I suspect there will be no tossing.

My timing was impeccable.

Today is President's Day.

Today is the day that we celebrate Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. Or maybe it's the day that they celebrate each other.

Easily amused

Today Matt and I were laughing about us listening to a voice mail message of us listening to a voice mail message of two minutes of Matt and Spiney and I while playing Quake that was accidentally recorded on my voice mail.

And then I get all disappointed after actually seeing the same picture and reading that it's in Miami and in So. Cal (simultaneously) that Pho Shizzle is fake.
At least this is real, and in Vancouver if you want to check.

I have not achieved a higher level of consciousness today.

Well, there's always tomorrow.

The Littlest Meme

I saw the L'il GnR site today, and emailed the link to a friend who I know doesn't read this blog or check MetaFilter regularly, with the subject "The Littlest Axl..."

Now that's an odd phrase. And, as a native English speaker, "littlest" looks unnatural. I thought I taken to it after seeing "the littlest ninja", but I most have been thinking of Ninjai: The Little Ninja. Though someone else thought of a "Littlest Ninja". He's so adorable when he flips out and kills the whole town.

There was a Canadian TV show that started in 1979 called The Littlest Hobo, based on a 1958 B&W movie of the same name. It ran for six years, too. The only constant recurring character was the German shepherd.

The "the littlest foo" phrasing probably gained popularity after the Shirley Temple movie, The Littlest Rebel, based on a play of the same name that had opened on Broadway over 82 years ago today, and written by one Edward Peple. "Rebel" as in Southern Confederacy. Can't you hear it know? "Aw, please Mr. Lincoln..."

No really, there's actually a point in the movie where she talks to the then-President. Also, it has Mr. Bojangles. I'm guessing he plays a slave. I know, it's a long shot.

Monkey In, Monkey Out

I've been looking at the site meter stuff, and a lot of people that come to this site are looking for Chinese Year of the Monkey info. Since it's scrolled off the front page, I thought I'd put a link to my uneducated ramblings about writing "Year of the Monkey" in Japanese and Chinese. I'll just keep this floating at the top. Never mind. Google is good with the indexing so that the links now go to the archive. Cool.

Someone came here looking for "year of the monkey bible", which bothers me because it's mixing religious metaphors. To me, the bible is very iconoclastic in addition to being monotheistic, and the beliefs behind Chinese Zodiac is this incompatible animist tradition. I'm amused that this site that mentions both was ripped off here and here.

The best, though, is whoever typed in to Google What happens to people who were born on the monkey if its the year of the monkey. It's not like Google doesn't have a help page. There's a link for help on the front page and a link labeled "Search Tips" on every results page.

If you see I made a mistake in my original post, and I probably did, please send me an email.

Snow, Routine

Man, I had a whole schedule Sunday and everything. And stuck to it. And had a good time at a Super Bowl party (thanks, Jessi).

I cleaned and threw a lot of stuff out Sunday, three tall garbage bags full. I carried them the .2 mi to the dumpster, and Monday my shoulders were sore. I need to get back to working out more often.

I ran, too. It wasn't as cold and the sidewalks were all very clear around where I live and quite a ways up and down the street, too. A mile around the corner, I was just stomping through snow. Though it looked cool when I passed by this house that sits back from the road a bit that always has an exemplary yard. I don't think anyone actually lives there — I only know of companies and non-profits that keep their grounds that well. The yard was a pure sheet of white.

I'm sure I got a much better workout, and I wasn't slowed down too much. But there's nothing as fun as the sound of stomping through crusty snow. It has that "white noise with the bass turned up" sound. That "rending cardboard asunder" sound. The great crushing noise comes in part because snow near the top melted a bit last week and refroze icier, and you break it with every step.

So I run by this house, and the sun is low and shining off this refrozen sheet sitting over a foot of snow.

It was beautiful, like a giant mass of scalded marshmallow fluff.

Everything I Know I Learned Listening to Public Radio

Pete, these guys are advertising folks so maybe they are well poised to know what the industry is considering. But TV folks are bringing back Dark Shadows? I was led to believe that the original was this show with horrid production values and your standard meaningless soap opera plots. Then again, everything I know about Dark Shadows comes from listening to one episode of This American Life, my favorite radio show which the local radio station now plays on Saturday afternoons, the bastards. (Thank goodness for the free audio feeds. Ahhhh...)

But Charlie's Angels? Frankenstein? Maybe there's nothing new under the sun but the networks aren't even trying. Then again, another radio show had a whole Nothing New episode recently, talking about sampling music, economies of recycling, cooking with leftovers...

---

מַהשֶּׁהָיָה, הוּא שֶׁיִּהְיֶה, וּמַהשֶּׁנַּעֲשָׂה, הוּא שֶׁיֵּעָשֶׂה וְאֵין כָּלחָדָשׁ, תַּחַת הַשָּׁמֶשׁ
—קהלת א:ט

I can't find a better translation then the King James:

"The thing that hath been, it [is that] which shall be; and that which is done [is] that which shall be done: and [there is] no new [thing] under the sun."

I have an official Conservative Judaism siddur that has Kohelet excerpts, but all their translations are so wishy-washy.

(Unicode text from here)

This is why medics get paid the big bucks:

Medics have warned that Jordan's breasts could explode if leeches get to suck them in the jungle.

Boobs and a Bentley. A girl who has it all...

Interesting.

Jessi,

I wanted to comment on the hogwash of biorythms, but I have some pressing things to attend to.

Sincerely,

H. M.

P.S.: Pressing! Get it?

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Ugh. I've been wanting to blog more lately. I'm sure my friends have noticed I've been boring them more with stuff this past week that I would normally get out of my system by posting here.

I've spent a little too much time on two things, and I'll give you three guesses what they are: I woke up earlier today, and I can't remember what I was dreaming, but the thought rummaging in my head was "of course you can't connect to the database in Enterprise Manager. Dantooine has been destroyed and even the Jedi Counsel isn't there any more, much less the SQL Server."

Yeah.