* beep’s Remote Patrol notes that former Amazing Race winner Reichen Leimkuhl and other reality “stars” will be in a new show where they all live together while filming a horror film.
Oh, the horror indeed. That’ll get a big thumbs-down on the TiVo.
We’re making an attempt here at Chez Guique to be more active and eat better. We went for the bike ride the other night – 11 miles, not too shabby – and today I felt like a salad rather than a gutbomb at the office cafeteria.
I stood behind a rather heavy woman who very slowly picked individual leaves of lettuce out of the bin in the salad bar. Then she very slowwwly and deliberately put 4 ladles of French dressing on her salad. I waited until she moved away, then added a couple of items and crunchy things to mine, followed by 1 (one) ladle of something creamy. Then I moved around the corner to where there are a few more salad doodads, because I wanted some more veggies and a roll. The heavy woman reversed course (she had been adding some more veggies, too) and went back to the dressings area and slowwwly poured one more ladle of French dressing on her salad.
Now, I’m no lightweight (except for when it comes to financial matters and Serious Business). It just struck me as a little… odd. Of course, the way she held the ladle was what originally caught my eye – instead of grasping it by the hook on the end of the handle, she made a fist around the handle, halfway down, like a toddler being allowed to pour hot fudge on their ice cream for the very first time.
And… five ladles’ worth? That’s going to be pretty counter-productive in any diet. Anyway, my salad was fine with just the one “splop” of dressing, thanks.
Dessert consisted of watching 3 well-built young guys run the 50-yard dash in the courtyard with their shirts off. They were timed by a guy with a stopwatch and clipboard. Have no idea what that was about, but it was entertaining – first when they took their shirts off, then when each one would sprint toward the dining room window. Because these were young guys, they had baggy running shorts on, and the sprinting meant that their shorts sagged a little more around the waist, so the most entertaining part was wondering if they’d stop to pull their shorts up if they started to slip, or if they’d just go for it and not risk a slower time.
They all went for it, and the shorts slipped pretty low, but not low enough to risk a fine.
Link
Original upload: GinnyRED57.
My husband David, with the help of Mac gurus Steve and Fred, got me a reconditioned iPod. This will make my friend Kevin do the happy bum-wiggle footy dance discreetly at his desk.
It’s a 4-gig silver iPod. We have to get a high-speed USB2 card for my computer, but David says that’s no big deal. So very soon I’ll be learning how to navigate iTunes and figuring out all kinds of other junk.
And also, as a wacko NPR / AAR loyalist, I have to download the latest OK Go EP, because Adam Felbers says so. And as Adam is now about to be a published author: Well done him.
Later today, well done me, once I get some tunes queued up. Guess I’ll be buying a lot more CD’s, and it’s entirely possible I’ll be looking for iPod accessories, too.
Okay, I actually found this via Boing Boing and it totally rocks. I’m thinking of saying it the next time I’m stuck having to recite the Pledge. And I know at least one person who owns a UFP flag, so must pass it along later.
“It’s Ms., please. And sorry for my attire, but I ran a marathon yesterday and I’m too sore to change this morning.” I tried to infect her with my smile, but she wore a tight-lipped expression as frosty as her jacket. “So, anyway. What did he do?” I picked at the hem of my sweatshirt, looked just to the right of her face. I couldn’t meet her eyes. I felt nervous. I felt underdressed. I wondered where 8 was.
So she told me what he did. And as she told me, I started to laugh. I didn’t laugh a little, either, but I belly-laughed and grabbed my stomach. My son stood with his class this morning, put small right hand over heart, faced the American flag, and recited his own personal pledge of allegiance:
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United Federation of Planets, and to the galaxy for which it stands, one universe, under everybody, with liberty and justice for all species.
“Mrs. Jaworski. This isn’t humorous. The Pledge is an extremely important and patriotic moment each morning in the classroom. I am ashamed of your son’s behavior, and I hope you are, too.”I wanted to say, Hey Lady, it’s a big universe. Why should we pledge allegiance to a mixed-up country? Why shouldn’t my son embrace the potential of stardust? But I stood, extended my hand, apologized for my laughter, slung my purse opened her door to find my son, 8, red-eyed sitting on the wooden bench bordering the World Map wall.
I’m sitting here, working on computer things, and Mr. 8 sits in the living room. He has to write the “real” pledge of allegiance fifty times before he can return to school. But first he’s watching Star Trek. Damn straight.
Saturday night we went to see Batman Begins. It was pretty good, but I thought it dragged in some spots. David liked it better than I did. Afterwards, we went to Brass for dinner and a nice pubbrew. A great evening.
By far, the best part was the TRAILERS. Specifically, the Big Damn Movie Trailer! I made an involuntary W00T! noise and clapped, before David even figured out what it was. Watched with rapt attention (because I never seem to be able to nab tickets to the Sneak Previews, another of which is June 23rd and totally sold out). At the end of the trailer, there was a healthy and enthusiastic round of applause when the “Serenity” nameplate finally came up on the screen. Plus some cheering and whistling. So yay, Browncoats, keep up the good work.
The other trailer of note? Well, I think it’s a stupid excuse for a remake of a totally brainless, annoying, and incomprehensibly iconic TV series. But some people might be sort of excited about it, as noted in Sunday’s PvPonline.com strip.
Thank God, David’s not a Daisy Dukes kind of guy, because I’m for sure not a Daisy Dukes kind of gal. However, we do have a date for a bike ride, so gotta jet.
going jesus totally cracked me up today. Sara’s been watching Davey and Goliath reruns on TiVo, which started a nice ramble down memory lane. She notes that the Loot’rans have their own cartoon show, and we don’t, darn it. Guess “EpiscoBoy and His Sidekick Angly The Anglican Armadillo” is stuck in development hell.
For that, I would totally get up early on Sundays and eat Froot Loops before toddling off to be all churchy. As I had all kinds of stuff yesterday, I could have used a bowl of Froot Loops early in the morning, since I had to make do with a post-church mini-muffin and a few handfuls of Chex Mix until dinnertime. Life on the go is exciting, but not great from a nutritional standpoint.
By the way, according to Sara, the first rule of Davey and Goliath Club is you do not talk about Davey and Goliath Club. That makes me laugh even more than the thought of EpiscoBoy in a Lycra surplice and cotta. Click on her link to see what I mean.
Yesterday was the Day of the African Child, and international aid officials that met to mark the day noted that it would cost approximately 1 billion dollars per year to adequately care for the millions of children in Africa orphaned by AIDS or war or famine. The money is needed to pay for school fees or health care.
A small investment in Africa’s children now means more stable societies in the future, because the people are educated and productive. This seems like another good reason to make poverty history.
When we were on our recent trip to Washington state (or as I used to call it, “the Pacific Northwet,”) I noticed all the “tsunami escape route” signs, which are similar to the ones we’ve seen on trips to Hawaii. I wondered then what a devastating wave might do to some of the coastal communities we were in, and it seemed like they were pretty well up on the tidal wave preparedness angle.
After yesterdays’ 7.0 undersea quake, which was supposed to automatically trigger a general evacuation once it was confirmed, it turns out that for many Pacific coast communities, tsunami preparedness was not so good:
The Seattle Times: Local News: Tsunami alert serves as drill for beach towns
There was apparently a lot of confusion. Most towns in Washington don’t have sirens, though much of Oregon does (some salvaged from the Trojan newkiller plant). A lot of emergency services people wanted to wait to evacuate until a wave was actually confirmed, not assume the worst and get everybody up the hill based on the magnitude of the tremor. And of course, there were crotchety older types who refused to haul ass with a bunch of idiots that didn’t know their asses from their elbows.
So all in all, it was a pretty good drill, because there was no wave, but plenty of backwash.
Remember, the world needs more lerts.
Hey! Everybody Googling “brian and greg smith amazing race,” “brian and greg wrecked car,” and especially “ugly hats” please visit Brian’s site: brian . thomas . smith
It’s a great looking site with incredible head shots of Brian (obviously working the reality angle for his career), but oh, dear, the HTML is all tables. Gah! No CSS! And it has spacer .gifs! Urrrkkkh!
Bri – I know someone in LA who might be able to help redesign that site, dude.
Also the contact information doesn’t work, but that’s probably for the best.
P.S. There’s a perfectly good site name for you both: “Ugly Hats.” It’s a present from me to you. ;-D
Amendola, a veteran character actor, added that his character, a mentor to Teal’c (Christopher Judge), will appear several times during year nine. “Last season, primarily, our enemy had been destroyed,” he said. “The war essentially ended. And now it’s a question of how do you make the peace? And how do you make the peace when you’ve be warring with each other, as factions, for thousands of years and only came together to defeat a common enemy? Now that the enemy is gone, how do you maintain the peace? How do you create a governance? It’s very timely. I’ve already gone up to Vancouver and done two episodes, and the scripts were excellent. And I’ll be going up again in August to do some more work.” Stargate SG-1 returns July 15 and will air Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT, followed by Stargate Atlantis at 9 and Battlestar Galactica at 10.
This is one of the reasons I love science fiction and fantasy – at least the stuff I consider “good.” Because sometimes, a story set somewhere or somewhen completely imaginary actually has something to say about current events on what David likes to call “Sol 3.”
Can’t wait for new episodes of Stargate and Atlantis. David can’t wait for new episodes of Battlestar Galactica. We also are looking forward to seeing the Firefly episodes on SciFi, even though we already own the DVD. Which, by the way, is ON SALE.
Yep, we’re geeks, and in July, we’ll be happy geeks.