And what be your name, swabbo?

I know you've all been dying to know what your pirate name is; this Pirate Name Generator will finally put your mind at ease.

Captain Anne Bonney, signing off. Arrrr!

[link courtesy usr/bin/girl]

posted at 3:39 PM | link |

"He'd been calling himself Michael Scott for a while, but since that name was already taken on the British actors' trade union's list he had to come up with a new name. And quick too, he was standing in a phone booth in Leicester Square with his agent waiting on the line! Years later, in an interview by Barry Norman, he recalled the moment: "I just looked through the trees, at the Odeon Leicester Square [Cinema], it just said Caine Mutiny. So, I just said Caine. If I'd gone to the Leicester Square Theatre, I'd have been called Michael A Hundred and One Dalmatians!"

Excellent fan site.

posted at 3:22 PM | link |

A supermarket chain is considering renaming one of the nation's favourite puddings to save men from blushing when they buy it.

They've just thought of this now?

posted at 3:09 PM | link |

Connecticore

If you had asked me yesterday if Connecticut had a music scene, I would have replied, "If you consider the Jazz Festival in snooty Litchfield a music scene, then yes, I suppose we do." Imagine my surprise, then, when I read this New York Times article. Could good old Meriden, until now known mostly for its mall, actually give Seattle or Minneapolis a run for their respective money? I doubt it, but kinda cool just the same.

posted at 1:57 PM | link |

Headline of the day:

"Smiley the Clown Found Guilty of Sodomy."

posted at 1:40 PM | link |

Site Changes

Sorry for all of the recent changes, but I haven't really been all that happy with the design of this page lately. I think I've got it where I want it (practically back the way it used to be). Now I just have to work on content!

posted at 10:38 AM | link |

I just love this picture.

posted at 9:32 AM | link |

Six Feet Under


image courtesy hbo.com

I'm hooked on another show - HBO's Six Feet Under. I missed portions of the earlier episodes, but once the series hit its mid-season (around episode 6), I was hooked. I especially love the way the characters' true selves have been slowly revealed to us over 13 episodes, as opposed to shoved down our throats immediately. I am so glad I gave this show a chance. As messed up as the Fischers, et al are, I have so much invested in them now that any failure they may experience will be devastating to me, as a viewer. Moriarty, from Ain't It Cool News, has written a full-season review. I disagree with him on some points, but overall I think he expresses himself very well, and he is of an opinion similar to mine.

[if you haven't watched any of the shows and don't want to know anything about them, then I would skip the review]

posted at 5:19 PM | link |

Terry Do? More like Terry, Don't!!

posted at 4:32 PM | link |

The way life should be.

Since I'm staying at my job until Sept 30, I still have 5 vacation days coming to me (a week). I could be a responsible adult and save them and receive the pay upon my departure, but I won't. I'm going to take the week and head up to our cabin on the coast of Maine. I will surely need to get away, and I don't expect to get any more paid vacation time until at least a year from now. So why not take advantage of it while I can, right? Besides, I need a pleasant diversion in the midst of all this uncertainty.



More than you ever wanted to know about Maine:

Capital: Augusta
Population: Approximately 1.2 million
Gemstone: Tourmaline
Fossil: Pertica quadrifaria
Cat: Maine Coon Cat
Insect: Honeybee
Animal: Moose
Flag: The coat of arms of the State of Maine is placed on a blue field of the same shade of blue in the flag of the United States. Adopted by the Legislature of 1909.
Motto: Dirigo (I lead)
Tree: White Pine, adopted by the Legislature of 1945.
Floral Emblem: White pine cone and tassel (Pinus strobus, linnaeus). Adopted by the Legislature of 1895.
Bird: Chickadee (Parus atricapillus) Adopted by the Legislature of 1927.
Fish: Landlocked Salmon

posted at 1:38 PM | link |

What a catch, huh?

posted at 11:55 AM | link |

When pigs fly, you say?

posted at 11:53 AM | link |

Now why didn't Mulder think of this...

Larry Bryant, 62, filed the suit in state court here on June 5, the day before the anniversary of the Allies' D-Day invasion during World War II. Bryant filed on behalf of all people of the planet Earth and also Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS), a sky-watching group based in Scottsdale, Ariz.

posted at 9:19 PM | link |

I'm playing with CSS now (cascading style sheets), so bear with me if things go wonky on you.

posted at 3:14 PM | link |

Considering my immediate need for comic relief, I thought it would be fitting to re-visit The Secret Diary of Alan Greenspan. Some of you may remember me mentioning this site previously - if not, get thee over there!

And while you're at it, take a look at another Nabobs offering - Martha Stewart's Erotic Journal. 'Nuff said.

[the above contains adult material - you've been warned so don't blame me if you become a wanton hussy]

posted at 2:38 PM | link |

Run, piggies, run!

posted at 2:18 PM | link |

Oh, pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease...

posted at 12:13 PM | link |

Your eyes are not playing tricks on you - I'm playing with the layout and design.

posted at 11:01 AM | link |

It's funny sometimes how life will sneak up on you, tap you on the shoulder politely and knock you on your unsuspecting ass before you even get a chance to see what's coming.

Actually, I suppose on some level I did see this coming. Denial is a strong suit of mine. I was informed yesterday morning, upon return from my vacation, that due to re-organization of the Firm, my position will be eliminated effective October 1, 2001. Simple as that.

Anyone need a 37-year-old who wants to work in computers, but who knows a little bit about a lot of things but not a lot about any one thing? Time to go back to school, methinks. God, this sucks. But it's also an opportunity, right? An opportunity to finally get out there and do something different, exciting...scary.

Another funny thing about life...without your knowledge it lays down safety nets for you, giving seemingly innocuous events a greater meaning, or altering the significance of others. My mother moved in with me a couple of weeks ago; when I first heard the news yesterday, this was a burden. This could not have happened at a worse time, now that we're supporting her as well as ourselves. But then this morning, as she kissed and hugged me goodbye, told me she loved me and that everything was going to be okay, I couldn't imagine what I would do if she wasn't there to prop me up.

Onward and upward, as they say.

posted at 10:37 AM | link |

"Invented by religion, enforced by the state, and cashed in on by the psychiatric community, guilt is what keeps society from completely unraveling. Yet our culture is rife with politically correct apologists telling us to let go of the shame that binds us, and to treat our mistakes as learning experiences that we have to "heal" from and "put behind us" as quickly as we can. Well, that's just bullshit. If you do something wrong, you should feel guilty about it. Guilt is the pruning shears that society developed to prevent you from growing into an even bigger asshole than you already are. Sorry, I feel bad that I said that."

posted at 10:16 AM | link |

Publishing problem fixed. My FTP server has a new IP address, apparently. News to me.

posted at 10:07 AM | link |

"If it feels good, do it: a rallying cry of the '60s and the root of a lot of really awful parenting. Jackson may have been admirably comfortable with his body, but like many children of hippie parents, he was in the dark about some very basic social rules, such as the one that says don't jack off in public. "

posted at 9:48 AM | link |

Testing, 1, 2, 3....

posted at 8:12 AM | link |

Blogger is poop.

posted at 4:31 PM | link |

Hehe, good one.

link courtesy brainsluice

posted at 2:22 PM | link |

I seem to be having some publishing trouble.

Man, what a day this has been. More on that later.

posted at 1:53 PM | link |

Well, Whadya Know

Just how does a Venus flytrap eat dinner?

A native of the Carolinas, the Venus flytrap grows in soil that lacks the nitrogen it needs. Enter the nitrogen-rich fly. And enter he does at the top of the foot-high plant where there are leaves that resemble two hinged lobes, usually open in a mouth-like array. On their surface are sensitive hairs. The fly lands on a hair, triggering the leaves to close, holding him prisoner. The plant digests the fly with fluids it secretes through the leaves.

[source: The World Book Encyclopedia]

Why does the shower curtain get sucked in toward you when you shower?

Until recently, we didn't understand the process, but now we do. David Schmidt, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Massachusetts, took a $28,000 computer software model of spraying liquids and applied it to his mother-in-law's bathtub. Two weeks and 1.5 million calculations later, he discovered that: The water from the shower spray slowed down as it fell, the result of hitting the air. This process caused the air to become turbulent, actually forming a miniature storm system with low pressure at its center. The air pressure outside the shower, now higher than inside it, pushed the curtain in.

[source: The New York Times ]

Why do angels have halos?

Becoming an angel would be quite a feather in anyone's cap, wouldn't it? Well, that's something like what the artists who originally depicted angels had in mind. Many of the customs and much of the iconography of our great religions were adapted from paganism. In the case of angelic halos, the source was sun worship. People who worshipped the sun emulated its rays by wearing rings of feathers on their heads. That would be too tacky for angels, so they were painted with actual rays of light.

[source: Ever Wonder Why? By Douglas B. Smith]

posted at 5:02 PM | link |

Makeup Quiz

While I was away, Filmwise posted two more Invisibles Quizzes...

[you can find the answers to quiz #35 here]

Invisibles #36 - I Wanna Be A Cowboy is a goodie, and since we're a week late, you get instant gratification when you submit your answers - the solutions will appear on the same page as your score.

Invisibles #37 is this week's quiz, and once again I scored 6 out of 8. Good Luck!

posted at 4:16 PM | link |

Back Home

I'm home! Vancouver was wonderful, as usual, and I'll be back soon with all the news that's fit to print, and hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures by the end of the week. I hope everyone had a good week!

posted at 3:55 PM | link |