one of the walls, and in one of the bedrooms children have drawn over every wall in crayon. There was standing water in both sinks, festering. We didn’t have gloves to stick our hands in the grossness to drain them so they are still full.
But they’re gone and that’s great.
What’s even greater is that our landlady told me on the phone today that they weren’t going to be renting out that suite again, but were instead returning to their original plan of using it when they visited Vancouver in the summer. This means that 10 months out of the year (possibly more, depending on the length of their stay) the entire house is ours. This is fantastic news! Let the celebrations and marching in the streets begin!
21
Dec
How to handle hecklers
The audio is totally not safe for work!
See, that’s how you do it! Joe Rogan is so funny. He’s wasted on crap like Fear Factor.
20
Dec
It’s So True
I was actually making a similar joke only a few days ago about the “virgin birth”. Something along the lines of:
Joseph: “What do you mean you’re pregnant? We just got married and haven’t consumated it yet! You’re supposed to be a virgin!”
Mary: “Um… I.. I am! It’s a miracle! Sent by… uh… an ANGEL OF THE LORD! Yeah, that’s the ticket!”
20
Dec
Remembering Carl Sagan
Today is the 10th Anniversary of Carl Sagan’s death, and bloggers are organizing a Carl Sagan Memorial Blog-a-thon, and I feel I have to join in.
I was not quite twelve years old when Cosmos: A Personal Voyage was first broadcast, and while I don’t remember much from those days, I do remember watching that excellent series with wide-eyed amazement at the wonders of the Universe unfolding before me and explained with science. I definitely remember Carl’s belief that life on other planets was quite possible, though we had no proof. This “maybe, but we won’t know until we get evidence” concept became a core of my own personality. It allowed me to accept the possibility of things that might seem outrageous but not believe in them simply because I wished them to be true.
Many years later my mother, knowing how much I liked Carl Sagan’s books, found me a copy of The Demon Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark at a garage sale (she would go garage sale shopping every week without fail) and reading through it focussed the ideas and beliefs I already had floating around. I’m certain the genesis of those beliefs was my young viewing of Cosmos. The subtitle of my blog, “I don’t want to believe, I want to know,” is a quote I took directly from that book and defines not only my feelings on religion but everything else as well.
Though he never had a direct hand in my raising I am in many ways a child of Carl Sagan. With the incredible popularity of Cosmos in the early 80’s, I’m sure there are many, many more. If you’re another child of Sagan, please leave a comment here, or post your own memorial Blog-A-Thon entry.
19
Dec
Children of Men
A group of seven of us got together last night and watched a screener of Children of Men. Everyone agreed that the movie was one of the best we’ve seen in years. The cinematography was astounding, the story interesting, and the setting of the world of 2027 was perfect in the way it was both advanced and yet still gritty and familiar.
I don’t want to spoil the movie much. There are trailers you could see, but I think it might be better to go in without seeing them. In fact, the one I just linked has a pretty major spoiler in it that I think you should avoid for greatest enjoyment.
It’s a dark sci-fi movie, though there’s really not a lot of whiz-bang futuristic stuff in it. It’s set in a dystopian England that… well really the less you know the better. It stars Clive Owen and Julianne Moore, who are both excellent, and features a great performance by Michael Caine. It’s currently at 91% on RottenTomatoes.com
Look, even though we’ve seen the movie (ahem… for free) almost everyone decided to get a bunch more people and go see it in a theatre when it begins playing (Christmas Day, I believe, though we’ll wait until we’re all done the family thing).
When the movie was about three-quarters finished, Jess said to her husband “Oh man, we MUST own this movie when it comes out on DVD.”
See this movie as soon as you can.
15
Dec
PS3 sucks at PS2 games
Did they think nobody would notice that? The 360 plays XBox games better than they do on the XBox, btw.
14
Dec
Spammers ‘R’ Us
Has anyone else been getting deluged with spam from ToysRus? The images in the emails are resolving to an rsys1.net domain which is owned by Responsys, an email marketing company. I’m guessing that is a fancy way of saying “shithead spammers”, because I’ve never signed up to receive any email notices (I never do) and have tried to unsubscribe from this particular “newsletter” twice now. The third time I received it I forwarded it with a complaint to the ToysRus webmaster (and postmaster and admin and abuse addresses).
Now it’s been four times, and I’ve decided that enough is enough and I won’t be doing any holiday shopping at Toys R Us at all this year. I encourage everyone else to do the same.
12
Dec
Friday was a good day
It didn’t start off so great. We were woken up by the downstairs tenants blasting their music. However that let me know they were home, so I got up, dressed, went down to their door and handed them their eviction notice. They still haven’t paid me their share of the utilities (I’ve received $30 out of just over $200 for their 1/3rd share since they moved in) and the landlord has told me their security deposit back in July bounced and they never paid that either.
So December 31st they’re supposed to be gone. They’re jerks, so maybe they won’t be and the sherrif will have to be called to evict them. The landlord had another plan but it will inconvenience us: the gas and electricity will be turned off. Thankfully Pat has agreed to let us stay with him for the time that happens (only a few days, I’m hoping) so that plan is a go if need be.
That afternoon Mel & I finally saw Casino Royale, the new James Bond film and it was superb. I’m not a Bond fan, but everything that I disliked about the franchise was nowhere to be seen and excellent action and characters were there in their place. To steal a line from a SomethingAwful thread title: “Casino Royal is the Batman Begins of the James Bond franchise”. I give it 5/5 stars and look forward to the sequels.
Yeah, it was a good day.
Recent Comments