Yes, I know the accepted “American” spelling is “surprise”, I just like the Euro-Zed version better. (Hey! If I ever start a band, maybe we can call ourselves “Euro Zed and the Parenthesis”).
Anyway… As I’m toting my chrome Bianchi Pista (oh, how I love that bike!) out for a ride, I pause to check the mail. There’s an envelope from Hitachi containing something fairly dense and round… it’s roughly the same size and heft as my round 24 CD case, about half full of CD’s.
Hmm… I do vaguely recall visiting their website when they announced their new perpendicular recording hard drive technology, but what could this be? Closer inspection revealed that it was evidently a T-shirt, compressed into a shrink wrapped bisquit. Satisfied with this explanation, I went out and had a lovely ride.
Upon returning home, I open the mysterious plastic encased jumbo cloth hockey puck and sure enough it’s a T-shirt. Then I find the note, hiding in the envelope that says (in part).
Congratulations! Your name was selected during our random drawing to win one of 230 “Get Perpendicular!” t-shirts being given away to celebrate Hitachi’s technology achievement of 230 gigabits per square inch areal density using perpendicular magnetic recording!
So, this cements it. I am, in fact, a geek. It also makes me think that perhaps this might be a good week to invest in my “retirement plan”. If the wrinkles ever come out (which may take some doing, these are unlike any wrinkles I’ve ever seen) I can wear my new “lucky” shirt when I go to the “investment office.”
I was perusing the J-walk blog and came across this post which then led me to “Smith T. Aames’” reviews, which are definately worth a gander. I actually skimmed all ~11 pages and several of the reviews absolutely cracked me up. Hysterical stuff! Be forewarned, many of the reviews have “adult content and themes”, so don’t come crying to me if your delicate sensibilities are offended.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m pulling myself away from this time-stealing torture device and getting out on my bike to enjoy this glorious weather!
Boing Boing: Fight PATRIOT III — write your Senator today!
If you are a resident of Kansas, Utah, Ohio, Missouri, Maine, Nebraska, Georgia, Virginia, West Virginia, Michigan, California, Oregon, Indiana, Maryland, or New Jersey, your senator is on the committee reviewing this bill in a closed session on Thursday.
Jeebers, this is scary stuff! I’ll bet if you listen closely you can hear the framers of the Constitution spinning in their graves. Once more, let us refer to the wise words of Mr. Steve Earle:
What if I told you it was done with mirrors
What if I showed you it was all a lie
Better be careful someone might hear ya
The walls have ears and the sky has eyes.
What if I said you were only dreamin’
What you wanna bet that all you gotta do
Is open up your eyes and you will wake up screamin’
When you realize that it’s all come true.
(Conspiracy Theory, from the album Jerusalem)
So, in this Sunday’s Dayton Daily News, on the front page of the Travel section, there’s a big article about Chattanooga titled “It’s a Brand New ‘Nooga”. First off, the title made me laugh because about 4 or 5 years ago I saw KISS (in Chattanooga) and the opening acts were Skid Row, then Ted Nugent. Ted Nugent kept hollering about “Nooga” and “Noogie” (somewhat derisively) and basically called the audience a bunch of dope-smoking hillbillies (I believe he may have even used those exact words). Terrible Ted then shot his guitar with a flaming arrow while repeatedly saying something about sacrificing his buffalo, or mojo, or something, and left the stage. Once again, I digress…
Lately I’ve been increasingly unhappy with life in Ohio. The “scenery” just doesn’t move or inspire me the way Tennessee did. Sure, there are lots of wonderful little backroads and small towns for my bicycling pleasure, but this is offset by the long, nasty winters and lack of any real topography, aside from a few rolling hills. Couple this with a rising level of job dissatisfaction and the fact that literally the only things keeping me here are; my apartment, which I love, and my work schedule (notice I didn’t say “my job”, just the schedule), which suits me almost perfectly. I work 3rd shift 3 nights, 14, 14, and 12 hours; it would be perfect if those 3 nights weren’t Friday, Saturday, and Sunday… it sucks having to use a week’s vacation just to get the weekend off.
Anyway, back to the newspaper article. It has several lovely photographs of some of the new 120 million dollar riverfront development and mentions that Chattanooga was recently named one of America’s top ten dream cities by Outside Magazine.
It also raises the prospect that “Sloop John B” might be trying to tell me something too.
Let me go home, let me go home
I wanna go home, let me go home
Why don’t you let me go home
I’ve never cared for the term “earworm”, it makes me think of that Night Gallery episode with the earwig. That still gives me the creeps. No wonder, I was just shy of my sixth birthday when it aired, and that was some seriously scary, creepy stuff.
But anyway, I digress… For the past several weeks I’ve Had “Sloop John B” by the Beach Boys stuck in my head. I ordered “Pet Sounds” which is cool, it’s remastered and has the original mono tracks and the remastered (under Brian Wilson’s supervision) stereo versions, too. So, I’ve been able to listen to “Sloop John B” in mono, in stereo, over and over for days now, but still it’s stuck in my head. I’d bet money that as I drift off to sleep tonight it will be with strains of “Sloop John B” wafting through my head.
The poor cook he caught the fits
And threw away all my grits
And then he took and he ate up all of my corn
Let me go home
Why don’t they let me go home
This is the worst trip I’ve ever been on
So hoist up the John B’s sail
See how the mainsail sets
Call for the Captain ashore
Let me go home, let me go home
I wanna go home, let me go home
Why don’t you let me go home
I shouldn’t complain, at least it’s a song that I really like. The worst is when you get some catchy tune that you despise stuck in your head… maybe they should call that an earwig!
So, late at night on NBC they replay “The Tonight Show” (blech!) and “Late Night with Conan O’Brian”. Anyway, tonight at 5am-ish Conan is talking with Quentin Tarantino about working with the muppets (an experience they’ve both had) and how one tends to get swept up in the illusion and actually start talking to the puppet.
Quentin Tarantino told a story (which it seems I’ve heard before) about Kermit the Frog appearing on the “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson. Kermit is up on the chair, Jim Henson is behind the chair… during a break the sound guy comes out and says that he’s having a little trouble picking Kermit up, and asks if he can speak up. Jim Henson says that he’s just speaking at his normal level and it’s never been a problem before. Turns out, the sound folks had the boom on the puppet!
Maybe it’s just the late hour, maybe it’s because I can relate, having worked in television and run audio in a former life, but whatever the case, that story just cracked me up!
So, I had to make a run to Kroger this morning. Upon returning home and unpacking my groceries I find that they’ve been so kind as to include a circular for their upcoming “Seafood Roadshow” in one of my bags. This event will (according to the ad) feature “Giant Lobster Tails“, “Gigantic King Crab Legs“, “Colossal Sea Scallops” and “Super Jumbo Shrimp” (as if “Jumbo Shrimp” weren’t oxymoron enough).
Roadshow nothing! What with all the gigantism and what-not, that sounds more like a “Seafood Sideshow” or a “Seafood Freakshow” to me. The only things missing are the Mermaids and the Midget* Fish Mongers.
*No offense to any little people who might be reading, it’s all about the alliteration.
HoustonChronicle.com - Dive-bombing grackles send workers running
Here’s a snippet from the article:
Aggressive grackles around the County Administration Building launched attacks Monday that left a lawyer bloodied…
I’ve always enjoyed grackles, first off; they’re striking birds, all shiny and black with purple/green iridescence and pale yellow eyes.
Secondly, it’s just fun to say “grackle”… try it, it’s fun!
Thirdly, they make neat noises and have a certain “swagger” about them.
And now this. Any bird that can kick a lawyer’s ass is ok by me! Go Grackles!
Australian researchers revive plan to clone extinct Tasmanian tiger - Yahoo! News
Did these people not see “Jurassic Park”? No good can come from this. Those freaky-looking things are going to run amok and eat us all!
Popular Photography says that Canon’s 16 megapixel EOS 1Ds Mark II digital SLR edges out film - Engadget - www.engadget.com
I think when I get home I may just sit and hold my old, (ca. 1984) faithful, Nikon and weep quietly.
Digital is awesome, no film to lug around (or fill the freezer with), instant preview, faster time to print, no image degradation over time. But I feel the same sense of melancholy and loss that I did when I realized my beloved LP’s had become obsolete and that CD’s had officially taken over (although I am still stubbornly hanging on to my records and turntable). When film does officially become relegated to history’s proverbial dust bin, I’ll miss it… the smell of a freshly opened film canister, the tactile joy of being able to open and load a roll in the dark, just by touch, the smell of darkroom chemicals, the rush of anticipation when picking up prints at the lab…
Of course, now I’ve got to get busy getting drawer upon drawer full of negatives and slides scanned and stored; which will then become the wonderful game of keeping up with / transferring to the new “standard”. (anybody remember 5 1/4″ floppies?)
Oh well, progress marches on… we either fall in step or get left behind.
Good news on severed goat heads: Satan not involved - Yahoo! News
Here’s a brief excerpt;
A 19-year-old worker at a local slaughterhouse has admitted he took the two heads with the intention of having them mounted, but then changed his mind and left them at the school in hopes a janitor would dispose of them.
I don’t think they should be so quick to embrace the “Satan not involved” premise. Who do you suppose planted the whole “Hey, you know what would really tie this room together? Some mounted goat heads!” seed in his empty little head in the first place? My guess — the Devil. Although, it could have been Jose Cuervo or Jim Beam or one of those guys.
“Whew, thank goodness it wasn’t devil-worshippers, just a deranged jackass from the slaughterhouse… we can rest easy tonight.”
This also begs the question; “Are there no garbage cans in Vancouver?”
So, Elvin Bishop is out on the road, through the middle of September at least. You’re thinking “so what?”, right?
Well here’s the interesting (to me anyway) part; the reason I came to know this was that as I perused the raw log files for my photography site, I saw that suddenly my photo of Elvin Bishop was getting a lot (relatively speaking) of traffic. 15 hits yesterday alone and 72 so far in May. I figured he must be on tour or otherwise in the news and sure enough, a quick search revealed that he is, in fact, on the road. The sad thing is that he won’t be anywhere close enough for me to catch him… oh well.
The good news is that now I guess good ol’ Elvin will be drawing lots of new visitors to my blog, too. My plan for world domination is falling into place nicely!