The Buck Tanager Adventure Hour

and the White House burned, burned, burned, and we're the ones that did it

2008-11-04T21:58:17Z

i've seen it under wraps for the past little while, but didn't know what was going to be underneath. hee hee. cool.

they just unveiled this not far from my house.

public art, Douglas Coupland, toy soldiers, and repelling an attempted American invasion. excellent. :)

low, low premiums!

2008-10-03T23:17:28Z

yeesh.

just watching Wheel Of Fortune (waiting for Jeopardy!, of course) on the Buffalo TV station. they just had an ad for a health insurance company whose slogan is "You Deserve the Red Shirt Treatment", because their helpful staff wear cheerful red shirts.

i guess they don't have many Trek fans among their target demographic.

or in their ad agency. :P

sweaty photos

2008-09-30T14:29:09Z

photos from Sunday's marathon walk, for those who are interested.....

holy moly, we did it

2008-09-28T20:11:50Z

whoooooooo

we made it!

me (half-marathon walk in 3h 11min)
Dominic (full-marathon walk in 6h 27min)

time now to put the poor abused feet up for a little bit. :P

domfoolery!

2008-09-18T21:19:03Z

having 3 people named Dominic in your close social circle can do strange things to your mind.

like driving you to invent words.

today's - Synchrodominicity (n.): unlikely occurrences involving Dominics, e.g. two of them both try to phone you at almost exactly the same time.

(this just happened.... for the SECOND time this week)

our other favourite - Domfoolery (n.): the particular brand of ruckus and hilarity that inevitably ensues whenever two or more Dominics are gathered. :)

your mother, Trebek!

2008-09-10T15:27:01Z

squee!

i'm going to get another kick at the can for Jeopardy!

in January, as soon as my eligibility from the last time around lapsed, i did another one of those online tests. and then promptly forgot about it.

until last night, when i get an invitation to another post-online-test follow-up interview/game session. it'll be here in TO, so on the downside i don't get an excuse to spend a fun weekend exploring some other city, but on the plus side it won't cost me $$.

if it's anything like the last time i went, in addition to the interviews for people who applied online, i suspect they'll also do a general cattle-call contestant search on the same day. if anybody on my flist is interested in entering that, drop me a line & i'll pass along any other info i get.

a PhD in awesomeness

2008-07-22T14:54:06Z

Dear Joss:

Thank you for (once again) giving the world something that starts out escapist and goofy, and then turns around and skewers you through the heart and haunts you for days. we'd expect no less of you and it's part of why we love you.

(you bastard)

love,
Sarah :)

a cautionary tale

2008-05-27T21:02:43Z

(oh yeah, i'll preface this by saying my work-trip to Spain was awesome. stories & pics coming soon.)

beware of airlines! their computers are not very smart. :P

last Wednesday i flew from Toronto to Madrid on a connecting flight through Newark. when i arrived at the airport for the the Toronto-Newark leg, the flight was already delayed and was going to be leaving Toronto about an hour late. there was a good chance that this would make me miss my connection to the Newark-Madrid flight, so the agent helpfully made a tentative reservation for me on a second Newark-Madrid flight that would be leaving later that evening, in case i didn't make the first one.

got to Newark and made a mad dash (wheee!) through the airport, arriving at the gate just in time to board the Newark-Madrid flight i'd originally been booked on. even more miraculously, my luggage also made it. :)

and then i thought no more of it until yesterday, when it was time to come home.

i arrived at the airport in Madrid to find out that they had no booking for me on the return flight.

because on the trip out, when i'd failed to turn up for the *later* Newark-Madrid flight (already being happily somewhere over the North Atlantic eating quasi-hydrated mystery meat and battling with my seatmate for armrest supremacy), the system considered me a "no-show" and automatically cancelled the return leg of my trip. somehow this over-rode the fact that somewhere in the system there must have been a record that i *had* indeed boarded one of those two planes and had made it to Madrid after all.

thankfully, the lovely helpful agents in Madrid were able to sort things out and get me home on the flights i was originally supposed to have been on - luckily, neither flight was booked up.

but still. it's a little distressing that the agent who originally set this whole sorry train of events in motion didn't warn me that this might happen, and even more disturbing that there was no notification from the airline when they just went ahead and cancelled a flight i still needed.

so yeah, just thought y'all should know - watch out for airlines and their depressingly stupid machines. :P :)

morbid and creepifying! :)

2008-05-01T14:29:31Z

yeesh. some blogger i am, eh? :P

anyway. had some fun with this one & felt like sharing. at work, we've just finished taking entries for this contest, where the challenge was to write a "mini-epic" story of exactly 100 words on any topic. although employees were (naturally) not allowed to enter, we were all encouraged to give it a go anyway for fun.

here's mine.

---

We were there at the beginning. Our elders sing the tale of our countless agile legs dancing this world into existence.

We watched from snug dark places as dynasties flourished and fell – the giant dragonflies, the nimble amphibians, the great lizards.

When you conquered the world, you tried to persecute our kind. We simply slipped in around the edges of your lives, and thrived in a land of riches beyond imagining.

We will be there at the end. When you have gone, we will feast on the detritus of a billion Happy Meals.

No Roach Motel will stop us then.

that word you are using... i do not think it means what you think it means

2007-11-30T20:40:45Z

ah, gotta love these writers-using-not-quite-the-right-word things. :)

an otherwise worrying story about asbestos in toys

i've got this strange mental image of a buff manly bundle of asbestos running around flexing its muscles or something. :)

still trying to figure out what word the writer was actually going for. virulent? nope, not really. vile? who knows. :P :)

simple (and tasty!) solutions. :)

2007-06-20T00:45:24Z

as luck or fate or the nasty cosmic sense of humour would have it, today i had to travel back to this conference i've been attending right at 3:30, just as the sky turned ominously black and started pouring rain in a nice apocalyptic manner. normally i've been walking to the conference centre, but this time i decided to catch a cab, so as not to be a drowned rat by the time i arrived. (i've seen what these guys do to rats... :P )

once i said i was going to the conference centre, the cabbie (older gentleman, Eastern European - Polish?) was curious to know what was going on there. i told him it was a conference about the flu and ways of stopping it.

all he said was:

"Drink cognac!"

i laughed. and am still laughing. :)

the perverse part of me wonders what the client would say if instead of creating the massive comprehensive slide kit that i've been asked to do, i gave her one slide with that eternal piece of wisdom. and maybe some nice clip art. *grin*

the scientist part of me thinks we need a randomized comparative trial. *bigger grin*. any volunteers? :)

distractipedia!

2007-06-07T20:07:49Z

hee hee....

this cartoon is truth:

had a good one today. went into wikipedia looking for something work-related (different frameworks for consensus decision-making).

got as far as Rastafarian I-tal dietary laws and backmasked messages in rock music before managing to extricate myself and get back to work.

yeesh. :P

don't forget the songs that made you cry, and the songs that saved your life.....

2007-04-12T18:51:41Z

wonderful how a great song has the power to turn your brain inside out and transform a grey sloppy lunchtime into a moment of joy and inspiration. :)

walking up to get my sammitch this afternoon, my iPod randomly shuffled over to Steve Earle's "I Ain't Ever Satisfied". which made me happier than a song about chronic dissatisfaction probably should. three cheers for country music!

and it's a tune i've played a billion times before, on bass.

but now i want to learn it all over again. those wonderful distinctive melodic piano riffs.

on this:

mwahahahahaaaa!

cute.

2007-03-09T14:36:05Z

the bit about the birthday cakes actually made me laugh out loud. because it's true. :) the only reason i didn't gain about 10 pounds while working at Discovery was... er, self-restraint or something. :P

why movie depictions of newsrooms are nothing like the real thing

leftofcool @ 2007-03-06T16:32:00

2007-03-06T21:33:56Z

allrighty, i guess people have had their chance to guess in the 30 first lines of songs game. y'all did well! :)

here are.....

1. I don't hate my parents / I don't get drunk just to spite 'em - "I'm An Adult Now", The Pursuit Of Happiness (jeffkahl)

2. One Saturday I took a walk to Zipper Head / I met a girl there and she almost knocked me dead - "Punk Rock Girl", Dead Milkmen

3. Mesdames et messieurs, attention / Je vais vous faire une chanson - "1990", Jean Leloup (burnstwo)

4. It is complete now / Two ends of time are neatly tied - "Tomorrow, Wendy", Concrete Blonde

5. Twenty thousand miles to an oasis / Twenty thousand years will I burn - "Texarkana", REM

6. I took a drink of holy water / It tasted like the pipes were rusty - "Soul Search", Cause & Effect

7. I was born by the railroad track / Well, the train whistle wailed and I wailed right back - "I Ain't Ever Satisfied", Steve Earle (jeffkahl)

8. You're like a goddess / And like a goddess, you need clientele - "SNARPMA", Matt Osborne (delta_november)

9. I've had relations / With girls from many nations - "Sexuality", Billy Bragg

10. You've gotta have something on the bottom, if you want to have a band / You've gotta have a strong foundation if you want to take a stand - "Bass Tribute", Victor Wooten (burnstwo)

11. Some people wouldn't know what they wanted / Some people wouldn't want to know - "Let Me Bite You On The Ass", Tom Glenne (Aaron)

12. I stood in this unsheltered place / Till I could see the face behind the face - "Secret World", Peter Gabriel

13. You don't know how you move me / Deconstruct me and consume me - "Sick Of Myself", Matthew Sweet

14. Bright light city, gonna set my soul / Gonna set my soul on fire - "Viva Las Vegas", Elvis Presley (jeffkahl)

15. Never been near a university / Never took a paper or a learned degree - "The Mayor Of Simpleton", XTC

16. Come with me, into the trees / We'll lay on the grass, let the hours pass - "Stripped", Depeche Mode (delta_november)

17. I'd invite you back to my place / It's only mine because it holds my suitcase - "Man In A Suitcase", The Police

18. Love sees love's happiness / But love can't see that love is sad, that love is sad - "They'll Need A Crane", They Might Be Giants (rhinoscillator)

19. The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin' / That's what I said - "Big Bottom", Spinal Tap (jeffkahl)

20. Punctured bicycle, on a hillside desolate / Will nature make a man of me yet? - "This Charming Man", The Smiths (rhinoscillator)

21. >Bon, y'est enfin cinq heures tapant / J'peux prendre mes chaines pis les enlever - "P'tite Vie, P'tite Misère", Vilain Pingouin (burnstwo)

22. Flew in from Miami Beach, BOAC / Didn't get to bed last night - "Back In The USSR", The Beatles (jeffkahl)

23. O, come back, proud Canadians, to before you had TV / No Hockey Night In Canada, there was no CBC (Oh my God!) - "The War Of 1812", Three Dead Trolls In A Baggie (delta_november)

24. When they kick at your front door, how you gonna come / With your hands on your head or on the trigger of your gun? - "Guns Of Brixton", The Clash (jeffkahl)

25. In the howling wind, comes the stinging rain / See them driving nails into the souls on the tree of pain - "Bullet The Blue Sky", U2 (mykesongs)

26. I was never cool in school / I'm sure you don't remember me - "Underground", Ben Folds Five

27. They tell us that we lost our tails / Evolving up from little snails - "Jocko Homo", Devo (rhinoscillator)

28. To change the world, start with one step / However small, first step is hardest of all - "You Might Die Trying", Dave Matthews Band

29. See that couple over there, a matchmaker's nightmare / You see them everywhere.... - "She Dates Creeps", Tim Cameron (Aaron)

30. Is it all in that pretty little head of yours / What goes on in that place in the dark? - "Veronica", Elvis Costello

thanks for playing along, everybody! :)

30 first lines of songs game

2007-03-04T04:45:45Z

okay, since everybody else seems to be having fun with this...

these are the first lines from 30 songs semi-randomly* selected from my iTunes collection. if you know 'em, post your guesses.....

1. ~~I don't hate my parents / I don't get drunk just to spite 'em~~jeffkahl

2. One Saturday I took a walk to Zipper Head / I met a girl there and she almost knocked me dead

3. ~~Mesdames et messieurs, attention / Je vais vous faire une chanson~~burnstwo

4. It is complete now / Two ends of time are neatly tied

5. Twenty thousand miles to an oasis / Twenty thousand years will I burn

6. I took a drink of holy water / It tasted like the pipes were rusty

7. ~~I was born by the railroad track / Well, the train whistle wailed and I wailed right back~~jeffkahl

8. ~~You're like a goddess / And like a goddess, you need clientele~~delta_november

9. I've had relations / With girls from many nations

10. ~~You've gotta have something on the bottom, if you want to have a band / You've gotta have a strong foundation if you want to take a stand~~burnstwo

11. ~~Some people wouldn't know what they wanted / Some people wouldn't want to know~~ Aaron

12. I stood in this unsheltered place / Till I could see the face behind the face

13. You don't know how you move me / Deconstruct me and consume me

14. ~~Bright light city, gonna set my soul / Gonna set my soul on fire~~jeffkahl

15. Never been near a university / Never took a paper or a learned degree

16. ~~Come with me, into the trees / We'll lay on the grass, let the hours pass~~delta_november

17. I'd invite you back to my place / It's only mine because it holds my suitcase

18. ~~Love sees love's happiness / But love can't see that love is sad, that love is sad~~ rhinoscillator

19. ~~The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin' / That's what I said~~jeffkahl

20. ~~Punctured bicycle, on a hillside desolate / Will nature make a man of me yet?~~ rhinoscillator

21. ~~Bon, y'est enfin cinq heures tapant / J'peux prendre mes chaines pis les enlever~~burnstwo

22. ~~Flew in from Miami Beach, BOAC / Didn't get to bed last night~~jeffkahl

23. ~~O, come back, proud Canadians, to before you had TV / No Hockey Night In Canada, there was no CBC (Oh my God!)~~delta_november

24. ~~When they kick at your front door, how you gonna come / With your hands on your head or on the trigger of your gun?~~jeffkahl

25. ~~In the howling wind, comes the stinging rain / See them driving nails into the souls on the tree of pain~~ mykesongs

26. I was never cool in school / I'm sure you don't remember me

27. ~~They tell us that we lost our tails / Evolving up from little snails~~ rhinoscillator

28. To change the world, start with one step / However small, first step is hardest of all

29. ~~See that couple over there, a matchmaker's nightmare / You see them everywhere....~~ Aaron

30. Is it all in that pretty little head of yours / What goes on in that place in the dark?

*excluding, of course, stuff without lyrics at all, things where the title is in the first line, and other stuff that i thought would be unfair....

your smooth, chocolatey head.... glazed with man-sweat...

2007-02-21T02:22:48Z

haven't laughed this hard in a while....

George Takei's PSA in response to Tim Hardaway's "homophobic" declaration

picspicspicspicspics!!

2007-02-17T02:52:17Z

yeesh, so it's taken me long enough to get around to this.....

wedding photos!!!!

as seen by:

our astonishingly brilliant and breathtakingly charming official photographers - luxography, true_nexus, and meeshsmind
my dear sister and her lovely husband
the one and only Jeff Powers

anybody got any more? send 'em along.... :)

edit: some nifty ones from Aaron, too....

oh yeah.

2007-02-04T16:29:52Z

ah, right. i think we've been pretty good about getting the news out, but in case this reaches somebody who needs to know who we haven't told yet:

dominic70 and myself will no longer be a regular part of the jam at Loons on Friday nights. we'll probably still show up from time to time as special guests, but if you were planning to just drop by on any random Friday and see us, you might be disappointed. the break-up was less painful than it could have been, but probably long overdue. :P the show will still go on, with Kevin and Laura and whoever else decides to show up, but with a little less noise and tension. with any luck that'll be better for everybody.

on the plus side, not being there this past Friday allowed us to go catch one of my new favourite bands, the McFlies. if the idea of Karma Chameleon or Sunglasses At Night played on violin, accordion, ukulele, and other random acoustic instruments makes you happy, check 'em out!! :)

weird.

2007-02-04T15:58:08Z

so far today, i have spoken to 3 people (1 in person, 2 over the phone).

all of them are named Dominic.

gotta love the world's weird little coincidences. :)

ug!

2007-01-23T21:49:46Z

get ready, everybody - tomorrow is Hug-A-Writer Day! :)

yet another one of the crazy fun little things my company gets up to....

whooooooooo

2007-01-21T16:27:57Z

back now.

tanned, relaxed, and carrying around a couple of extra pounds that used to be Club Med's legendary White Chocolate Bread. :)

will return to the world & share stories & pics once i finish digging out from under this pile of spam (1079 messages and counting!) and unpaid gas bills and the other fun loose ends of a life abruptly left on pause.

whee!

prolific Queens, incontinent hockey players, cannibal grow-ops, and more!

2006-12-13T19:17:55Z

must...stop...fits.....of....laughter.....

stumbled onto this wonderful list of top newspaper mistakes & corrections of the year

i was doing okay until the bit about Queen Elizabeth laying 2,000 eggs a day... then i just lost it.....

*snrk*

*snnrrk*

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

okay, got to get back to... er, writing stuff. stuff where attention to detail is supremely important.

damn. :P

newmindreaders!

2006-12-13T18:16:09Z

the other day as i was riding the morning streetcar, listening to my adorable little iPod, i happened to notice just how many of my fellow travellers were likewise coccooned in their own little sonic worlds.

the thought struck me that it would be totally awesome if everybody just got up and spontaneously started dancing wildly like the people in the ads.

(yeah, i know. on a typically over-packed Queen's Quay streetcar, it would probably lead to massive injuries. but the principle is cool even if the reality of it might not be...)

now i find out that newmindspace is doing something very similar this Friday. without the massive injuries, one hopes. :)

sadly, i'll have to miss it. not so sadly, it's because i'll be making musical art elsewhere. :)

wish i could be in both places at once......

oh dearie me

2006-12-04T20:04:09Z

words are such funny things. doesn't take much of a slip-up to turn them into something ridiculously hilarious.

one of the articles in a wedding planning newsletter i received this morning was about innovative ways to develop and use some sort of logo or recurring graphic theme in your decor. one of the popular choices is based on your initials, rendered in some nice scripty design.

which most people would probably refer to as a monogram.

the poor writer of this particular piece got a little confused.

so there was a sentence in there that went something like: "i've seen people use mammograms in all sorts of places - everything from the place cards to a lighting design on the dance floor."

now *that's* a truly original (not to mention disturbing) approach to wedding decor.