Friday, June 05, 2009

Van Mural Wednesday: Friday Edition

Bad news is I forgot Wednesday. Good news is you now only have 5 days to the next installment!

Hey, who's that fat kid wrestling a croc? Kinda looks like that Crocodile Hunter guy who was eaten by a swarm of zombie manta rays, but I can't seem to focus on the image. The scrawled web address is so blinding...

Croc Hunter

On the good side, can't say the Oz national flag even says Aussie Pride! that loudly.

Freecycle Cavalcade of ...?

I signed up for the Cincinnati area Freecycle a while back - it's a offer/request board giving people a chance to connect one person's trash to another person's treasure. Dang that sounds dirty.

I've never actually used the service, but do find it interesting. Such was the case today when this list of offerings came across:
1 partial bottle of African Violet Food

Schick Quattro razor (no blades)

$5 Huggies pullup coupon exp.7/09

6? stryofoam egg cartons

bag of gardening magazines (Backyard Living & Gardening How To)

bag of kid videos

WTF? Happy Friday!

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

I Haven't Been Tagged Like That Since 'Nam

Joking. I'm only 32. And understand that people who lived through Viet Nam think it is AWESOME when someone who didn't makes a joke about it. Sweet.

This post comes to us from the wonderful and lovely Distracted By Shiny Objects over at A Tidings of Magpies. However, I will forgo the obligatory "these guys are tagged!" Or maybe not. We'll see how I feel at the end of this.

1: What is your current obsession?
While juggling my own business so we don't end up on the street and home duties so we don't end up on Clean Sweep, while spending quality time with my family and carting around our daughter to half a dozen appointments every week, my current (and ongoing) obsession is wondering where I went and salvaging any scrap of time I can to spend time with him.

2: Which item of clothing do you wear most?
On any given day it's a tug-of-war by time. I work from my home office, so if it's a crazy coding day or a generally rough day, my pajama pants wearing tops the 12 hour mark as it is padded by the overnight hours. If it's a good, active, busy, or particularly proactive day, jeans all the way. Today was pajama pants with a Guinness print (fav). Favorite jeans are the dark, soft ones Mrs. Shambles hates.

3: What's for dinner?
Kraft Mac n Cheese with Ball Park Beef Franks (those Turkey ones suck).

(For the record, we generally like to cook; yesterday was grilled teriyaki halibut steak with garlic broccoli and carrots with stuffing.)

4: Last thing you bought?
Last actual purchase was OJ, 10 cal Vitamin Water (orange), beer, and Dunkin' Donuts coffee. Last thing I bought for myself was Marian Call's "Got to Fly," #405/1000 signed by her. It is delicious.

5: What are you listening to?
Sirius Radio Channel 86: CBC Radio 3. A.C. Newman's "Like a Hitman, Like a Dancer" is playing now. How come Canadian Indie is so much better than American Indie right now?

6: If you were a God or Goddess, who would you be?
Ideally, Kartikay, son of Shiva, brother of Ganesha, peacock-riding, demon-slaying, six-headed (one for each teat-set of his six goddess nursemaids) scientist god of Hinduism. But I do have a mean Dionysus streak in me as well.

7: Favourite holiday spots?
Ireland was fantastic, so that's probably the fav so far, but anywhere I can explore non-tourist culture with or without a plan, funded or shoestring, is good with me.

Antithesis of this answer is sitting on a beach for a week or two, tanning (which I do not do gracefully), tour buses, and buying straw hats and polyester palm tree shirts from the hotel gift shop.

8: Reading right now?
No, typing.

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. I guess it's a form of speculative fiction scifi fantasy, but with some real grit, focusing on a human scientist, his insectoid lover, and a grub that eats psychoactive drugs

9: Okay...what were you thinking about just then?
See question #1.

10: Who's your hero/heroine?
Ghandi is my hero. Gary Oldman if we're leaning Hollywood. Never tried heroin.

11: First spring thing?
Stripping the closets for the Goodwill truck. Then going to the Goodwill store for some tasty retro wardrobe choices.

12: Funniest thing you saw in your life?
For me, funny is momentary, always mutable, and usually is on the internet. What keeps me laughing? Angry Alien Productions library of 30-second animated movie synopses featuring bunnies is always a winner. Teen Girl Squad also.

And then there's Kids in the Hall's Gavin.



13: Favourite film?
True Romance. "You're so cool."



14: Share some wisdom?

One who speaks does not know
One who knows does not speak

-- Lao Tzu - Tao Te Ching - Verse 56

15: If you were a tree, what tree would you be and why?

Some of my fondest childhood memories revolve around a red maple in my parents' front yard that I used to climb frequently, allowed to or not. Even carved a heart with the initials of myself and my gradeschool sweetheart. If I could provide that joy, that solace, to anyone, that would be it: Red Maple.

16: Fictitious characters who made a lasting impression on you?
Walter Mitty, Peyton Farquhar, Billy Budd, Dorian Gray, God

17: 4 words to describe you?
I need to live.


Yeah, I'm going to forgo the "8 person" rule. I have to make dinner. #3. If you read this and want it, then just frickin' do it. Comment or email and I'll add your site in an update.

Love you long time.

Fucking Adsense

So with all those fancy numbers I spouted last week, I was inspired to make a little coin off the 100+ daily visitors. I signed up for Adsense. Being a web developer, I've done this for a couple clients, but never really for myself.

For those that don't know, you can apply for an Adsense account, get some code to put on your blog, and ads show up on the right and when someone clicks them you get a couple pennies.

Got the official "Welcome to Adsense" email this morning, set up a couple sample ad accounts, added them to a widget on this site and...

Security Error: Content at http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/ may not load data from...

The Google Ads will not display on my blog at all.

First thought it was a Doubleclick issue, an acquisition of Google's that has been pegged in the past for malicious ads that want to put their naughty parts in your computer's secret places. And after further research I think I figured out that it's not that, but Google's terms of enlightenment that have pegged me. From everything I can gather, I swear too much.

To that I say:

....................../´¯/)
....................,/¯../
.................../..../
............./´¯/'...'/´¯¯`·¸
........../'/.../..../......./¨¯\
........('(...´...´.... ¯~/'...')
.........\.................'...../
..........''...\.......... _.·´
............\..............(
..............\.............\...

Keyboard Cat and the Athiest

Sometimes I forget that everyone doesn't live on the internet like I do and therefore may not keep up with all the floating memes out there. Here's a relatively new one.

Play him off, Keyboard Cat...



Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Great Scott!

Doc Brown

I was watching Back to the Future this morning and it occurred to me that if Doc Brown diverted the electricity away from the clock tower in 1955 to get Marty back to 1985 then the clock would never have been burned out, the annoying "Save the clock tower!" lady would never have been begging for money or have handed Marty the pamphlet, never alerting anyone to the exact time of a lightning strike.

I'd go with Lost's personal timeline theory, but sticking to that would also dictate that no matter what Doc Brown did, Marty's timeline contains the past event of lightning going into the clock and the gimmick with the wire wouldn't/couldn't have worked, like shooting Ben as a child.

(How doe something electrical irreparably damage a huge mechanical structure, anyway?)

And then Marty and Doc would've had to become gay lovers in 1955. Great Scott!

Monday, June 01, 2009

Couple Things I'm Trying

I've been hitting a couple new avenues lately and thought I'd let you know a little about them.

Neti Pot

Neti Pot

Don't know if you've heard of this natural remedy for allergy symptoms and general sinus discomfort, but - oh, I know, I know. You're saying "Sinus?!? But it looks like a porcelain oil lamp. WTF?!?

And by now you've probably already eyed the picture below, which - barring overly verbose description, basically works like this:

Neti pot in use

Then, of course, you have to do it like this:

Neti pot in use

Then you blow your nose and the feeling of sinus clarity will blow your mind. I do it once or twice a week and on those not-so-fresh (sinus!) days. Just close the door to the bathroom when you're doing it, 'cause, gross.


Frittatas

Frittata
Totally not my frittata

At least that's what I'm calling them. 1/4 T butter, heated in pan, drop about 1/4 C leftover spaghetti into the pan and heat to butter bubble. Drop 2 egg whites, cook almost through, flip. Slide to plate, coat with thin layer of hummus.

Sofa King delicious. And pretty damn healthy too.


"Rolling Chair On Carpet" Pad

Rolling chair rug protector

This wouldn't be that big a deal, except that the chair I have, with me sitting on it, drops a screw/bolt head low enough to rub the carpet (no joking, please). So after dealing with strings and tears and finally gaff-taping the damned bare seam in the carpet, I got one of these. And it is wonderful. Roly wonder, no snags necessary.

So not all that exciting today, just a couple things that've been on my mind.

Make it a good one!