More Blatherings from the archives
[Edited November 24, 2021: I’m moving over some my old Blatherings and realize that during one of the many platform moves I’ve made over the years, the original dates got mislaid. Hence the mishmash below of various short posts I made during 1997 ]
Post title: “Andrea & Rand”
Working today. Yesterday had breakfast with Andrea and Rand, did some babysitting in the afternoon. Today’s blather is about feeding babies. I just don’t have the knack. Feeding a baby (I’m talking about spoonfeeding mushy stuff to a 6-month-old) is incredibly difficult; I don’t know how parents can do it. It was nearly impossible to navigate a spoon past Annie’s flailing arms and legs as she bounced up and down in her Hunger Frenzy, her mouth opening and closing like a drowning fish…in the end, I got more babymush on her hair, clothes, and the floor surrounding the chair than in her mouth. In retrospect, I realize that feeding Annie was sort of like playing a computer game that required complex hand-eye coordination. I’m glad Ruth and Kaarel don’t read my blatherings hahahaha. Anyway, I would have been if Ruth had just let me know tie down like I wanted to. 🙂
TODAY’S WEBSITE: Karl Wu’s Home Page. Karl claims not to be a filker, but he was at one of the very first all-night filks I ever attended (at Ad Astra).
Post title: “Cool Site Of The Year Invite”
So I’ve been invited to attend Infinet’s Cool Site of the Year awards ceremony in San Francisco later this month. No, I wasn’t nominated…this year all the previous CSotY winners were invited to participate in the nomination process (I confess I didn’t because of lack of time, I am so Bad).
Anyway, the invitation promises: “This is your chance to meet the cream of the Internet crop. To mingle with the most talented designers, programmers and writers on the web. Oh, and lest we forget, you can imbibe and eat to your little heart’s content.” The eating part appealed to me, of course, but alas, I’m afraid I must decline this year.
SITE OF THE DAY: Cool Site of the Day – the original “cool site”. Inkspot was CSotD on April 21, 1995. It was actually CSotD through to the 22nd because Glenn Davis felt sorry for me at the time…his server was having problems so some people couldn’t get through. In spite of the glitch, about 20,000 people visited my site that weekend (!). I remember waking Jeff up early that morning when I realized what had happened. In spite of his crabby Night Person Nature, he was technonerdboyish enough to be impressed (until he fell asleep again, that is).
Post title: “$1500 Pizza”
So someone tried charging our credit card account with *ten* separate $1500 charges…for PIZZA. Any, we got a notice from the card company recently saying they were going to take legal action against the individual (apparently he left an obvious paper trail, probably worked for the pizza company itself). I have to wonder at this person…did he really think a charge of $15,000 for pizza would go unnoticed? Or maybe he was really hungry. :\ Anyway, I hope he at least ordered Hawaiian pizza (which is the best type, of course).
TODAY’S SITE: The World’s First Japanese Pizza Page.
Post title: “Busy”
Busybusy. Still haven’t met the nice young couple who moved in across the hallway. An anonymous source pointed out to me that my spelling of the word “Hallowe’en” is distinctly Canadian, that most Americans spell it as “Halloween”. I’ve never noticed this before. Am I the only one? (who spells it like this? who hasn’t noticed?) Our UT practice is tonight instead of Thursday.
TODAY’S SITE: Canada World Domination! site.
Post title: “Conspiracy”
Haha, the Conspiracy was a success! As some of you already know, I have been soliciting taped and email birthday greetings/songs for months to present to Jodi and Allison on their birthdays. Last night was the night (Allison was sick last week), and they were both quite overwhelmed, heehee. 🙂 TODAY’S SITE: Honeycomb Hideout, a “personal tribute to pop culture and offbeat ephemera.”
Post title: “Birthday party”
Today is the Last Day of The Birthday Party, I’m afraid (Jeff is tired of having chickens and hadrosaurs running about the living room)….I’m shutting it down tonight, so say your good-byes. Saw The Full Monty last night…great movie! I highly recommend it. SITE OF THE DAY: Scooter’s Unauthorized Website.
Post title: “Turkey”
Allison’s and Jodi’s online birthday has ended! Check out what happened in the online party archives.
We’re going to the cottage for Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, back on Monday or Tuesday. Have a great weekend, everyone!
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Post title: “Post-Turkey”
Back from the cottage, obviously. Went hiking, canoeing. Ate way too much turkey. Spectacular Northern Lights on Friday night…huge sheets of light rippling across the sky, tinged with reds and greens. Fell in love with a boy named Spencer Powell…link coming soon. TODAY’S SITE: DT 70s Site.
Post title: “Milky Way Withdrawal”
Jodi is off to Winnipeg today; Allison and I are flying up on Friday, courtesy Dave Clement and the Winnipeg Musician’s Hat Fund. We’ll be checking out Keycon and some of the Winnipeg sights (hopefully they won’t be too wet).
Today’s Site: What Is The Meaning Of Pez?. Thanks to Scott Snyder for pointing this fine essay out.
My jar of Milky Way is empty. Argh.
Post title: “Man Outside My Window”
There’s a man outside my window! He’s suspended with ropes, and appears to be doing something to the wall. He might be painting graffiti beside my window for all I know: “BEWARE! NET ADDICT WITHIN!” Thanks to Sherman Dorn for sending me the Debbie’s Chocolate Delight biz card! SPACE BLATHERINGS:
The
controversial Cassini probe started its 11-year, 2.2 billion mile journey early this morning. If all goes as planned, it will rendezvous with Saturn in 2004, when it deposit a probe on the surface of Titan, the largest moon. Speaking of the next century…only 115 weeks and 3 days until the year 2000. POLL: what do you think that first decade should be called? We’ve been through the seventies, eighties, nineties…what comes next?? Also, what’s your opinion about the Computer Program Millenium Problem?
SITE OF THE DAY: The Year 2000 Information Center.
Post title: “UT Comic”
The guy outside my window was apparently testing cladding or scadding, or some other word I can’t recall now but means a part of the exterior wall. No graffiti. Jeff and I talked to our Californian friend Andrew (check out his exciting home page, which rivals Jeff‘s in its clever simplicity and clarity of vision) on the phone for a little while yesterday, and I (an obsessive multitasker) doodled in Painter at the same time. So thanks to Andrew, the UT Comic is actually updated. The current storyline is courtesy Mark Osier (be afraid! :-)). SITE OF THE DAY is also courtesy Andrew: Celebrity Atheists, Agnostics, and other Non-theists. A few days ago I mentioned the new love of my life, Spencer Powell. Sadly, I’ve discovered that his webpage is horrifyingly out-of-date (i.e. no recent pics) so you will only be able to imagine how cute he really is at present. ( 3:32 PM Update: woohoo, there *are* more recent pics of Spencer! Check out http://www.oakdeane.com/kidspace/, especially this great photo).
Post title: “Police Cop Family III”
They’re filming POLICY COP FAMILY III starring Charles Bronson on our street. I would go check it out but I don’t want to get shot at. Actually had a productive UT practice last night. And we broke out the package of Walker’s Chocolate-Covered Ginger Cookies that were supposed to be part of the Allcocks’ birthday present to Jodi and Allison but that I forgot about last week. Yum. Can’t wait until OVFF!!!
Post title: “Ematei”
Had dinner with Mark and Jeff at Ematei, a sushi place on St. Patrick St. I had salmon sashimi (as usual)…quality wasn’t as good as Fune’s, and cost a fair bit more. We had tried to convince John Rose at Bakka (Toronto’s best sf store) to come with us, but he cruelly turned us down. 🙂 Bought a bunch of book’s at Bakka: JOVAH’S ANGEL by Sharon Shinn, WINTER ROSE by Patricia McKillip, QUICKER THAN THE EYE by Ray Bradbury. We went to Mark’s place after sushi. I read JOVAH’S ANGEL on the couch while Jeff, Mark, and several others played a board game (can’t recall the name, had the word “Settlers” in it). JOVAH’S ANGEL is a sequel to ARCHANGEL…both are great, and I finished the sequel at three in the morning! TODAY’S SITE is in honour of Andrea Dale, who gave me a contra dance lesson during her visit: Contra Dance Primer. I’d love to try this sometime, except I know I could never get Jeff to go along with it. Also, I suspect this activity needs grace and coordination, neither of which are my fortes. 🙂 Still, sounds like fun!
Post title: “Naked Mole Rats”
Thanks to Lyanne Quirt for the lovely Naked Mole Rat postcard! Went to Orangeville last night for my sister-in-law’s 30th birthday party, got home quite late. SITE OF THE DAY: DAG productions, who got the “filk.com” domain.
Post title: “First Wives Club”
Rented “First Wives Club” last night…I took advantage of the fact that Jeff wasn’t going to be home to rent a “chick flick”. It was going to be either that or a musical, another genre that J. dislikes. Any other musical fans out there? I love ’em all, but my favourites include West Side Story, Sound Of Music, My Fair Lady, Singing In The Rain. I’m a sucker for sappy movies where everyone bursts out into song at opportune moments (or inopportune, according to Jeff). Choreography is a bonus!
SITE OF THE DAY: The Ultimate Chatlist – categorized list of chatplaces for those who like this sort of thing. I generally only frequent one chatroom, almost always while multitasking…WritersBBS Chat (my handle is “Debbie”). To get an account, click on “get a free password”.
Post title: “Winter Rose”
Finished WINTER ROSE last night, quite liked it. Major windy rainstorm in Toronto today! Better than the snow flurries some of the weather stations were predicting, though. Made a half-hearted attempt to clean the apartment before Scott visits tomorrow. I think it’ll be all right as long as he doesn’t look in the front hall closet (!). Got our dishwasher replaced today…our old one was dying and was starting to sounds like a horde of hyperactive armoured hamsters being slowly tortured to death on a corrugated steel roof. The racket didn’t stop me from using it of course. THAT’s how much I hate washing dishes. 🙂
Post title: “Teacher’s Strike”
Chilly in Toronto! Teacher’s strike looks imminent according to this morning’s news conference…Allison might be out on the picket lines early next week. Only a week and a half until OVFF! SITE OF THE DAY: The Ball. Scott Snyder arrives this evening, and I plan to force him to be a Guest Blatherer tomorrow.
Post title: “Guest Blather: Scott Snyder”
Good Morning Toronto! Having a wonderful time spying on all the unsuspecting Torontoites from Debbie’s office window… Be jealous world! Debbie got up and cooked me breakfast this morning – in her bathrobe! Do I rate, or what? ;-{)} Playing music this morning, then off to lunch with Dave Goulden and perhaps a trip to the CN tower… gotta do that touristy thing, eh? Tonight – My first UT practice! I’m so excited!!!!!
Post title: “Guest Blather: Scott Snyder (Again)”
Okay, that’s it … I’m never leaving. I’m sending a ticket to Amanda and we’re just going to live here with Debbie and Jeff for the rest of our lives…. ;-{)} Having a wonderful time. UT practice last night was incredible. We worked out some great stuff for OVFF! Plus, I got to peruse the UT Archives with Allison and Debbie. I get to spend more time with Allison and Jodi on Sunday (yay!). Music this morning, then lunch with Ookla the Mok, then off to do the academic conference thing (oh YEAH, THAT’s why I’m here!). Debbie is the best hostess ever. It’s been too short a visit.
Afternoon Guest Blatherer: Adam English
Hey ! I’m at Debbie’s house. Isn’t THAT cool? I’ve been here five minutes and I’ve been hugged four times already. Rand and I listened to the tape of the concert we played last night at the Local Smelly Bar’s battle of the bands. I had to coerce Rand into swearing not to duplicate it. I sound like the guy from Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Aw, geez, Debbie! I just got hugged again. This concludes my blathering for this afternoon.
Post title: “Winnipeg Visit”
Sorry for the blatherless week, folks. Our long weekend in Winnipeg was incredibly fun…Allison will eventually be posting a report about it. Many, many, many thanks to Dave and Tom and everyone else we met at the Bhigg House! Highlights for me include: playing onstage with Dandelion Wine at one of their outdoor gigs, Dave Clement’s Amazing Homemade Chili, musicking late Sunday night, new friends, my first glass of Dandelion Wine, performing live on Tom’s radio show (after the initial terror wore off, that is), Keycon concert, finding Cheez Whiz ™ in the Bhigg House fridge, spending too much money at Toad House Toys (thanks, Kylea!), visiting The Forks with Tom, seeing Graham’s dog Scooter again, buying a mini-rainstick at Homemade Music, mini-donuts, finally finding out how to play the bones, my special Northumbrian pipes lesson (thanks, Al!), BSDI honey-cinnamon milkshakes! Everyone went out of their way to make Jodi, Allison & I feel welcome…thanks so much!