Civic Duty

When I told Oz that's I'd been summoned to jury selection, her response was "but you work full-time." I told her that juries aren't made up entirely of unemployed people. I think your employer has to give you time off to attend, but they don't have to pay you. Some people get paid jury duty leave, and happily I'm in that group, so attending jury selection caused me no hardships.

Other people's expressions of themselves: The Sequel

One of my favourite blogs is Morons with Signs. It's a collection of protest signs, mostly from teabaggers but also from more traditional whackjobs. I love the site because the stupidity of some of the signs is often wildly entertaining - kind of the same way that Engrish and bad Asian-to-English translations are funny. It's the perfect mix of brazenness and lack of basic English grammar. Some of the more hateful signs on the site make me sad. It helps that the site creator provides some nice scathing commentary on these people.

Other people's expressions of themselves

Earlier this year, right after I got my car, I saw a curious bumper sticker. It looked home made and said:

"I like my men. Cold. Dead. Sparkly."

Fall Back

This was originally published on 26 October 2003 by me, on my old blog.

Last night the local news was doing a story on Daylight Savings Time (heretofore known as DST) and how some people were against it. They interviewed this one lady who was against DST. She had big, big red hair and looked like a cat person (if you know what I mean). She was showing off her watch and clock collections (my watch collection is way better) and saying that she refused to turn her clocks back. Well, that’s just great, honey, but NO ONE cares. You’re not making some grand social statement by not setting your clocks back, you’re just being childish.

Suppose nature gave a war...

How did I not know about this? How does Cricket not know about this? This looks like it could possibly be the best worst movie ever.



I especially love the cut-away to the evil monarch butterfly. And how does that frog launch itself through the glass? And are those even frogs? Or are they toads?

Diseased Face of Friendship

I can't embed it, but this is worth watching.

5th Donation

I gave blood again yesterday and it went well. I know - I wasn't expecting that either. It went so well, in fact, that I really have nothing to write about. I went, they took my blood (the technician kept playing with the needle while it was in my vein which made me really uncomfortable), I ate my cookies, and I left. Alej did come collect me afterward, just in case. But I was totally fine. I even walked up a flight of stairs. Fingers crossed this spells the end of my I-almost-fainted-giving-blood stories.

Speaking of blood, Happy Halloween!

Finally, a printer that won't get phantom paper jams

I've been having no end of printer problems at work. Among other things, it jams every 4-5 pages, and each jam wastes 3 sheets of paper. It's absurd. It bothers me because it's so damn cliché to work in an office and hate the printer with a fiery passion. The printer made me a cliché. That alone should justify me throwing if off the roof. When did I become a character from Office Space?

But this printer...this printer makes me happy. I wouldn't throw this one off the roof, even if it did jam.

More up?!

On Thanksgiving weekend Alej & I took at little road trip to New Brunswick to go hiking in Mount Carleton Provincial Park. I choose that destination based on the pictures on the Tourism NB website. Basically my criteria were 1) hiking trails and 2) lots of pretty. I have to say, Mt.Carleton had an abundance of both.It also had lakes which enticed us to borrow a canoe and strap it to the roof of her vehicle. Little did we know it is very, very windy there.

Don't tell Earl about the giant worms

I think this is the movie that started it all for me. I think this is the experience I'm unconsciously searching for when I watch all those bad/good monster/animal movies. This movie is 20 years old now and it stands up really well.  I haven't seen it in 10 years, and even though I watched it frequently in the 90s, I'd forgotten just enough to really enjoy seeing it again. The main difference between this and, say, Shark Attack 3, is that this movie is actually good, whereas the other is good because it's bad.

What movie am I talking about? Have a guess...