soon to come; gatsby review. had it done, looked good, disappeared. how pissed am I?

the Real Santa Claus was 5'6 and Turkish. . .

There is a very cool series of brief articles in this week's NY Times magazine: The Year's Best Ideas A-Z. Stuff about the best way to skip a stone, a new take on a serious education issue, translucent concrete, some gross jewelry that we're bound to see, and a bunch of other wierd and cool stuff to check out. So do!

Ladies and Gentlemen: Whiplash the Rodeo Monkey. Click the link in the article to see the pictures...

Today we'll discuss the flying lawn mower.

Death by Flying Lawn Mower

Video of a Flying Lawn Mower

Are they good or are they bad? You decide for yourself.

Here's a cool page of MP3s, that's worth going to check out here and there. Maybe you'll find something cool like this live version of The White Stripes doing "Jolene." Just scroll down a little ways and you're sure to find it.

Here's a player for the new Wilco album, A Ghost is Born. It's pretty good stuff. I dig 'Hummingbird" a whole lot. These guys are consistently solid songwriters. They also have a new interview on KCRW . . . check the sidelines here to the right for the link. Jeff Tweedy sounds a little like the '70s John Lennon here, too. Wilco has links to a coupla other bands that are cool, like The Autumn Defense. Some good music there.

Jon Spenser's Blues Explosion. These guys are the ultimate "get-up-outta-that hole" band. They're high energy, fast, rollickin' and damn proud of their name. It appears about a dozen times on every album. I wouldn't have it any other way. These guys have a new album out, too: Damage.

Hey Mario, can you work some of your charm and magic to get our boys back out on the ice?
I think folks around these parts are starting to really miss their hockey. I know I am. I may not follow the Penguins as fervently as I do our beloved Steelers, but after a while, you notice it's gone. I've noticed lots of dedicated Pens fans though (Melczak: "GO PENS!!!"), who are still wearing their gear about town. Pride yourselves dedicated Pens fans . . . Pride yourselves.

Ok, this is pretty cool, and must've been designed with the blind in mind.

Speegle, is like Google, but it speaks the results to you. Pretty sweet, and kinda funny when you type in a search query like "pillow fights" . . . Anyways, I think this has opened up the internet for the blind. Pretty cool!

Dude, you've got to go read this article. You probably know everything in it already, but that's OK, dude... will this Unit Plan ever finish?

Oh, and here's the trailer for Life Aquatic. I want to see Wes Anderson's new movie in the worst way, but it doens' come out in these parts until Christmas Day.

Squirreled away in my attic room, I'm desperately trying to finish my Great Gatsby unit plan. It's due Tuesday. Lollygagging is not good for deadlines, but even so the lolly will be gagged... if only for just a moment. I'm enjoying a fast connection from home, and finding that if I had this a week ago even, I wouldve been much farther along with this unit plan than I am.

OK. Enough of that. On to more sober topics like this poet, from the 1920s who was rather fond of his Martinis. Apparently he and his wife sometimes took their Martinis in a cemetery, and there's a great story here about when they ran out of ice. It's somewhat reminescent of the day after Curt's bachelor party: We awoke late Sunday morning after Curt's bachelor party, and after negotiating the operational mechanics of an odd contraption called 'the Big Ragu' (formerly called 'the fishbowl' ), we headed into the outside world for some brunch at Tom's Diner. It was late July, and the noon time sun shone brilliantly. Blindingly. Dazzlingly. I squinted and my eyes still hurt. As we walked out my front door and down the sidewalk I could only look at the sidewalk, wishing that I knew where my sunglasses were. Everybody else had theirs on.
"I really wish I had a pair of sunglasses," I said aloud, when squinting at the sidewalk, was a pair of sunglasses! I blinked, and blinked again. Bent over and picked up the shades, put them on my face and turned to my firends. "Look, I found a pair of sunglasses! I was just saying, i really wish i had a pair of sunglasses, and POW! there's a pair on the sidewalk right in front of me!" what really amazed me was how UN-impressed my companions were. Sorta like I had jsut seen a cloud in the sky, found it remarkable, and said so. "yup . . . " was the only resposnes I got, but there they were. Sometimes it's just like that.

I just shared a picture you may like, some of you for your own reasons, with Mikey Mel.

I had this moment, just a moment ago, where I was wondering what today's date was, and so I looked at the date/time thing in the lower right hand corner of my screen: Thursday, November 18, 2004. 11:18 AM . . . Hoo doggies . . . gotta like when that happens right?

Enjoy the Great American Smoke Out day. It's today, 11/18. I'll be sure to share that with all the smokers I encounter today, and then we'll laugh, maybe cough a little, gasp and chuckle.

And now, a poetry for you . . . we used this in my drama class about a month ago.

The Smoking Yokadokas
by Jack Prelutsky

We’re the Smoking Yokadokas,
we sincerely need to smoke,
and we do not mind the slightest
that our smoking makes you choke,
our malodorous miasma
will assail you when we’re near,
it will irritate your nostrils
and compel your eyes to tear.

We’re the Smoking Yokadokas,
we’re not nice to have around,
you can often hear us coughing,
it’s a coarse and raucous sound,
all our teeth are brown and yellow,
and our breath is always stale,
we’re especially offensive
at the moment we exhale.

Our appearance is unsightly,
we have ashes on our clothes,
our aroma is appalling,
you may have to hold your nose,
but don’t waste your time complaining
we contaminate the air,
we’re the Smoking Yokadokas,
and we simply do not care.


Text copyright © 1990 by Jack Prelutsky. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
©2002, American Heart Association. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.

Cannibal Stoudt

It's not available in stores, bars or beer distributors yet, but it's out there. I was hanging out with a friend from class for her birthday, and Amanda and her boyfriend Frank enjoy ;making homebrew. THeir friend however stepped it up a notch. Cannibal Stoudt apparently is made with yeast grown in human kidneys? Something odd like that, a scientific yeast used in human studies, or something. It's not the actual human cells yer drinking, so it's safe, at least I think it is . . . anyways, I tried some of this beer, and it was actually quite palatable. The coolest thing though, was the mini-tap that fits on top of wide mouth bottles. THis way you can have a gallon sized mini keg of beer, ya know homebrews, and keep it very fresh with this tap. Nothing worse than openign a big beer and having it go flat on you befor eyou get halfway through it. I'll get back to you with more details about the human yeast kidney thing. Wierd though, eh?

Painting by Numbers, a la Holden Caulfield.

I hated paint by numbers when I was a kid.

Not because I didn't enjoy doing them, in fact I had never even tried. I just thought that if you couldn't draw or paint, that a thing like paint by numbers was stupid, and you could totally tell how dumb the person was who did one. I hated paint by numbers. It was't even real painting, right? It's phony. It took no skill whatsoever. I would see paint-by-numbers in the toy section of the pharmacy or whatever and thought, who even does those? They're stupid.

Somebody gave me a paint-by-numbers set for a birthday present or something when I was 9 or 10. It sat on a shelf in my closet for a year or two, and I would think, why do I keep that thing? I hate paint by numbers. Then one evening, I was bored and I thought, OK, I'll find out just how dumb this stuff really is. I opened the box on my shelf, saw that there were brushes, two plastic arrays of paints, maybe ten or fifteen colors total? I dunno. And there were four or five 'canvases' with the outlines of some picture, numbers that corresponded to paints in the array trays, so you put color #7 on all the little spots that were marked ' 7.' So I started with a picture of a cowboy riding on a horse in the low desert. There were cactuses and scrub brush in the distance. It took a few hours over a few days to finish the whole thing, not letting the colors bleed over into the other number spaces.

The finished project looked sloppy. The horse's mane was kinda tough to master, because it had so many similar clors and it was hard to get enough but not tooo much paint in one little flourish of mane hair, and not have it blend with the others. So I thought, well, even though these are dumb, I'm gonna do another one, and I'll do it better than this last one. I tried using different colors, but that looked dumb. I ignored some of the spaces, and did what I wanted in others. This went on until I had finished all five of the paint by number canvases in the box. Then I had five pictures that were . . . OK . . . and what do I do with these things now? Roll my eyes at them and think how dumb paint by numbers is, at least now I've done them to be able to say they're dumb? Hmmm. I had enjoyed some of the painting, and because I enjoyed it, I couldn't say I hated paint by numbers anymore. I just thought they were still kinda stupid, even if they give you some experience painting stuff.

So more than like likely if you are reading this, you went and voted. There's apparently a 50/50 or should I say 49/51 chance that you voted for Kerry. I have to say though, I am satisfied with my fellow voters, my fellow Americans, because you went and voted. This election garnered record turnouts here in Pennsylvania, apparently not seen since the Kennedy/Nixon election in 1960 did we see sucha turnout.

I was on the fence for a long time, mostly hoping that Nader would get on the ballot. I still want to see an outsider, a maverick come out and shake up the two-party system, but alas, alack, Alanis Morisette, it was not to be for ol' Ralphie . . . blocked of the PA ballot. I have a long digression about what happened there, but I'll save that for when I'm powerfully intoxicated. Anyways, I suppose I am a 'pocketbook' voter, going with my future as a teacher, and Kerry's Education Plans seemed a bit better than Bush's No Child LEft Behind. A good idea, if you bother to pay for it, but . . . well, he didn't.

I've heard a few folks say that they see a possible return to a political/social climate like the '60s, and maybe we will see that. There are a few parallels (go go Go-Go boots!!!) but I hope that the people of this nation are more about unity in the face of the adversity, than dissension. Speak your voice, but keep your fists in your words.

And on a note to lighten the tone, some news about traveling. I myself will be flying to Minnesota this weekend, but I'm not going to try flying this way...

You should give this player a listen: Kings of Convenience .

You can play one song at a time, but the whole album is on there. I've heard a few other songs they've done, but this good: the music and vocals are pretty solid. They're sorta like a SImon/Garfunkel or Chad/Jeremy sound, ya know the chill, slightly hep to jazz sorta tunes from the mid to late sixties . . .

Did you have a good weekend?

I sure did... I drove up near Brookville, PA to meet all the cabin campers Friday night. We stayed in very nice cabins (meaning they had gas furnaces, and were kinda like somebody's home). The fire was awesome, as usual. Saturday afternoon, I went with Marty and Renee to check out the fire tower #9, the scenic overlook, and some trail stuff. the fire tower was pretty cool cuz you go up above the tree level and then some. Renee brought her digital camera and got some pretty cool pictures. I think a digital camera would be pretty sweet to have. The weather was good for the most part, except for some rain late late Saturday night.
Driving home was the only tough part... I was so sleepy, so sleepy. SO ... sleepy... but I made it back alright.

Hey folks -

Not too much going on here. Settling in for a good weekend of cabin camping in Cook's forest. I missed last year, for some reason I dont remember. For those of you who will be around a fast connection this weekend, check out Magnet and Helio Sequence: http://www.kcrw.org/cgi-bin/db/kcrw.pl?show_code=mb&air_date=10/14/04&tmplt_type=show These guys are pretty good sounding, kinda chill . . . A little electro-effect-emo-rock and then a lot of electro-electronica rock respectively. I'm looking forward to hearing Elliot Smith's posthumous album, From a Basement on a Hill. Not like I'm trying to solve the mystery of his death, I just always liked his music. I'm sad that we've lost such a talented songwriter with a personal sense of style that powerfully evocative. The disc should be arriving in the mail today or tomorrow.

What happened to the Viceland Do's and Don'ts? they used to be really funny, but now they're becoming so predictable, it's like comparing the Cheat's cartoons with like the reality of Strongbadia.

The challenge for today? writing up an appropriate lesson using creative dramatics to teach Chief Joseph's Speech.

I've been carrying the Camel Shorties (aka filterless) since I saw Dan Brown and Dave Flick at Nadines Tuesday. Danno pulled the wrong lever on the cig machine there, and POW! out came the Camel shorties. They're a little harsh, no not terrible, but defintiely strong. You only need one for every three light cigarettes, so it'll be nice to get a new pack of my regular smokes. Oh, did I mention the attractive bar tender at Nadines? I wouldn't chase a bartender, no matter how hot she is, but it's nice to have a friendly hottie deliver you a cold beer. And they seem to have no short supply of attractive bartenders.

I hope I'll remember a couple 40s and brown paper bags... three years ago, I raced Buckethead in a 40s race. . . and won. Way it works? open your 40 in the bag, twist the top of the bad around the bottle neck, so you have no idea (visually) how much beer is in the bottle. Then you drink. At intervals (barely regulated), you check your level vs. your opponents. It';s a good game if yer not driving anywhere that night. And Booyah, when you're camping, you're setting for a while.

I hope everybody has a good weekend, and I'll catch yinz on the flipside.

The Shady Weekend

This weekend was a little shady... in that I left South Side, and hungout with some work/school folks in Shady Side Friday night. Saturday night? I went to see a band called Shade for their CD release party. My right ear is still gakked up and I can't hear well out of it . . . advice: bring earplugs to a show... especially if yer friend likes to stand up close...

Just a quick note to remind you of the show coming up. Emphasis on show... the Presidential Candidate Debates, minus the elephants, clowns and midgets will be running soon.

Hey if you like Bush or Kerry, bully for you. Go vote for them. It's what you should do. But bear in mind, if only for a second, that the 2000 Presidential Candidate Debates excluded some major candidates, who even tried to come debate the candidates anyways. OF course I'm speaking about Ralph Nader. He didn't have a role to play in the script, so they made him leave. Turned him away. Get lost, they said.

Oh, and my vote for Nader? It was a vote for Nader. Not anybody else. :P

One more thing. THere's an article here about voters being turned away. Not surprisingly, they're minority voters. In response to this article, I'd like to say I'm proud of the people who have consistently been out getting people registered to vote. They are mostly black people, getting blacks, whites, and anybody who's a citizen registered to vote. They've always been polite, and enthusiastic. Not o;verbearing, but they make it apparent that this election, as all elections, counts for something. And so does your vote. Thanks to all of you folks who are drumming up voters. I'm impressed with this city and their voters. Thanks Pittsburgh!

Today is the first day of new stuff: a new job and new classes. I'm working as a GSA (Graduate Student Asst.) in the School of Ed and taking my last three classes. I still have to find out what's up with my student teaching, and this afternoon or tomorrow would be a great time to do all that. The bookstore doesn't have ANY of my books yet. I hope they come in, or perhaps that none of my classes will use texts. Right. Like that's gonna happen. It;s a bit wierd coming back after a stretch of time off, but it's pretty cool to get back into a more focused mode of living life.

Summer is on the wind down, but there's still some cool stuff happening. If nothing else, the presidential elections and stuff leading up to them should be fascinating to watch. That's all for now, so all you cats keep cool.

Oh how time flies when you're not blogging. I was a regular blogger, until I left my old job and started school. Honestly, there was little to post, unless if you wanted to know about grammar and such. You may be better off buying yourself a Warriner's then, but Max Morenberg has a good grammar book. Yeppers, starting to look like a teacher has been here . . .

OK, well other news.

Joe Hartnett and Megan Kelly got married, and should be back from Aruba sometime soonish...

Got to meet Kris Kelly's husband Jeff at the wedding. The wedding was totally fun by the way.

Got to hang out with the Seybert Family (Josh, Jesse and Jake) last week.

Made $2.06 busking last Saturday.

Meredith is off to Minneapolis in a couple weeks. Gonna miss her, but she's got a great opportunity ahead of her there.

Jim has moved out, and Marty Connolly has moved in to the place.

Oh yeah . . . and the Hookah Bars in South Side are pretty friggin cool! At least the one I've been to is cool. H-Kan in the 2200 block of Carson St. two doors up from Lava Lounge is cool spot to hang out. Especially if you want to be out, but not necessarily in a bar. It's like the beehive but different. They'll have food soon, and I hope they expand their drink menu. Stay non-alcoholic, or BYOB rather, I'll pay my "corking fee" but you need to get more than four types of tea. I have more than four types of tea in my house, and I don't consider myself a tea drinker. Four kinds of coffee, well sure.

I'll cut them some slack though... They've been open for four months, maybe five now, they're mostly focused on renovations, and getting something like a restaurant started to compliment the smoke. So picture this: some middle eastern food, then sit and enjoy a post dinner smoke of say, rose and jasmine or lemon or caramel smoke. It's not pot... ok? So many people, er dweebles, or whatever, walk by outside, hey nice bong man... some people never fail to not impress me. Anyways, go check out the H-Kan, it's pretty chill. bring a friend, maybe some beers. The staff is way friendly, atmosphere is chill. And Curt, you can smoke your cloves there. I think you'd dig it.

Books I've read: The Golem, Gustav Meyrink; Eats, Shoots and Leaves, Lynne Truss; Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K Dick.