Out in the Scrolled

Time management fail on my part. There shall be audio in a new post coming soon.

1,542 thoughts on “Out in the Scrolled

  1. Crap joke in a firsty. I’m on fire today.

    A vacationing penguin is driving his car through Arizona when he notices that the oil pressure light is on. He gets out to look and sees oil dripping out of the motor. He drives to the nearest town and stops at the first gas station.

    After dropping the car off, the penguin goes for a walk around town. He sees an ice-cream shop and, being a penguin in Arizona, decides that something cold would really hit the spot. He gets a big dish of ice cream and sits down to eat. Having no hands he makes a real mess trying to eat with his flippers. After finishing his ice cream, he goes back to the gas station and asks the mechanic if he’s found the problem. The mechanic looks up and says “It looks like you blew a seal.”

    “No no,” the penguin replies, “it’s just ice cream.”

  2. Just re-watched “Tomorrow Never Dies”, part of my quest to watch every Bond film from beginning to end.
    Besides being as good as I remembered it being, I had TOTALLY forgotten that Sheryl Crow did the theme song. IMHO it is one of the Top 10 all time best Bond themes and I don’t know why I didn’t even remember it.
    Also, the ending credits song “Surrender” by K.D. Lang also kicks Bond soundtrack a$$

    Also, they should have given Michelle Yeoh her own spin off franchise. I’d go to the theatre to see further adventures of Agent Wai Lin!

  3. Attended a Retro Video Game Expo today with Pix and the kids. Much fun was had! The 4 of us played a few levels of Gauntlet at the true arcade machine. Other arcade highlights:
    Pac Man, vector graphics Empire Strikes Back, and Rolling Thunder.
    The biggest nostalgia kick, however, was the Asteroids knock off on the Vectrex system.

  4. Finished the ‘Bad Ass trilogy’ tonite. You know… the awful films starring Danny Glover and Danny Trejo?

    Here’s the Lo Pan verdict:

    Bad Ass – Yes!

    Bad Ass 2: Bad Asses – Not quite as “Yes!” but still actually fun!

    Bad Asses on the Bayou – what a piece of fucking shit.

    Cannot wait for Bad Asses in Bangkok. Assuming the actually make it.

  5. True fact: Soulier thinks he’s a hot shot musician because he is nominated for a Western Canada Music Award. I, personally, don’t think he’s a real musician until women start throwing their underware at him. 😉

  6. I watched Spartacus: Gods of the Arena last night. This is the third series I’ve been impressed by Jamie Murray. I might be developing a little crush.

  7. FInally got to the Season 4 Finale of “Breaking Bad” last night.
    That seems like a really good place for them to have stopped the show. For this show it was a “high” note.
    I almost don’t wan’t to watch the last season. Given the character’s past performance … this can only end badly.

  8. Hello, everyone! Welcome to the Deadpan boards, Soulier!

    I’ve had a project to work on each of the last three weekends in a row, counting the current one. (I work last-half-of-the-week shifts, so my ‘weekends’ are Sunday through Tuesday and every other Wednesday.) Here’s what I’ve been up to:

    Aug. 16-18: Type up the contents of 900 raffle slips to make a customer contact list for the local Renfest (yes, they are paying me to do this)

    Aug. 23-26: Beta-read a book manuscript for a friend (this one was completely pro bono)

    Aug. 30 – Sept. 1: Deep-clean my apartment (they’re spraying for pests on Tuesday the 1st, so I really have until tomorrow night)

    That’s my life lately. I’ve had some creative projects going on, too, but nothing ready to share yet.

  9. Judging by a lot of the reviews, I’m pretty glad I gave up on Dark Matter. I still have to watch the last couple of episodes of Killjoys.

    Anyone else watched the premiere of Fear The Walking Dead? I really liked it.

    • I saw the first of the “Dark Matter” double feature SciFi was showing Saturday night.
      It was okay I guess. Based on one episode, I’d say it felt like a thinly fleshed out re-boot of Firefly.

    • I watched the first episode of Fear the Walking Dead (second episode is waiting on the DVR until tonight). It makes me realize how brilliant it was to start the Walking Dead with Rick waking up in the hospital after all the shit had gone down. The first episode was way too much family drama. When the parents were stuck getting off the highway I thought, alright the shit is finally about to go down. No such luck. The whole process is taking way too long. I will, of course, give it a few more episodes before I decide whether or not to continue watching.

  10. Ah, here’s where you folks have gone hiding! Well, I’ve found you again and I’ve got my polka balls ready this time!

    Welcome Soulier! Joe’s apologized in advance, so that’s good. That just means it’s now my turn to apologize for Lo Pan.

  11. So I am unimpressed with taste of the UHT milk I recently bought.

    However I did find it amusing that UHT milk is sold refrigerated in the USA because consumers don’t trust milk that isn’t stored in a fridge (if Wikipedia is to be believed).

    Ummm ok.

  12. My turn for a bad joke:

    A woman is cooking eggs in the kitchen when her husband comes running in…

    Immediately, he sees the eggs and gasps in horror. “Be careful! CAREFUL! Put in some more butter! Oh, my GOSH!”

    The wife, startled at her husband’s violent reaction, dashes to the fridge to get some butter.

    “You’re cooking too many at once. TOO MANY! Turn them! TURN THEM NOW!”

    The wife, concerned by the status of her husband’s mental state, forgets about the butter and goes running to the eggs.

    “WE NEED BUTTER! Are you CRAZY??? Where are we going to get the butter? They’re going to stick! HURRY!”

    The wife runs to the fridge

    “CAREFUL about the eggs! CAREFUL. You NEVER listen to me when you’re cooking! Never! Turn them quickly! Oh not that quickly, don’t you know how to cook? Are you insane? Turn the DAMN EGGS!”

    At this point, the wife starts crying, since she has no idea what to do.

    She gasps “What is WRONG with you? I know how to cook eggs.”

    The husband simply smiles, remarks “I just wanted to show you what it feels like while I’m driving with you in the car”, and leaves.

  13. Then there is this little beauty I saw:

    Dear America,
    You elected George H.W. Bush – we gave you Celine Dion
    You elected George W. Bush – we gave you Nickleback
    You elected George W. Bush – we gave you Justin Bieber
    Do not elect Donald Trump. You don’t want to know what’s coming next.

  14. /PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT/
    Consumers Union has launched a new campaign to pressure the phone companies into giving every customer free robocall blocking. The technology exists but the phone companies are looking out for the intere$t of others.
    If you’d care to sign their petition!

    Go to https://consumersunion.org/end-robocalls/
    Or type EndRobocalls.org into your browser.

    • As someone that works in the telecom industry, I have to say this won’t work, or at least not well. That’s why robocallers are called “bad actors”: they don’t obey the rules. Better tools will improve blocking, but they won’t stop robocallers.

      • Now that you say that, the jump in maturity and sound from Kill Em All to that may be just as great.

        Honestly because theyve become such a caricature of themselves its hard to remember that they truly were pioneers that created 2 masterpieces of not just metal but music in general

  15. As noted last night, I saw Aussie Pink Floyd for the 4th(?) time now. Great as always – – I already can’t wait to see them again next year.

    For the first time, though, they had an opening act: Led Zeppelin 2. They had the look down, and it seemed like young Robert Plant had been cloned to create their vocalist. My cohorts were less impressed with them, though. The songs were good, but not album perfect. One guy said they should have been called, “Lot Sloppin”.

    • Crazies gonna Craze!

      I have been glad to see some self identifying Christians mentioning how this whole issue was covered and resolved over 2000 years ago when Jesus was quoted as saying “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesars.”
      ie ….. Dude, if you’re gonna play in the man’s sandbox you gotta play by the man’s rules.

      Thus pointing out that this clerks actions are of her own making. In the terrorist world I think she is what’s known as the “lone wolf”.

    • We switched to DirecTV a few months back. I don’t know how it compares to Dish, but the image quality was noticeable over cable. Over the last six months we had one storm that was strong enough to impact viewing. Overall, I much prefer it to cable.

      • Cable company keeps dropping out on me. Both Internet and Cable 🙁
        Streaming Netflix has become painful. It used to be really good. Then a new company bought mine at the end of last summer. They dropped BBCAmerica on New Years and almost immediately the Netflix Streaming became problematic.
        My next door neighbor and my neighbor across the street both dropped these clowns within the last 2 months.
        Unfortunately the alternative cable company doesn’t offer BBCA. One of my neighbors has also reported that heir service drops out as well. Dropped out for 30 minutes just a week ago.

        So I am looking at the Satalite guys but it seems I would still need the Internet service of my sketchy cable providers.
        I am afraid the whole scenario is sub-optimal. 🙁

        • DirecTv and AT&T are now linked. I have DirecTV for cable and AT&T for internet. Same bill. You might be able to get internet through AT&T.

  16. Today’s movie is Hybrid

    The PVR write up: Mercenaries infiltrate a secret laboratory and come face to face with the results of horrific experiments involving human and alien dna

    I smell an Oscar in the making

  17. My boss has asked me to go to Edmonton in a couple of weeks to represent us at the Alberta Publisher’s Awards. That means I have to go out and get a dress.

    The good thing is, we’re guaranteed to win as all the books in the Spec Fic category are ours

  18. Justa: I see that Person of Interest is now on Netflix. I’ve added to my list.

    We canceled dish about 18 months ago, put a HD antenna on the roof. And haven’t looked back

  19. We’ve been with DirecTV for some 15 years now and generally been happy with it – especially the picture quality compared to what we see family and friends have with cable, DISH, and U-verse.

    Now, for internet, we’ve been using U-verse since moving to the new house. It works well, though AT&T refuses to let me give them more money by offering me the higher speed tiers. We’re currently maxed out on the 45Mbps tier. Has been plenty good for streaming.

  20. Van, how is your face? I meant to post this early this morning and the day has gotten away from me. The old country remedy for lost/pulled tooth pain in my family is to steep a tea bag and put it on the sore spot for a few minutes. It stings at first but does numb the pain quickly.

    Xox

  21. Just reading that GoFundME has issued a policy to keep people like our least favorite KY Court Clerk from reaping financial benefit from hateful or criminal actions.
    I hope this is true.

  22. CW: Last Passenger

    A thriller set on a train.

    The set that is the train carriage seems a bit old fashioned for a film set in the 21st century.

  23. Happy belated birthday, Ed!

    Feel better soon, Van!

    I have a feeling September is going to be ‘sort through all the random stuff I was forced to move in the process of cleaning my apartment’ month. I know it will feel good to not have some of this stuff hanging around anymore. 🙂

      • People at your school were walking around with home made weapons and attacking each other in the yard? Did you go to school in a prison?

  24. Crap joke for the day:

    A friend to another, “what are the names of your dogs?”The she responded that one was named Rolex and the other Timex.Her friend said, “Whoever heard of someone naming dogs like that?”
    “HellOOOooo,” answered the blonde. “They’re watch dogs.”

  25. Crap joke for the day:

    A man boarded an airplane and took his seat. As he settled in, he glanced Up and saw the most beautiful woman boarding the plane. He soon realized She was heading straight towards his seat. As fate would have it, she took The seat right beside his. Eager to strike up a conversation he blurted out, “Business trip or pleasure?”
    She turned, smiled and said, “Business. I’m going to the Annual Nymphomaniacs of America Convention in Boston.”
    He swallowed hard. Here was the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen Sitting next to him, and she was going to a meeting of nymphomaniacs!
    Struggling to maintain his composure, he calmly asked, “What’s your Business at this convention?”
    “Lecturer,” she responded. “I use information that I have learned from my Personal experiences to debunk some of the popular myths about sexuality.”
    “Really?” he said. “And what kind of myths are there?”
    “Well,” she explained, “one popular myth is that African-American men are The most well-endowed of all men, when in fact it is the Native American Indian who is most likely to possess that trait. Another popular myth is That Frenchmen are the best lovers, when actually it is men of Mexican Descent who are the best. I have also discovered that the lover with Absolutely the best stamina is the Southern Redneck.”
    Suddenly the woman became a little uncomfortable and blushed.. “I’m Sorry,” she said, “I shouldn’t really be discussing all of this with you. I don’t Even know your name.”
    “Tonto,” the man said, “Tonto Gonzales, but my friends call me Bubba”.

  26. Bonus crap joke:

    I went to the doctors suffering from premature ejaculation .

    He said “it must be very stressful for your wife ”

    I said “to be perfectly honest it’s getting on her tits

    • So many good ones. I’d have trouble picking a favorite.
      I do remember this one though Van. Just the other day I was trying to describe the basic idea to someone.
      It’s been so long since I had head it, I couldn’t remember which podcast it had been on.

  27. Ready to feel old?

    Its now been 3 times as long between Metallica’s Black Album and now than from Kill ’em All to the Black album.

    Youre welcome.

  28. Crap joke for the evening;

    A pub’s closing and a totally plastered customer struggles to get to the door, then to walk home, despite only living a few hundred yards from there. He literally crawls on the pavement all the way back home, drags himself up the stairs and eventually reaches his bed after two hours. He wakes up the next morning, and his wife tells him:
    “You were really drunk last night weren’t you?”
    “Yeah, why? How do you know?”
    “You left your wheelchair at the pub.”

  29. Yesterday I pulled my hair back in a ponytail and told hubby I could take scissors and simply cut off my ponytail and my hair would be amazing. He wasn’t convinced and asked me not to do it. He obviously doesn’t watch the same movies and tv I do.

    • I hope you kept count:

      One for sorrow,
      Two for joy,
      Three for a girl,
      Four for a boy,
      Five for silver,
      Six for gold,
      Seven for a secret,
      Never to be told.[1

  30. crap joke –

    A guy comes home from work to find his wife packing her bags. “Where are you going”, he asks.
    “I’m going to Vegas. I found out I can get paid $500 there, for things I do with you for free.”, she replied.

    A few minutes later the husband starts packing.” And what do you think you are doing?”, the wife asks.

    His reply? “I’m going to Vegas too. I want to see how you are going to live on $1000 a year!”

  31. 25 Years ago today we were introduced to Will Smith as an actor.
    “Now this is the story all about how my life got flipped turned upside down….”

  32. Hubby and I have talked about “cutting the cord”. We have decided the only thing standing in the way of getting rid of cable is the BPL and F1 races he watches. If we can find a way to watch those, time shifted not live, I’m sure we could cut our cable bill in half.

  33. Soulier, had to move gaming to Sunday didn’t you? 😉 Now we have an empty day that another friend wants to fill up with their time. That’s two days in a row we will be people-filled. *sigh* Having all these games is not necessarily a good thing :cth:

  34. The girl overseeing the self checkout mush have been bored. As I’m scanning in my groceries, she proceeded to tell be all about her gull bladder surgery last week. Even after I was done, paid, and loaded my groceries she continued talking to me about it so I couln’t (politely) leave when I was ready. It was very strange.

  35. I’m sidelined at home this morning while the A/C gets fixed. (Its only 98 degrees)

    My morning coffee buddy is #Oreo. She is joining me in the living room, as we don’t want a half-baked #Oreo in Sophie’s room. We are watching The Price Is Right.

    Pandora is actually only watching #Oreo.

    :-/

  36. Not that I really mind having attractive young women strike up conversations with me. . . but it seems to happen every time I wear my Doctor Who t-shirts out in public.

    It always leads to them saying, “Who’s your favorite Doctor?”
    “Um, Peter Davidson. . . Yes, the dad of the wife of your favorite Doctor. . . Yes, from the 80s. Yes, way before you were born. Yes, I should have just said David Tennant.”

    To be clear: I have no delusions or even secret hopes that these girls want to talk about anything other than Doctor Who. Come on now.

  37. Saw the last episode of ‘Narcos’ tonight, great series but really can’t imagine what they can do for S2 as it’s already reach Escobar’s last year.

  38. Question for the tumbleweeds (kind of a sprawling question, so I’ll keep it simple):

    Does anyone still geek out over music? Does anyone get possessed by individual songs? Are those days gone, or did they only ever really exist for music geeks?
    Is the contemporary music appreciation experience more like:
    “I like this artist/DJ/sound/genre/album/radio station/Pandora station?”

    • I think it exists for everyone up to a point in time in your life – be it age, life happenings, etc. Then after that I think its only for music geeks. I know I have so many friends that thru jr high and high school we couldn’t get enough of certain groups, albums, songs, concerts… but that group has REALLY dwindled to maybe one or two of us that still feel the same way. So I cant speak for others or other generations but I still listen to my music in artist clumps, in whole albums… its rare that I put my music on shuffle or listen to a pandora type station. To be blunt – its who Im dorking out on at the time that gets put into rotation.

    • I still geek out about specific songs or artists, but I know I’m a music enthusiast and not afraid to share. Not to mention, I have a wide variety of artists I like so you can’t pin down a specific genre that fits me (my Pandora shuffle is a huge mess, but it makes sense to me). I think a lot of people try to relate to others or to blend in by sharing their favorite station or genre as time goes on. It’s safer sometimes. I just experienced this today with a movie choice (“Oh, you’re a horror enthusiast.” “Um, not really.”)

      Of course, I’ve had to do the “If you like this artist, you might also like….” thing in a previous job

    • Like most things, on this I go both ways. I have times when I just obsess over one band or one bands albums for weeks (Tegan and Sara, Sleater-Kinney, Cortnie Barnett) and times when I create a huge playlist and shuffle for weeks.

  39. And a tumble weed will answer…

    I’d bet there are smaller circles of young people who still geek out about a song. My take would be that the sheer volume of entertainment options be that music, games, movies and stories has diluted the singular attention music used to get. And music geekdom seems to only come to fruition when a person is a young enough that the music they listen to is a unique experience, but old enough to appreciate the experience. Basically there’s a short window of time a person can get hooked, but there’s a lot of things competing for their attention.

  40. Yeah, I was going to also ask if it’s more of a young person’s game. . . when you have time and room in your head to obsess over something like a song – – and as Rhett said, when your database of songs is much smaller; i.e., when a song can sound unique to you and not sorta similar to 100 others.

    Me: I do geek over artists, but I do also geek over songs, and even moments in songs. I rarely Pandora, and when I do, it’s a mining expedition to discover new gems.

  41. The hierarchy could go something like:

    -I like Heavy Metal.
    -I like classic New Wave of British Heavy Metal.
    -Iron Maiden! Up the Irons!
    -I love their “Killers” album!
    -OMG, the obscure song, “Prodigal Son” on side 2 is so good!
    -OMG, that part of the “Prodigal Son” guitar solo where you hear Dave Murray’s guitar pick create that harmonic noise on the string!

  42. As an aside my 17 year old son is starting to show an interest in music and has told me his favorite bands right now are Linkin Park and early Metallica. There’s talk amongst his peers that the 80’s was the last great decade for music.

  43. Jungle Book – 1893, Sherlock Holmes – 1887, Peter Pan – 1911, Marry Poppins – 1934… Can we please stop remaking things this old? Next thing you know we’ll be making an endless stream of movies and TV shows based on comic book characters dating back to the 1930s… hmmmm. Now I’m even more depressed.

  44. Why are people douchebags?! By people, I mean journalists. By journalists, I mean Fem-Nazis. By Fem-Nazis, I mean the jackasses of The View.

    I can’t even believe the ignorance that poured out of the co-hosts, specifically Michelle Collins and Joy Behar, when they were mocking and criticizing and degrading the contestants of the Miss America pageant. What assholes.

    What stupid, insignificant, unrelated blue, poser bitches. I’m disgusted by their tone, lack of compassion, and plain cattiness.

    I can’t even say more right now. I’m flabbergasted that none of those women have a nurse in their circle of friends or family.

    And imo, no apology from these hags will fix this.

    *mic drop*

    Pixie, RN out.

      • Yes. I call these women Fem-Nazis. The View has always prided itself on having their hosts be a reflection of the current, modern American Independent Woman. I was a loyal viewer when the show first began in the late 90’s. I was the young, independent, working, strong, opinionated American Woman. The array of hosts on the show reflects the spectrum of the American Woman with their strong views-whatever side of the coin they fall on.

        So, for Michelle Collins to laugh and mock two young American Women just because they are contestants in a beauty pageant disgusts me. Not only does she belittle Miss Colorado’s profession – a Nurse, but she also made a comment about the contestant who played the violin. Yes, it is the Miss America pageant and yes, these women parade on stage for 2 hours and wear ridiculous clothing and bikinis, who cares. Our society made that. What IS good is to see 52 women who are college students, pursuing a career to better themselves, and they are physically fit, healthy, and have talents – such as playing an instrument, singing opera, have a passion to be a bedside nurse, want to be a teacher, etc.

        The attitudes of Joy Behar and Michelle Collins during this segment just shows they are so far removed from real people, doing real jobs. It also tells me that most people have no understanding, or in Michelle Collins case, do not care about what it means to be a nurse. And Michelle Collins seemed to also belittle the Alzheimers patient in the nurse’s story. Alzheimers is such a globally devastating disease that we do not understand as a society – along the same vein as Mental Illness. It is taboo and causes a person to act wild or child-like, uncontrollable. They are exhausting to care for and to understand.
        So fuck her.

    • So. . . after a quick skim of Google. . . it looks like Joy Behar and her famously ill-informed colleagues mocked Miss Colorado for wearing a stethoscope to talk about nursing during some pageant speech?

  45. Late to the game, as usual, but I’ll chime in on the topic RE: Music Obsession

    Admittedly, at this stage of my life, I’ve also collected a pretty good swath of music and have several playlists in my Itunes (yes, I’m a crotchety old fart who still runs around with his music collection on an iPod). I’ve got too much to hit everything regularly, though I do have a playlist made up of only tracks that I haven’t listened to in at least a year that I’ll put on to revisit the old favorites.

    Probably the only artist that I still keep a regular interest in is Weird Al. And, at this point, I’m more likely to hear his parody version of a song than the original he’s based it from.

    • (yes, I’m a crotchety old fart who still runs around with his music collection on an iPod)

      The fact that crotchety old farts are running around with iPods (rather than 8 tracks or cassettes) makes me feel old

      The fact that kids are running around with vinyl just makes me confused

      • I’m a crotchety no-Fi iPod man too. I want to have my tunes with me during the road mutant years in the future, after the apocalypse cuts us off from the Cloud and wireless access to the Web.

        Sadly, Apple sees us as obsolete.

  46. John Oliver did a piece on Miss America last year. I recommend you look it up. Basically, Miss America claims they give out more money in scholarships than any other pageant or like programming. They discovered Miss America’s claims are correct. However, what they don’t tell you is Miss America only gives out an average of about $500 a year in scholarships (or something like that). Sad when you think about it.

    • Interesting. I haven’t done any of the formal photo ops, but just about every celebrity I’ve met has been very gracious. If you want to chat, I think you have a better time at the meet and greet booths than the photo ones.

      • This is one of those rare case where the comments on the page enhance the conversation. I’m sure his experience is 100% true; I’ve just never been in the situation where I felt pressured to pay a huge amount for the privilege of 10 seconds in the presence of some celebrity.

  47. In other good news.
    I ran across 3 bottles of Barley Wine I made back in 2009 that was supposed to be ready in 2010.
    I tried one last night. nom
    However, I think it will be “ready” in another year. So now I must hide the remaining bottles from myself.

    • I recall when this occurred.
      Well … okay, they didn’t tell anyone about it at the time but I do recall when it DID get reported in the paper.
      As I recall it was not reported as front page news.

      Interestingly enough … the US had it’s own scare. My father was an engineer working on the US’s radar defense system back then.
      One January evening, just after midnight, the computer warning system lite up with an an unknown incoming object coming over the pole. Then another and another. It looked for all the world like a massive strike had been launched. Fortunately, the US defense system had many more people in the “Launch Chain” than the Soviets seem to have. As it turned out, the folks who wrote the object tracking and cataloguing software … had failed to put in code to account for “Leap Year”. They were seeing space objects they already knew about but they suddenly weren’t arriving at their “normal” times.

      Want . to . play . a . game ?

  48. Crap joke for the day:

    A five-year-old boy was mowing his front lawn and drinking a beer. The preacher who lived across the street saw the beer and came over to harass the kid. …”Aren’t you a little young to be drinking, son?” he asked.
    “That’s nothing,” the kid said after taking a swig of beer. “I got
    laid when I was three.” …”What? How did that happen?” ..”I don’t remember. I was drunk.”

  49. So I got the message loud and clear.

    My use of FemNazi was not meant to be derogatory towards feminists
    or liberals or any other group of people. It was used as slang out of emotion I felt for stupid comments made by stupid female journalists.

    Just like when people use the words: Shit, Fuck, Asshole, etc.

    My apologies to those who felt personally attacked or who felt I am the ignorant piece of shit here.

  50. Morning Pan!

    I have a tiring next couple of days. Around lunch I get my boss and we drive up to Edmonton (approx 3 hr. drive). We go to the Alberta Publishers awards dinner. Then, first thing in the morning I drive home. I plan to be home for lunch as we have company coming over later in the day for gaming.

    I’m already tired.

    • It’s sad, but I know that education has been watered down for some time. It takes special teachers and students to get to the why. I know that we found it odd that we spent 2 days in US history on Harvey Milk, but my teacher didn’t say a word. He just showed us a documentary (pre the Sean Penn movie)and then told us he was available for questions after class. Not the same as “Manifest Destiny” but along the same lines as “Okay, this happened. Let’s dig for more info.”

  51. You know the 14 year old that was arrested because the school administration freaked and thought his clock was a bomb?
    I just read something that makes you wonder what their real motivation was.
    Consider the following –

    They didn’t evacuate the school, like you do when there’s a bomb.
    They didn’t call a bomb squad – like you do when there’s a bomb.
    They didn’t get as far away from him as possible, like you do when there’s a bomb.
    Instead they put him and the clock in an office: not like you do when there’s a bomb
    Then they waited with him for the police to arrive, and then they put the clock in the same car as the police.
    Then they took pictures of it.

    Did they really think it was a bomb? Or did they just think they needed to send a message to a Muslim.

    • The more I see of this story and the pictures of the device…the less sympathetic I find myself feeling for this kid. I really want to avoid having to reach for the tinfoil hat. About the best I can say for him is he had incredibly poor judgement.

      • He showed it to his science teacher that morning and HE examined it and new what it was (and wasn’t).

        This all could have been avoided if they had simply ASKED the kid what it was and why he had it at school and then talk to the science teacher he had shown it to that morning (and who had examined it and NEW exactly what and why). Instead they went directly for the police?
        Why?

        SO now they are saying they knew it wasn’t a bomb and are suspending him for a “bomb hoax”. Forget that they were the ones who cried “bomb” and not him.
        *sigh*

        ALL that aside – here is a post on that revelation that still makes me laugh:

        “A fake bomb WITHOUT fake explosives or a fake detonator. Just a timing circuit with an LED display.

        By that reasoning, he was just a fake Delorean away from making a fake time machine.

        Great Scott, Marty, this Muslim kid is trying to take us…

        BACK TO THE FUTURE!”

      • For the benefit of the Facebookless:

        Got to spend the day at EJ’s school volunteering as a WatchDOG. Spent most of the day helping in EJ’s class. Toward the end of the day, a couple of the kids were trying to figure out what kind of car I drive.

        After a few reasonable guesses that weren’t correct, they went with a Lamborghini or a Ferrari. I asked if they thought I looked I could afford one of those.

        One of them replied “With that hair, YES!”

        I’m not quite sure how I should feel about that one…

  52. It is with a heavy heart that Ii must announce the cancellation of Stranger Danger hockey this year. We lost 80% of the players including the commissioner due to life fuckery. We hope to have it back up and running next year.

    • I only ever played Bad Dudes off of a 5 1/4″ floppy on my first PC, on my dazzling monochrome green monitor.

      I never did get to President Ronnie. Or likely even beyond the first level.

  53. So it turns out that Inuits are genetically adapted to process saturated fat without clogging up the arteries.

    So all those Omega 3 supplements are probably a waste of time…unless you are an Inuit.

    • There was a lot of visualizing mens’ “junk” in this movie, thanks to the crewmembers wearing Longjons as their Starfleet uniforms…

      Tragic story about the actress who played Lt. Ilia. 🙁

  54. Hey panties,

    I have created a new fantasy hockey league with Mr. Mangan’s wise input. Join our league
    ! We need 8 more teams. Jack and I are on separate teams this season.

    LMK if you want the link. I have already emailed it out to Ryah, Ditto, Lo, and Lo’s friend, Nick.

  55. Yarr! I was too busy on Talk Like a Pirate Day to post here. Went to work, then helped my friends install flooring in their house. It was a good day.

    I’m posting here now because I just ran across this question in the textbook I’m reading:

    “Short notes placed in different parts of a program explaining how those parts of the program work are called _______.
    a. comments
    b. reference manuals
    c. tutorials
    d. external documentation”

    I mentally replaced “comments” with “nipples” and “Ernest Borgnines” and giggled. 🙂

  56. Tonight’s arcade games:

    Jackal by Konami (one of my fav arcades) and Atari’s Star Wars.

    The former plays great with Xbox controller that latter does not.

  57. Ok, for those interested in WW2, go on YouTube and search ‘The Secret War’ .

    Look for 7 part series from the BBC, some good stuff covered and people who had served at the time.

  58. Crap joke for the day:

    This 6’6″ guy kept staring at me in the pub last night.
    After about half an hour i’d had enough so went up to him and said,
    “If you keep staring at me mate, you’ll be spending the night in a&e”
    “I’d like to see you fucking try.” He said.
    So i stabbed his missus.

  59. In all my years of playing in bands and with friends, tonight was the first time I’d ever played “Misty” with another musician. I feel like I’ve earned a long overdue merit badge.

  60. I’m not sure I’ll be able to join the hockey pool. Life and work schedule are insane right now, and I’m forced to cut a lot of my fun time just to get stuff done. Keep me posted, and I’ll see what I can do, but I’m not making any promises right now.

  61. Jack said:
    “So I hadn’t watched the first Star Trek movie since the 80s (?). This would have been a great Palooza film.

    It’s really a decent film – – just slower than slow.”

    I currently have, on one of my portable hard drives, at least 2 hours’ worth of unedited audio recordings of me and some of my local friends talking about movies. They are the earliest beginnings of a podcast (if I can ever make time to sit down and edit it). I will probably need supplemental content, so I might like to take the Palooza format and run with it every once in a while, if the Deadpan is okay with that.

  62. We bought a box of Girl Guide cookies yesterday. Hubby then spent the evening gnawing on them. I asked if there will be any left for the weekend. He was honest in his answer of “no”. I then asked if I should make some cookies on Friday.

    Now, to figure out what kind of cookies I should make.

  63. Your bad taste joke of the day:

    VW apologises for their cars spewing out noxious gases in the US.

    They stated the cars were meant to go to Israel.

  64. Tonight’s arcade games:

    A brief dalliance with Shock Troopers (Commando on steroids on the Neo Geo)

    ..and Cabal

    The latter may just be played on a non scrolling screen, but some good blasting action.

  65. Thumbs up on The Muppets. I like the nods to the classic series and the writing on the 1st Ep. Trying not to spoil it for others *cough*

    Also, really loving Scream Queens first ep. Especially the covers of 80s and 90s songs in the background.

  66. I have been recruited to assist the OR Scheduling office for the hospital for the next month or so.

    So now I sit on my butt and do data entry for 8 hrs a day. #highestpaidadminever

  67. So I thought I would give audible a try with the 30 day trial.

    For the trial I got ‘The Traitor Baru Comorant’ by Seth Dickinson.

    It’s about young woman who wants to free her homeland from an Empire by becoming a top class agent for the empire.

    The Empire mixes Victorian tech (sailing ships but with torpedos) and machvellian strategy and psychology.

    Good stuff, oh and if you like Hollywood endings, give this one a pass.

  68. Tonight’s arcade is Golden Axe.

    I completed this in the arcades as it’s relatively easy game.

    I did not know that they used audio samples from Rambo and Conan for the screams and grunts.

        • I recall discussing Capaldi with you last year. . . We should talk again, now that I’ve actually seen his entire first season.

          Overall, I like his Doctor quite a bit, and I liked most of his ssn 1 episodes. I think people sometimes forget just how nutrageous the show could sometimes go for Eccleston, Tennant, and Smith.

          • The choice of The Doctor isn’t my issue. I love Capaldi. So far, every actor given the role in the BBC series has embodied The Doctor, and that’s as it should be.

            I hate the direction the stories have gone. Dumbed down retellings of fairy stories, mediocre retellings of better works by better writers, a lack of subtlety for his political points-of-view, and some seriously shitty writing (Yes, I’m looking at you Tyrannosaurus rex in London.)

            Moffat has come close in several episodes to turning his speeding locomotive around and almost given me hope, only in the last few moments of the ep to fuck it up. The first ep this season; however, has left me wondering why I don’t just stop watching now and save myself the misery of another bad series, and it’s a two-parter. It should draw me in, not put me off.

            So disgusted by Moffat’s whole run.

          • No. I binge watched basically from Second season Tennant thru first season Smith. Now while I agree with your assertion there’s outrageous aspects to all seasons, Moffat somehow was so talented he turned fun outrageous into insipid and insulting.

            i feel… strongly…about this

          • I actually agree with all of that, although I still did find myself more engaged and entertained by the best of last seasons than I ever recall being during Smith’s tenure. I’m cautiously hopeful for season 2.

            I feel largely the same about pre-Moffat Who as well, though. We’re just in the midst re-watching the Tennant 2-parter with the Dalek invasion (where Davros comes back, and there’s the mad Dalek, and Rose is strutting around with a BFG rifle). Go and rewatch it too, if you can. That shit is bananas.

          • Well that’s something I wouldnt know cause I havent seen Capaldi. ALTHOUGH Ill ask you – could I skip the Smith seasons and go strait there?

            Ok agreed!! However you hit the nail inadvertently on the head in your previous post when you said “…how nutrageous the show could sometimes…” SOMETIMES being the key word. That’s all I felt ALL THE TIME during Moffatt. I think that’s the key difference

          • While Tennant is my favorite Doctor since the reboot, two of my favorite episodes are during the Matt Smith era. Gaiman, who wrote one of those two, is scheduled on this season’s roster as well. I admit I have scoffed at times, but I am not ready to give up on the series.

          • I hope we didn’t already chase Lejon away with our Moffat-era Doctor Who talk. I do think he should choose between Sherlock Holmes and The Doctor. That, or turn over the next James Bond film to him as well. Give him control over England’s major pop heroes.

            His penchant for the zany-beyond-belief showed up in the last Sherlock finale.

          • 1. not chased off… not yet. Just tend not to be online as much anymore.
            2. Moffat needs to stay show runner for Sherlock, but leave writing to his partner from the first two seasons.
            3. Nutrageous can only get you so far in life, then you need to stop pissing off people and tell good stories.

            4. Someone needs to fire Moffat. He can’t just keep hiding behind his 3 hugos anymore. He’s not bulletproof.

    • Pat Cadigan in the comments.

      All I remember of her books is that woman who would chew her food then spit it in a bucket so as not to swallow the food.

  69. Taking the kids to see The Visit (their request). A bunch of old people between us and the theater exits, to up the creep factor.

    Side note: I can’t believe I’m giving this punk more of my money.

  70. Well Ticket booked to see ‘The Martian’ this week.

    I promise there will no no mention that the dust storm is scientifically inaccurate..oooops.

  71. An app on phone took a disliking to iOS 9 and crashed the phone. After rebooting, phone wouldn’t connect to Internet or wifi. Several reboots later, still no connection.

    Only when I uninstalled the app and rebooted did connectivity return.

    Grrrr!

  72. JF – City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett (audio book)

    Not a great fantasy fan but this was bloody brilliant.

    Some great world building, interesting characters and plot that rattles along.

    Good stuff.

  73. This is doing the rounds on FB:

    I was in England again a few weeks ago, mostly in small towns, but here’s some of what I learned:
    * Almost everyone is very polite
    * The food is generally outstanding
    * There are no guns
    * There are too many narrow stairs
    * Everything is just a little bit different
    * The pubs close too early
    * Pubs are not bars, they are community living rooms.
    * You’d better like peas, potatoes and sausage
    * Refrigerators and washing machines are very small
    * Everything is generally older, smaller and shorter
    * There are very well behaved dogs everywhere
    * People don’t seem to be afraid of their neighbors or the government
    * Their paper money makes sense, the coins don’t
    * Everyone has a washing machine but driers are rare
    * The reason they drive on the left is because all their cars are built backwards
    * Hot and cold water faucets. Remember them?
    * Pants are called “trousers”, underwear are “pants” and sweaters are “jumpers”
    * The bathroom light is a string hanging from the ceiling
    * “Fanny” is a naughty word, as is “shag”
    * All the signs are well designed with beautiful typography and written in full sentences with proper grammar.
    * There’s no dress code
    * Doors close by themselves, but they don’t always open
    * They eat with their forks upside down
    * English are as crazy about their gardens as Americans are about cars
    * They don’t use facecloths or napkins
    * The wall outlets all have switches, some don’t do anything.
    * There are hardly any cops or police cars.
    • There are 5,000 year old rocks still standing around. No one is sure why
    * When you do see police they seem to be in male & female pairs and often smiling
    * Black people are just people: they didn’t quite do slavery here
    * Everything comes with chips, which are French fries. You put vinegar on them
    * Cookies are “biscuits” and potato chips are “crisps”
    * HP sauce is better then catsup
    * Obama is considered a hero, Bush is considered an idiot.
    * After fish and chips, curry is the most popular food
    * The water controls in showers need detailed instructions
    * Folks don’t always lock their bikes
    * It’s completely normal to see people dressing different and speaking different languages
    * Electronic devices work fine with just a plug adapter.
    * Nearly everyone is better educated then we are
    * If someone buys you a drink you must do the same.
    * There are no guns
    * Look right, walk left
    * It’s not that hard to eat with the fork in your left hand with a little practice. If you don’t, everyone knows you’re an American
    * Many of the roads are the size of our sidewalks
    * There’s no AC.
    * Instead of turning the heat up, you put on a jumper
    * Gas is “petrol”, it costs about $7 a gallon and is sold by the liter
    * If you speed on a motorway, you get a ticket. Always.
    * You don’t have to tip, really!
    * Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Cornwall really are different countries
    * Everyone here has a passport, only 14% of Americans do.
    * You pay the price marked on products because the taxes (VAT) are built in.
    * Walking is the national pastime
    * Their TV looks and sounds much better then ours
    * They took the street signs down during WWII but haven’t put them all back up yet.
    * Everyone enjoys a good joke
    * There are no guns
    * Dogs are very well behaved and welcome everywhere
    * There are no window screens
    * You can get on a bus and end up in Paris.
    * Everyone knows more about our history then we do
    * Radio is still a big deal. The BBC is quite good
    * The newspapers can be awful
    * Everything costs the same but our money is worth less so you have to add 50% to the price to figure what you’re paying
    * Beer comes in large, completely filled, actual pint glasses and the closer the brewery the better the beer
    * Butter and eggs aren’t refrigerated
    * The beer isn’t warm, each style is served at the proper temperature
    * Cider (alcoholic) is quite good.
    * Excess cider consumption can be very painful.
    * The universal greeting is “Cheers” (pronounced “cheeahz” unless you are from Cornwall, then it’s “chairz”)
    * The money is easy to understand: 1-2-5-10-20-50 pence, then-£1-£2-£5-£10, etc bills. There are no quarters.
    * Their cash makes ours look like Monopoly money.
    * Cars don’t have bumper stickers
    * Most doorknobs, buildings and tools are older than America
    * By law, there are no crappy, old cars
    * When the sign says something was built in 456, they didn’t lose the “1”
    * BBC 4 is NPR
    * Everything closes at 1700 (5pm)
    * Very few people smoke
    * You’re defined by your accent
    * No one in Cornwall knows what a Cornish Game Hen is
    * Soccer is a religion, religion is a sport
    * Europeans dress better then the British, we dress worse
    * The trains work: a three minute delay is regrettable
    • Drinks don’t come with ice
    * There are far fewer fat English people
    * There are a lot of healthy old folks wandering around participating in life instead of hiding at home watching tv.
    * If you’re over 60 and English, you get free bus, rail travel and tv.
    * Displaying your political or religious affiliation is considered very bad taste
    * Every pub has a pet drunk
    * Their healthcare works, but they still bitch about it.
    * Cake is one of the major food groups.
    * Their coffee is mediocre but their tea is wonderful.
    * There are still no guns
    * Towel warmers!

  74. Terrible pun from Twitter:

    @ndmckeown: Interviewer – “So are you comfortable with performing the assassination in highland dress?”

    Hitman – “Well I’ve kilt before…”

  75. Just a quick hop in. Very busy today.

    We have a box set going out next week. I’ve never assembled a box set in eformat before so there is a bit of a learning curve. Since my boss wants to put out six of these suckers in the next year, I better learn how to spin.

  76. I got a letter from the government the other day
    Opened it and read it, it said they were suckers
    They wanted me for their army or whatever
    Picture me givin’ a damn, I said, never

    Here is a land that never gave a damn
    About a brother like myself because I never did
    I wasn’t with it but just that very minute
    It occurred to me, the suckers had authority

    • I just finished conditioning a Humidor, in which I set up a shot-glass of distilled water and humidor humidifier for 48 hours. I loaded up the box with 24 cigars, but had the shot-glass of water left over. I didn’t want to waste the water, so I poured a shot of Glenmorangie into it and drank it down. It was extra nice, since the cedar of the humidor parially leeched into the water. Added tasty hints to the whiskey.

      and that’s all i have to say about that.

  77. On a more depressing note, a friend whose eyesight had been deteriorating and was diagnosed with cataracts , has been told it’s not cataracts and he needs more tests.

    So fingers crossed.

      • I really think we are. Its just a loud screaming (and well armed) minority with money holding us back. Makes no sense. Maybe thats just wishful thinking

    • Sheriff: “I will not give him the credit he probably sought prior to this horrific and cowardly act.”

      BBC: Here is his name… here is a section of the article titled “Everything We Know about …”

      Nice to know American journalism in not alone in giving a rat’s ass about anything but dragging in readers at any cost.

    • Well.. I mean it was if you were English at that time.

      “England! What’s that behind your back?”
      “Oh, its just India and a number of other countries…”

  78. It’s been awhile so I’ll go over the rules.

    The movie will most likely be terrible. Although, to be honest, I expect this one will be worse than most.

    There will be spoilers. But most of this play by play will most likely not make much sense out of context.

    Auto correct and typing errors will happen. Feel free to laugh at them.

    Finally, you are allowed, nay encourage, to participate

  79. Today’s movie is The Devil’s Hand

    The PVR write up: terror overtakes a religious community when six young women, all born on the same day, begin disappearing as their 18th birthday draws near

  80. I have never been more intuned or alligned with Pres. Obama, than I am right now with regards to his speech from last night. He said everything and he said it right.

    HopeForChange

    • I don’t know how to say this without sounding like I am against some sort of stricter control on guns … I’m am not against that, although I have no clue as to what a work-able plan would be … THAT being said –

      I feel like we are in a zombie apocalypse and everyone is arguing over whether or not we should be forced to wear Kevlar helmets to keep our brains from being eaten. Aren’t we as a country ignoring the real problem which is we are now surrounded by all these Zombies?

      Yes – separating the nut bags, sociopaths, mentally ill and just plain criminals from guns would be a big help but that doesn’t do anything about the fact that we now have a critical mass of nut bags, sociopaths, mentally ill and just plain criminal people who want to KILL the rest of us.

      Good luck getting congress to address THAT issue.

      • Find a way for zillionaires to profit off of mental health treatment.

        How do we as a culture learn to collectively decide to take responsibility for our mentally ill, and find ways to reach them before they hurt themselves or others?

        But yes, let’s disarm them.

    • A dietitian was once addressing a large audience in Chicago.“The material we put into our stomachs is enough to have killed most of us sitting here, years ago. Red meat is awful. Soft drinks erode your stomach lining. Chinese food is loaded with MSG. Vegetables can be disastrous, and none of us realizes the long-term harm caused by the germs in our drinking water. But there is one thing that is the most dangerous of all and we all have, or will, eat it. Can anyone here tell me what food it is that causes the most grief and suffering for years after eating it?”
      A 75-year-old man in the front row stood up and said, “Wedding cake.”

  81. Yay Hockey season!!!

    To get J & I in the mood, we will be watching the NCAA’s newly inaugurated team- The Arizona Sun Devils, take of University of Arizona from the Coyotes Arena. Should be a fun game!

    Fork ’em Devils!

  82. So I was looking at an old text conversation on Skype, before the first meet up and I type:

    True, but a one off to see people I will probably never see again

    Funny how that worked out.

    Cough

  83. So yesterday I saw the date stamp on my Dell desktop that was the assembly date.

    8th October 2007

    So that’s officially the longest I’ve owned the same PC.

    • When I was working at the University of Colorado archives I had the honor of helping Scott Carpenter’s daughter, Kris, do a bit of research for the biography she was writing about her dad. It was the one time I actually got to rummage through CU’s Scott Carpenter collection and look at all of the raw film and photos he took during Aurora 7. Pretty rad stuff

  84. So, to answer a question from FB, I’m hopefully going to London tomorrow to see the Soviet Space program exhibition at the Science museum.

    Thing is, it’s a bit out my comfort zone for a number of reasons too boring to mention.

  85. BTW, I really meant to edit together some audio files last night. I’ll do my damnedest to make that happen tonight. Even if I don’t, though, I’ll create a new page, so we don’t have to surf 1500 comments to reach the “Leave a Reply” field.

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