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(no subject)
Dec. 14th, 2010 08:47 pmThe best quote I've heard all week: "When I heard the words dolphin, and bondage, I figured Faithry had something to do with it."
*****
Some kind soul has taken the time to scan in a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer comic from 1954:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
******
Congolese Crocodile News!
A crocodile stashed in a duffel bag got loose on an airplane, frightened passengers and led to a crash that killed 20 people on board, according to an inquiry into the accident...
A South African whitewater guide is missing and presumed dead after a crocodile attack in Democratic Republic of Congo, the International Rescue Committee said.
And, from 1958, an odd story about Congolese Crocodile Men.
*****
Some kind soul has taken the time to scan in a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer comic from 1954:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
******
Congolese Crocodile News!
A crocodile stashed in a duffel bag got loose on an airplane, frightened passengers and led to a crash that killed 20 people on board, according to an inquiry into the accident...
A South African whitewater guide is missing and presumed dead after a crocodile attack in Democratic Republic of Congo, the International Rescue Committee said.
And, from 1958, an odd story about Congolese Crocodile Men.
The Flight Before Christmas
Nov. 14th, 2008 10:22 pmEarlier at the grocery store, I bought a DVD titled 'The Flight Before Christmas'. I did so entirely on the strength of the cover, which had some cute character designs. I'm often disappointed when I do that. Not this time.
I'm floored. It goes way, way beyond cute character design. It's got heart, in much the same way that 'Rudolph' does. The characters have some emotional depth, and there's some actual dark places in the plot. I'm quite impressed with it. If I'd seen this at the same age that I first saw 'Rudolph', I think it might have affected me as strongly.
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spaceroo and princebambi, you both need to see this.
I'm floored. It goes way, way beyond cute character design. It's got heart, in much the same way that 'Rudolph' does. The characters have some emotional depth, and there's some actual dark places in the plot. I'm quite impressed with it. If I'd seen this at the same age that I first saw 'Rudolph', I think it might have affected me as strongly.
spaceroo and princebambi, you both need to see this.
Eclectic Avenue
Oct. 27th, 2005 02:42 amAnd the White Sox have won the Serious. I'm pleased that Chicago won, but I feel kind of sorry for Houston getting swept like that. It would have been nice for them to win at least one game at home. The curious thing is that neither of these two teams have been in the World Series in my lifetime, which is saying something.
*****
Sexual Harassment Panda!
*****
I need to decide what I'll use for a Christmas tree this year. Last year I put up my beloved Regal aluminum tree, and decorated for 1965, with reproduction Cool-Brite flashers in the windows. Actually I was quite sparse on my decorating last year, but that kind of works for a mid-60s display. Folx who were there in the 60s will recall such trees:
The year before I had the "Shopping Mall Tree", a kind of wire frame completely covered with white fairy lights and clear glass balls that look like soap bubbles. It's striking. I never did manage to get a photograph that really shows the magnificent American excess of that tree.
I've got enough (I'm pretty sure) C7s at this point to fulfill a longstanding fantasy, and have a real tree with 50 or so C7s, and each one unique. There's something fascinating about the idea of no two bulbs on the tree being the same. I need to take inventory again and make sure.
Alternately, I did stock up on the C7 blinkers last year, and could manage a late 60s/early 70s tree as well.
It's probably sad that I have this much Xmas lighting but everyone needs a hobby, and there are worse things to be fascinated by. One year in the old apartment I put up pretty much everything all at once, and it was enough wattage to keep the place warm without running the furnace. It'd probably roast me if I did that in my current, much better insulated place.
I keep thinking that one of these years, I'm going to build a sheet metal cone, and paint it like a tree, just like in "A Charlie Brown Christmas". There's something fascinating about that idea, especially being able to rap on it, and hear the hollow *bonk*.
*****
Fred Flare has Rudolph cards!
They've also got actual portable record players for sale. I haven't seen those in years. They have Gumby and Pokey figures, and quit a bit of Yellow Submarine stuff. Lots of nice Bambi shirts too. It annoys me that Bambi is always offered on girls' clothing, and not on guys', especially since he's male to begin with.
*****
Sexual Harassment Panda!
*****
I need to decide what I'll use for a Christmas tree this year. Last year I put up my beloved Regal aluminum tree, and decorated for 1965, with reproduction Cool-Brite flashers in the windows. Actually I was quite sparse on my decorating last year, but that kind of works for a mid-60s display. Folx who were there in the 60s will recall such trees:
The year before I had the "Shopping Mall Tree", a kind of wire frame completely covered with white fairy lights and clear glass balls that look like soap bubbles. It's striking. I never did manage to get a photograph that really shows the magnificent American excess of that tree.
I've got enough (I'm pretty sure) C7s at this point to fulfill a longstanding fantasy, and have a real tree with 50 or so C7s, and each one unique. There's something fascinating about the idea of no two bulbs on the tree being the same. I need to take inventory again and make sure.
Alternately, I did stock up on the C7 blinkers last year, and could manage a late 60s/early 70s tree as well.
It's probably sad that I have this much Xmas lighting but everyone needs a hobby, and there are worse things to be fascinated by. One year in the old apartment I put up pretty much everything all at once, and it was enough wattage to keep the place warm without running the furnace. It'd probably roast me if I did that in my current, much better insulated place.
I keep thinking that one of these years, I'm going to build a sheet metal cone, and paint it like a tree, just like in "A Charlie Brown Christmas". There's something fascinating about that idea, especially being able to rap on it, and hear the hollow *bonk*.
*****
Fred Flare has Rudolph cards!
They've also got actual portable record players for sale. I haven't seen those in years. They have Gumby and Pokey figures, and quit a bit of Yellow Submarine stuff. Lots of nice Bambi shirts too. It annoys me that Bambi is always offered on girls' clothing, and not on guys', especially since he's male to begin with.
Christmas Eve
Dec. 24th, 2004 07:58 pmAmerican Electric got our service restored around 1pm today. My Reindeer hat's off to them. They've had crews out 24 hours a day since this began. One could wish that the city of Columbus would show equal enterprise in dealing with the snow.
There were almost 300K without service at the height of the outage. The whole experience was actually rather relaxing, in an odd way. Last night when I got home the whole neighborhood was dark, except for the street lights (which have their own circuit). I wandered around outside taking pictures of the ice in the moonlight and lamplight. After that I lit my Christmas candles, then played with Flaster for a while. Finally we went to bed (a warm Cat's a good thing to have when the heat's out) and I laid in the dark listening to the radio, sipping cheap vodka and eating Cheez-Its. An extended blackout's like a vacation, in an odd way. You can't really do anything useful, so there's no guilt in just lying about the place and finding what pleasure you can.
By some strange mechanism that I don't pretend to understand, my water heater continued to function throughout the episode. Granted, it runs on gas, but I'd have thought some small amount of electricity was necessary to run the thermostat and valves. Evidently not. I need to learn more about how those work.
*****
I feel compensated in some minor fashion for having missed the Second East Coast Blackout back in 2002. I was so disgusted by that - it started in Akron, just a few miles from where I'd been living until only a few months earlier. The first big one in 1965 fascinated me, and I was bitterly disappointed to miss the repeat. I'd much rather be in a memorable blackout in the summer, where the electricity's out for hundreds of miles all around, but this is better than nothing.
*****
Babs apparently saw a transformer arc over and explode from the ice. I'm guessing that was the two flashes I saw when this started. Somewhere I've got some little blobs of copper from when a pole mounted transformer on a feeder line near our house exploded for no readily discernable reason many years ago.
*****
I ended up listening to the George Noorey Show on the radio last night. It's one of those shows that I keep intending to listen to more, but don't. He invites an entertaining miscellany of eccentrics, cranks and outright lunatics to expound their theories. Last night he had a pleasant old man who beleived that the earth (and all planets, come to that) is hollow, with a tiny sun in the centre and openings at either pole. This was a widespread belief among the marginally educated in the 1820s, and was popularized (if not actually invented) by a fellow from Ohio, who wrote books and gave lectures on the topic. I wasn't aware that anyone still held to it. It's one of those things that sounds vaguely plausible until you start trying to do the calculations. It'd make a neat RP world though.
At any rate, he seemed of average intelligence, well-spoken, and obviously sincere. Sadly, most of the phone-in callers sounded like they were off their medications.
*****
This morning I hit the Meijer's store before they closed for Christmas. It was weird. They were apparently in the process of losing electrical service while I was there. The overhead halogens were burning that weird dark purple, the incandescents were orangeish, and the fluorescents were strobing. Finally it all went out. A minute later the power started ebbing and flowing in cycles of roughly thirty seconds. You'd hear this deep hum as all the compressors kicked in, and the incandescents started to brighten, then it's all fade away again to darkness and silence. It made some of the shoppers obviously nervous. It gets to people when the machines stop. For myself, I couldn't help but think of what I've read about the 'Titanic', as the generators failed.
The unexpected thing (for me, at least) was that the Christmas music kept right on blaring away, and the hydraulic doors continued to operate. The cash registers had their own power too, but that wasn't so much of a shocker. I suppose the doors and sound system might be considered safety systems, and so have backup power.
*****
I called my mother earlier, and the weather is awful there too. She's in the Lake Effect belt. I'm going to go home for New Year's instead of Christmas, we decided. It's not worth getting stuck out in the middle of nowhere, which I've come close to before up there during lesser storms. She's cancelling her trip to my aunt Linda's too, and just staying home with the Cat from Hell.
As for me, I'll finally have achance to get some substantial work done on the Skiltaire suit.
*****
I'll be watching 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' tonight. It seems peculiarly appropriate.
There were almost 300K without service at the height of the outage. The whole experience was actually rather relaxing, in an odd way. Last night when I got home the whole neighborhood was dark, except for the street lights (which have their own circuit). I wandered around outside taking pictures of the ice in the moonlight and lamplight. After that I lit my Christmas candles, then played with Flaster for a while. Finally we went to bed (a warm Cat's a good thing to have when the heat's out) and I laid in the dark listening to the radio, sipping cheap vodka and eating Cheez-Its. An extended blackout's like a vacation, in an odd way. You can't really do anything useful, so there's no guilt in just lying about the place and finding what pleasure you can.
By some strange mechanism that I don't pretend to understand, my water heater continued to function throughout the episode. Granted, it runs on gas, but I'd have thought some small amount of electricity was necessary to run the thermostat and valves. Evidently not. I need to learn more about how those work.
*****
I feel compensated in some minor fashion for having missed the Second East Coast Blackout back in 2002. I was so disgusted by that - it started in Akron, just a few miles from where I'd been living until only a few months earlier. The first big one in 1965 fascinated me, and I was bitterly disappointed to miss the repeat. I'd much rather be in a memorable blackout in the summer, where the electricity's out for hundreds of miles all around, but this is better than nothing.
*****
Babs apparently saw a transformer arc over and explode from the ice. I'm guessing that was the two flashes I saw when this started. Somewhere I've got some little blobs of copper from when a pole mounted transformer on a feeder line near our house exploded for no readily discernable reason many years ago.
*****
I ended up listening to the George Noorey Show on the radio last night. It's one of those shows that I keep intending to listen to more, but don't. He invites an entertaining miscellany of eccentrics, cranks and outright lunatics to expound their theories. Last night he had a pleasant old man who beleived that the earth (and all planets, come to that) is hollow, with a tiny sun in the centre and openings at either pole. This was a widespread belief among the marginally educated in the 1820s, and was popularized (if not actually invented) by a fellow from Ohio, who wrote books and gave lectures on the topic. I wasn't aware that anyone still held to it. It's one of those things that sounds vaguely plausible until you start trying to do the calculations. It'd make a neat RP world though.
At any rate, he seemed of average intelligence, well-spoken, and obviously sincere. Sadly, most of the phone-in callers sounded like they were off their medications.
*****
This morning I hit the Meijer's store before they closed for Christmas. It was weird. They were apparently in the process of losing electrical service while I was there. The overhead halogens were burning that weird dark purple, the incandescents were orangeish, and the fluorescents were strobing. Finally it all went out. A minute later the power started ebbing and flowing in cycles of roughly thirty seconds. You'd hear this deep hum as all the compressors kicked in, and the incandescents started to brighten, then it's all fade away again to darkness and silence. It made some of the shoppers obviously nervous. It gets to people when the machines stop. For myself, I couldn't help but think of what I've read about the 'Titanic', as the generators failed.
The unexpected thing (for me, at least) was that the Christmas music kept right on blaring away, and the hydraulic doors continued to operate. The cash registers had their own power too, but that wasn't so much of a shocker. I suppose the doors and sound system might be considered safety systems, and so have backup power.
*****
I called my mother earlier, and the weather is awful there too. She's in the Lake Effect belt. I'm going to go home for New Year's instead of Christmas, we decided. It's not worth getting stuck out in the middle of nowhere, which I've come close to before up there during lesser storms. She's cancelling her trip to my aunt Linda's too, and just staying home with the Cat from Hell.
As for me, I'll finally have achance to get some substantial work done on the Skiltaire suit.
*****
I'll be watching 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' tonight. It seems peculiarly appropriate.
(no subject)
Jul. 13th, 2004 06:44 amIt's been uber-hot here. I actually got to the point where I ran the air-conditioner over the weekend, more for Flaster than myself, as I was gone most of the time. He enjoyed the cool, but he was kind of unhappy because the window was closed, and he couldn't smell and hear what was happening outside. He doesn't really understand how that all works.
*****
The other night I watched a professional wrestling show while I was waiting for the replay of the British Grand Prix to start. The villain was a Frenchman, who entered the stadium with a poodle on a leash. The poor dog came out all happy and enthusiastic, and you could just see him shrinking as everyone started booing. He pretty obviously thought he'd done something wrong, and hadn't a clue what.
*****
I'm kind of surprised at the paucity of "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" fanfic and art on the internet. There's vast amounts of toys and decorations (I'd have loved to have had the Reindeer action figures as a child), and oddly enough, a handful of essays deconstructing the plot, some well-written, some not.
I loved that show, and I still do, maybe even more than "Bambi" or "The Lion King". That's saying quite a bit. There's something magical about that show. That's inadequate, but it's the best I can manage. I've never been able to define exactly what's going on in there to my satisfaction.
I *do* know that Rudolph's a lot nicer than I am, and a lot more emotionally stable. At the end of the show, he's offered what he's been wanting the whole time (acceptance) and he's smart enough to realize that everyone's sincerely sorry, so he takes Santa's offer. I doubt that I'd have done so, especially when I had Santa over the barrel like that. I'd have sunk Christmas to pay the fat bastard back, then later when I was alone I'd have cried bitterly because what I /really/ wanted to do was to have just said yes, and helped pull the sleigh. I'm so fucked up. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not that I know myself this well.
*****
The other night I watched a professional wrestling show while I was waiting for the replay of the British Grand Prix to start. The villain was a Frenchman, who entered the stadium with a poodle on a leash. The poor dog came out all happy and enthusiastic, and you could just see him shrinking as everyone started booing. He pretty obviously thought he'd done something wrong, and hadn't a clue what.
*****
I'm kind of surprised at the paucity of "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" fanfic and art on the internet. There's vast amounts of toys and decorations (I'd have loved to have had the Reindeer action figures as a child), and oddly enough, a handful of essays deconstructing the plot, some well-written, some not.
I loved that show, and I still do, maybe even more than "Bambi" or "The Lion King". That's saying quite a bit. There's something magical about that show. That's inadequate, but it's the best I can manage. I've never been able to define exactly what's going on in there to my satisfaction.
I *do* know that Rudolph's a lot nicer than I am, and a lot more emotionally stable. At the end of the show, he's offered what he's been wanting the whole time (acceptance) and he's smart enough to realize that everyone's sincerely sorry, so he takes Santa's offer. I doubt that I'd have done so, especially when I had Santa over the barrel like that. I'd have sunk Christmas to pay the fat bastard back, then later when I was alone I'd have cried bitterly because what I /really/ wanted to do was to have just said yes, and helped pull the sleigh. I'm so fucked up. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not that I know myself this well.
