Saturday, November 22, 2008

The Craigslist Conversation

Chance encounter at the park?

Reply to: cbear45@yahoo.com
Date: 2008-07-19, 11:19PM EST


I saw you walking your dog at the park today wearing a pink fuzzy sweater and a grey skirt. I wanted to talk to you but your dog kept barking at me and you hurried away before I could get your number. Let's meet again without interruptions. :)


**

re: Chance encounter at the park?

Reply to: spot667@hotmail.com
Date: 2008-07-20, 9:31AM EST


You weren't wearing any pants, you sick freak.


**

re: re: Chance encounter at the park?

Reply to: cbear45@yahoocom
Date: 2008-07-20, 9:45AM EST


Just the fact you wrote back shows that you do want to see me again! Same place, same time?

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Nostalgia for Stupid TV

I'm not one to write about nostalgia often. That's Jorgh's brother's thing. However, once in a while it will happen - as it will happen to all people I'm sure - that I get bitten by a memory of something that happened in the past. And then it never goes away until I tell Jorghnassen about it until he gets sick of hearing it, or it just eats me up inside until I forget about it a week later. Then it comes back to me again.

None of my memories from the past that torture me are ever pleasant. I do have some good memories, like falling into the rivière du moulin up to my neck (oh wait that's not that good but whatever), getting to see the Rockies and the Atlantic ocean, and making childhood friends whom I am in constant fear of them finding me. But much of the things I remember are either mundane or horrible things I'd rather not remember.

This entry, however, is not exactly horrible but completely inexplicable: some classic sitcom TV shows between the 80s and 90s.

***

Everyone knows of the "reedeeculus" Perfect Strangers, Family Matters, and Full House successes (and consequent successes/downfalls/scandals of the Olsen twins but that's an aside). My family would watch television every evening together for their wholesome, slapstick and childish antics that would unite the entire generation of American and Canadian families in that era forever.

There's also the older Small Wonder that more and more people have gained memory of, lost under the sea of Facts of Life, Growing Pains, Family Ties, and Cosby Show episodes. (Now why would Bill Cosby's show be called "The Cosby Show" but have a character named Huxtable, (same occurance for all his other shows) is also completely inexplicable.)

However, few people remember the really, really stupid shows that would only last a few episodes or a few seasons. I mean really stupid. I'm not talking about shows that were found to be retarded, like how they made a Little Muppet Monsters short that came after the Muppet Babies cartoon. Or other idiotic cartoons made just to sell toys (millions of examples come to mind).

This one is really stupid.

When ABC's TGIF shows became huge successes, the network counted on the stable, popular and long running shows like Full House and Family Matters to boost ratings on newer shows they'd slip in during the two hour block. This particular show was called Going Places.



I can't even begin to explain what this show is about. I couldn't tell you even when I was 10 or 11 watching it to begin with. If you watch the intro you'd think the show was about two young couples having wacky adventures in Hollywood and living it up on boats or something.

Let's just assume that that's the case. I'm ashamed enough about this show... because for some inexplicable reason, when I was 10 or 11, I was crazy about it. The song, the characters, their house, their jobs, the idiotic jokes (that I don't remember), EVERYTHING.

And I can't even tell you what the show is about because I don't remember a damned thing about it.

What I do remember, and this will probably haunt me forever (and I will probably regret putting this out in the open), is that I was so nuts about this show that I wrote a story about it. I wrote a fanfic about a terrible sitcom in the 90s before the internet became mainstream. I even remember the title: Going Climbing (maybe because their living it up Hollywood style wasn't enough that they had to get out of Hollywood to have anything else outlandish happen). It was probably about the four main characters going mountain climbing. I especially remember showing the rough pages to my friend in school, and his response was, "You really like that show, huh?"

However, I think I recall vaguely how I felt when the show was cancelled after a year. Devastated? Crushed? Somewhat relieved? It was probably the reason I wrote that fan-fiction. I must have chucked it out a few years later, but I would have liked to see exactly what I wrote and why I was so obsessed with that show.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Lessons from Junior Senior

Yesterday I discovered that my latest favourite band, Junior Senior, had called it quits since the end of September. No surprises actually, as both Junior and Senior (Jesper and Jeppe) had been pursuing solo works over the last little while.

In the off chance you have never heard of Junior Senior, there are many videos online of their music. Their breakthrough in the NA market is probably Move Your Feet, noted for the pixel art featured in the video, back in 2003 when it made the run throughout the geek blogger circles.


Another notable song was done with the collaboration with the B-52s singers - Take My Time:


Last year, I became entranced with the band. I listened to their albums constantly while driving back and forth between work while in Waterloo. I forced Jorgh to listen to it while I made the 8 hour marathon drives, and I still listen to it to drive him nuts.

The reason I listen to it all the time, and have not gone nuts, is that JS never goes old. Well, there's two reasons actually; as a musician, I'm used to excessively repeating pieces, and I don't get as tired of hearing pieces I like, as other people might. (Which is also why I annoy Jorgh with Queen as well, but that's another story.)

Every song in their repertoire is fun, catchy, and definitely good for dancing. Inspirational when you're down in the dumps. Celebratory when you're doing something great. (Stupid when you're doing the vacuuming but whatever.) There's definitely an element of fun-for-the-sake-of-it in their songs, rather than something grandiose or corny. I'm sorry to see them split but at least they gave the world a great sound. :)

All the pressures you embrace
They take you to a magic place
And take your magic place along
And put that feeling in a song

And keep on working through the morning
Working through the night
Until you see the light
Cuz You can hold it in your hand
And try to understand
Just do it do it do it get it down
Cuz music's not just sound

Keep on working on something better
Keep on working on something better
Keep on working on something better

-Junior Senior, I Like Music (W.O.S.B.)

Friday, October 31, 2008

Ha ha! Hee hee!

Here's a classic repost.

Happy Hallowe'en!

Monday, October 27, 2008

haha oh god the fallout

After I posted the bacon monstrosity here, I decided it would be a fantastic idea to present it to the SA forums. (It was mainly due to an SA member that I did post it in the first place.)

Boy did it go well. I got a small number of positive or constructive responses, but the vast majority decided to go for the Internet Goon responses. I'll let you see a sample:

- Maybe because of the description that I wrote the "maïs en crème" part, he didn't get it.


- Oh Horatia, you card. ;)


- The discussion moved to weird places.

Then I wrote a rebuttal to all the people who seemed to become culinary experts over an internet recipe of a "bacon pie" that not one of them had made before.

- He probably ate at that buffet too.


- LOLZ


- This one was cute. I wrote "C is for clogged arteries."


- He didn't get it.


- Good luck.


- I feel sorry for all you vegetarian quiche lovers.

At least it was all worth it in the end:

- He laughed his ass off. ;)

EDIT: Haha I forgot to check SASS.

EDIT 2: AND it's on Forum Friday's Monday.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Hey, do you like bacon? And do you like pie?

This is BACON PIE.


Ingredients

  • 1 lb listeria bacon

  • 3 potatoes or so

  • 1 onion

  • some mushrooms

  • sour cream

  • spices... well, use your imagination.


Method


  1. Slice up your vegetables. I used a mandolin that would be much more useful if it could only stay sharp for more than a few vegetables. (Gonna have to get a real knife sharpener, not just that cheapo-sticko thing.)



  2. Lay the bacon from the center to the edge of the cooking thingy. Here I used a glass casserole bowl with lid, but later you'll see that it was probably a bad idea. The original recipe said to put it in an oven-safe frying pan.



  3. Place your sliced stuff in the middle. This might have been too much actually.



  4. Add some sour cream and various herbs and spices. I forgot to mix them in with the vegetables before that, so don't do what I did. Also, random green stuff.



  5. Bring the hanging edges of the bacon together. Now you have a bacon package. Do not eat!


  6. Cover it, stick in oven at 400 F, and bake long enough for the potatoes to be probably cooked. Like an hour, maybe.



  7. Oh crap, the bacon pie exploded.



  8. Well, that's okay. Just flip it over and put it back in for another 10 minutes, without the cover... and you might want to drain it. The bacon underneath wasn't finished cooking anyway. :(



  9. Your bacon pie is browned. Time to get it ready! :D



  10. Here, we present to the gourmands and discriminating tongues, the finest in contemporary cuisine - a serving of red potatoes, onions, and champignons wrapped in crisped salted pork belly, with a side of crème de blé d'inde. A profound fruity rouge, Rasteau, from the Côtes du Rhône villages (2005) pairs nicely with any provincial meals.


What the hell - this is the first time I made this dish and I didn't know what I was doing. I only did it because of a suggestion from my cap'n Crooks (from PP).

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Chialer et Riposter

I'm not comfortable enough to write a blog post completely en français, but at least I can read...

Anyway, two quebecois websites I was recently referred to (by Google, from lack of any warm bodies to ask in the vicinity of 200km) during my quest to right a stupid mistake by stupid B&M:

riposte.ca - I found a whole bunch of people pissed at every single furniture store in existence in and around Montreal (at least), rightly for stupid things they did (or didn't do). Ah, if only it were possible to band together and turn them upside-down by the nostrils...

chialons.com - I saw that segment on Infoman recently on this site. I have no idea what it's about yet.