Tag Archives: Personal Blather

Ok, we just had an odd office discussion based on something over at the book of ratings. Basically, we got into a debate over which spy car accessory you’d most like to have. Most of our wishes were, predictably, based on the poor Ann Arbor driving situation. WorkKevin wanted tractor/repulsor beams to move people off the road. My boss was more interested in a sort of energy field that would slow things down gradually as they got closer to the car. I decided to avoid traffic entirely with some of those folding hover-tire things from the DeLorean at the end of “Back to the Future.”
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One of the fun things post-holiday is hearing what your co-workers have been up to… My boss had nine or so folks over to his place. He enjoys cooking as much as I do, so he was looking forward to preparing a feast for his extended family. Of course, everyone brought a little something to contribute as well, so there was enough to feed an army…
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Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Posting may be a bit spotty this weekend, partially because I’ll be recovering from the traditional turkey stuffing exercises, but also because this weekend is a great opportunity to get some stuff done around the house that I’ve been meaning to do…
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Back when we were first dating, my Wife told me about “Bellybutton Movies.” They’re not necessarily movies where people walk around in midriff-baring costumes, bit I’m sure that’d be one possibility. Generally speaking though, the term refers to movies that are fun, lighthearted fare. No great thinking is involved, any villains are two dimensional and soundly defeated. The movie is suitable for children or pretty much anyone else in need of the sort of feel-good innocence that hearkens back to when you used to call the navel a “bellybutton” on a regular basis.

“Willow” is a bellybutton movie. “Apocalypse Now” is not.
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Hey… As of tomorrow, I’ll have been doing this for a year. That’s not bad… And I’ve managed to keep the language fairly clean too.

It’s a conscious decision… I’ve seen the bizarre things that people have put into Google that got them to this site. I don’t want some eight year old kid researching a paper on, say, grasshoppers, to stumble into a profane diatribe about how “The Legend Continues” sucks compared to the old Kung Fu TV series…

OK, I’m not likely to write anything about the series. I don’t watch it, and I’m certainly not going to write a review of it. But if I did, I’d be careful to avoid swearing.
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In the WCBN studio there were a pair of monitor speakers from Tannoy. Late one night, in keeping with the rather eclectic decor of a student-run radio station, I modified the logo on the speakers by blacking out the initial “T”… Later on, someone added an exclamation point to the end. I don’t know if it ever became an imperative for late night shows, but I liked it…

I’m not just randomly writing here, there’s a trigger for this particular reminiscence… I’ll get to it eventually.
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Yesterday wasn’t much fun. I was pretty much incapacitated with a headache that felt like someone was trying to nail one of my eyes shut. I’ve still got a bit of an achy remnant, but I’m better enough that I’m at work. I’ve got lunches ready to go for quite a while too. Monday night I’d put a crock pot together in preparation for doing some beer-based chili, and I was feeling well enough late Tuesday to finish it off.

I don’t tend to use a fixed recipe when I’m making chili… I consider it more like variations on a theme. So long as the basic motive of tomato and bean are there, I can improvise a fugue with the meat and spices along with a counterpoint of additional ingredients.

Ok, ignore that last bit. I sound incredibly pompous…
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Helped out some friends of ours on Sunday while they ran their game at U*Con. They’ve got a six month old baby and we acted as baby wranglers, keeping her busy and distracted so that her mom and dad could concentrate on the game. It’s a remarkable workout… Baby lifting reps, aerobic bouncing, buggy laps… It’s like a miniature triathlon with occasional diaper changes.

‘Way back in November of last year when I first started this thing up, I posted a bit about anonymity and the internet. Basically, it had more to do with some reminiscences of when I was on the radio and had to deal with the occasional creepy caller at three in the AM than with cyberstalkers and the like… But I guess it’s worth digging the entry out of the archives, since there seems to be some confusion.
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Thanks to the miracle of modern science, last night I was able to watch someone in Japan iron a shirt, live, over the internet.

Seriously.

I was working late at the office on the Mini Smithees (an important part of your U*Con experience) and I had iChat open in the background so that my wife could pop in and say hi from home. Suddenly there was a blipping sound, and a message popped up from an old friend of mine, now living in Japan. A quick cable swap and some mouse clicks later we had a video conference going. I was able to show him a bit of my insanely crowded and cluttered office (we’re set up for studio portraits this week, so everything is askew and there are light stands scattered about) and he was able to take a break from typing and get on with ironing his shirt before heading off to work.
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