Stormy Weather

I love a good lighting show and we had an awesome one on the weekend. Here's some great pics a friend of mine got (until he decided it might be prudent not to be standing in the middle of a field with a metal tripod)

Last week in the big blue house

So it's the middle of the night - I'm dozing peacefully in the middle of some dream or another and then I hear my bedroom door open and slam shut - hard.
Needless to say I'm immediately awake, sitting up in bed, heart pounding a mile a minute ready to grab whatever nearby heavy object I can to bash whoever's broken into my house.
Of course, it was just the wind fucking with me - but man! I don't need that kind of stress. I sleep little enough as is.
Also needless to say, I was not back to sleep for a good long time. It did give me a chance to finish Harry Potter, though.

I sure will miss that house.

Drinking at work

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/07/26/pilots-nasa.html

Of course, I might be tempted to have a wee nip of courage if my job was to sit on top of what basically is a large flying bomb (and one with a great safety record too).

Poll of the Day

I usually listen to Sonic on my way to and from work. On occasion, they play recordings from their sonic listener line. One trend I've noticed is that a hell of a lot of the calls they play are people complaining about bad drivers.

So there's my poll question of the day - is there any where on earth that has worse drivers than Edmonton? Obviously I'm not the only person who believes this, as it appears the average sonic listener agrees.

I don't think there's a day that goes by that I don't see at least one idiot on the roads. That's always the time that I wish I had some kind of vehicular weaponry. Maybe a roof mounted rocket launcher would be nice.

Drive nice, and I won't blow you up. That might make a good bumper sticker.

Back to the grind

So I figured out why I was grumpy...I think it comes down to me not liking to be wrong. In fact, I hate it. I'm kind of stubborn that way. To quote from the A-Team - I love it when a plan comes together.
I think it goes back to when I was a kid. When everyone got asked what they wanted to be when they grew up, they'd all go with the fireman or policeman or astronaut. Me? I always wanted to be a dictator. Not cause I wanted to oppress people (that's just mean) or live some crazy opulent lifestyle (although, that's definitely up there on the benefits package - I hear they get good dental and optical too), but mostly cause I think I know best.
Probably a bad attitude to grow up with - and probably should have got me punched in the nose more than it did - but even today, I'm pretty confident when it comes to 'knowing best'. Maybe I've gotten a little better at not butting in to other people's lives, but it still makes me grumpy when my perceptions are not shared by others.
So if you see any job openings for benevolent rulers on small Caribbean islands - let me know. I've still got a childhood dream to live up to.

Cure Needed

It was a hot, tired and grumpy sunday for me yesterday. One of those days where you really just feel like hanging out, with no one and just take a break from the world. Maybe watch an old movie or something (The Natural happened to be on, so that fit the bill perfectly).

But what's a good cure for the grumps? Alcohol doesn't work - I find that to be more of a mood enhancer - so if you're in a bad mood to start, you just end up in a worse mood after.
Today I tried the pizza lunch theorem. Mmmmm...pizza boys sure makes good za! But that just seems to have made me tired and groggy for the afternoon (the cheese effect, I believe).

Suggestions anyone?

School Nights

Who's idea was it to go out on a school night, anyway?
Mad Caddies played till after 1:00 last night and though they were spectacular, I'm paying for that fun today.
What happened to the days where I used to be able to sleep in till noon?
What happened to being able to go out 5 nights in a row? (oh Rebar, how I miss you)

Apparently getting older doesn't necessarily give you more wisdom, it just makes you more tired the next morning.

Sad Wednesday

I thought I was sad when they told us our deadline had been extended from April to July. Oh well, I thought - at least I'd get a bit of summer. Then the deadline got pushed back to the 1st of August. And now - the 'real' deadline has just been changed to September 1st. So much for summer.

So I've been looking for a picture to express my sadness. Up until now, this picture was the best one for encapsulating that emotion. (Sorry for the unauthorized use of the photo, Jen - it was just too perfect).

At least, it was the best...up until now. The new champion comes from another friend of mine who sent me this when I told him we probably couldn't do our annual camping trip because of my new deadline.

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Moving pains

So I've been packing off and on for about a month already. Just getting little things ready to go.
But I think I'm just realizing what the biggest pain of all will be - getting my addressed changed for all of the things that use it.
Banks, credit cards, health care, driver's licenses, power and electricity, phones, TV and a hundred other things I'm sure I'm forgetting. What a pain in the ass. How many different beaurocracies can one person deal with?

Wouldn't it be so much easier if we just had one universal address associated with each of us?
I mean, we've got all this GPS stuff now - can't they just implant some kind of chip in our brains - then all we'd have to do would be to memorize our new address and it would get beamed out to whoever needed it.
Simple, I say. What the hell have these scientists been up to? Do I have to think of everything around here?

It's a dry heat...

It's officially here.

The one week of the year in Edmonton where we could actually use air conditioning in the house. Especially me, being in the upstairs part of the house. When it hasn't rained to cool things down, it gets stinking hot up there.

Bye bye sheets. Bye bye PJs. Time to just lay there sweltering in my own sweat.
My sure fire cure for it being too hot to sleep used to be to drink enough to pass out. Unfortunately that's not always the greatest solution on a work night.

What I need is some genius to come up with the 'cold blanket'. Now there's a million dollar idea, I tells ya. If only I had a penny for all my million dollar ideas - I would have a million dollars!

Until then - I sweat.

Public service horoscope

To any spare scorpios out there...here's this week's horoscope:

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): I asked my readers to make a prediction about what age they'll be when they finally know exactly who they are. "I hope I NEVER completely know who I am!" wrote Bridjet. "I love discovering new things about myself, and to change as everything else around me changes. It is one of the most beautifully thrilling things about life." If you share that perspective, Scorpio, the coming days should be pretty fun. You're likely to become dramatically more mysterious to yourself. You'll be evolving, even mutating, in ways that may amaze you, and you'll be coming face to face with hidden aspects of yourself. Let the confounding, enriching expansion begin!


I'm just not sure how much more mysterious to myself I can be. Could make for an interesting rest of the week...

Late night learning

The best part about insomnia is late night radio. Either you've got Coast to Coast for all of your UFO/conspiracy needs, or CBC latenight, which has broadcasts from around the world.
It's almost worth the lack of sleep some nights.

Last night was some really interesting stuff from radio australia, including a health report featuring an interview with a professor at the University of California on some new studies into diet and obesity.
What I'm taking out of it is basically - 'Eat the fruit, don't drink the juice'.
Apparantly, north american diets are way to full of sugar - specifically fructose these days - which does bad things to the liver.

If you're interested - the entire transcript is here...
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/stories/2007/1969924.htm#transcript

Un-covered

You know how I know when I'm listening to a great song? - when the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Not too many songs do this to me, but I love when I find a new one that does. Or even a new version of an old song. I think that's the mark of true greatness - when even cover versions of songs have that effect on you.

We were in some small cafe the other night and heard a fantastic version of Radiohead's High and Dry by a couple that was playing there. Fantastic stuff. That's always been one of my favorite songs - in fact - I'd just downloaded a spanish language version of it off iTunes the week before. There's something about a cover version of a good song that broadens my appreciation of the original. Like it's exploring some nuance that opens up new ways of enjoying what the original artist put out there.

Here's to finding some more good music this month...

http://www.rhythmsdelmundo.com/

Needed: Cure for Idiocy

Sometimes my brain makes me sad.

Usually I'm plenty simple without the encouragement of alcohol - so adding a beer or two can sometimes lead unfortunate slow downs in brain activity. I'm sure MRIs would prove interesting to look at.
Usually my idiocy takes the form of thinking up that witty retort or comeback at least 30 minutes too late.
What's worse is being slow on the appreciation of good things.
Life's nearly perfect moments are too uncommon to waste when they're happening.

Here's hoping my brain's more awake for the next one...

A 3 Clone day.

You would not believe the amount of running around one man can do over one lunch hour. I had about a zillion errands to run and only an hour to spare. In the end, I ended up taking an hour and a half and only forgot one thing (I think). Not bad, but man - I could have totally used a clone or two helping me out.

There was this book I read last year, can't remember the name - some near-future setting - in which people could purchase clones of themselves. You could then get these clones to go and do stuff for you all day - send one to take your laundry to the dry cleaner and do your shopping, another one you could send in to work for you - if you were feeling adventurous, you could send one out skydiving or motorbike racing. Meanwhile you could be enjoying the day, pretty much doing whatever the hell you wanted - hopefully involving various quantities of relaxing and debauchery. At the end of the day, all of your clones would come back and you would be able to download their memories - so effectively, you would have done EVERYTHING.

Today was a 3 clone day...

Long Weekend Hangovers

It's amazing how long a two day weekend can feel when you haven't had one in a while.

So after a few boozy nights and stuffing myself with WAY too much at the BBQ...it's back to work. Highlights from the BBQs included the usual mini-soccer tournament, some small accidents with the fireworks as well as making various children cry (including my large friend, Pepsi). Bottom line - the house didn't burn down, no one was permanently maimed and (as far as I know) no lawsuits are pending.

On the bright side - it's already tuesday, so in theory it's only a four day week.