Rebate In '08

Be sure that you pronounce that "aught-ate."

Anyhow, isn't it time that we, as a country, started addressing the really, really important questions?

Here's Some Music

A Mexican Folk duo that are primarily influenced by thrash metal? Yes please. Bear in mind (I know this video sucks even though the music is great) that there isn't a drummer in this band - just a guy and a girl and a couple of nylon string guitars.

Rodrigo y Gabriela - "Orion" (Yes, that "Orion")

"Suffer No Guilt, Ye Who Wield This In The Name Of Crom."

Can anyone tell me specifically where that's from?

RIP.

Laugh.

Fin.

Something

Vader!

Also, this.

The "Real" Post

Every once in a while, they do actually sit together nicely. Although they usually aren't in the least bit quiet even then, at least there not yelling at each other.

This made me kind of sad. I know that there's many people who think that these monkeys are just "aping" humans and don't really understand ASL. I think that's probably true for the most part (there were a few documented instances of Washoe communicating that are pretty damn compelling, though. Look up the baby story on the Friends of Washoe website). But I got to tell you, I went and saw these monkeys three or four times while I was at CWU (I know, chimps aren't monkeys, but I like the word monkey better), and usually when you would go into the viewing room, they would all be laying around, flipping through magazines, trying on clothes, putting make-up on each other - all in a very human way, and aside from the fact that Washoe taught the other monkeys some ASL, they always seemed to be communicating amongst themselves in other ways. And. My first year at CWU I had an apartment north of campus and I'd have to walk by the chimp house to get to class, and more than once one of the monkeys would have climbed up to the apex of the fence-roof in their yard and would just hang out and watch people walk by in a very human way. It kind of creeped me out (so did seeing the monkeys looking at magazines), not least of all because the ape that would watch people looked like one of the trolls from "Willow" at that distance (~30ft?).

Unlike the last few years, I have had some limited success with hunting this year. So I made some Wellington of Duck Breast with a Cherry and Orange Brandy Sauce, and some Cream of Potato with Leek soup one night. While it was good - and I'll share the recipe for Wellington with anyone interested as it's a nice "presentation" dish that's really not all that hard to make - I think that next time I would use puff pastry dough rather than phyllo, and I would use domestic duck rather than wild so that the center could be left medium rare. The shit quality of the resolution on these pictures doesn't do the dish any justice.

WTF is that thing!

Cindy and I went for a hike a while back (this was probably late August/early September) and when I heard her yell from behind me "Oh my god!" or some-such thing, I knew that I was going to get to see something cool, because she's not the type that freaks out over most things. I thought maybe there was a bear hanging around the trail, or a moose, or an arboreal antelope. But it was a snake, trying to eat a huge frog. We watched for a while - frog squeaking and struggling, snake trying his/her hardest (there was no way this frog was fitting down that snakes gullet). Real "Wild Kingdom" type of stuff.

But the frog ended up getting away, so here we have a dejected snake. Apologies again for shit picture quality - I think that it is time that we upgraded the camera! I'm not familiar with the herpetological species back here, or I'd tell you what kind of a snake (and frog) it is. Also, this happened again when we were working in the yard a week or so later - albeit with a smaller snake and frog. I think in the yard wife rescued the frog.

There's a ton more pictures on my Flickr page if anyone is interested, maybe I'll post again tomorrow. That's all for now.

A Response

Bryan. I started to write you a reply in the comments to your last post, but it got to be a bit long winded. So I'll share my unoriginal musical tasted with everyone else.

Everyone else - you should check all of these bands out, too, and I'll make a real post later after my days session of watching cells fall into tubes has begun.

I don't know exactly how your musical tastes run right now, or how many of these you may have already heard, but here's a few bands that are in near constant rotation in my lab (I couldn't make it through the day without some tunes):

-Supergrass: I think that this is about the most perfect, well rounded Brit rock band that's around. Nothing like Oasis.
-The Dandy Warhols: Solid rock music that's also sort of hypnotic and nice to have on in the background
-Sigur Ros: Weird (beautiful) Icelandic rock(?). I'd listen to this if the stress level is way up, or in bed with a lucky lady, but not while driving - it might cause some nodding off.
-Rufus Wainwright: Good stuff. Can't really elaborate, but check it out.
-Mika: Spunky brit pop. The good kind. But definitely not for everyone.
-Scissor Sisters: This is another one that people seem to love or hate but I recommend a listen.
-Dwight Yoakam: I am, for the most part, not a country fan. But Dwight's right. Plus he used to open for punk bands at the Whiskey A-Go Go in the 80's, so he's got some hipster cred if you care about that sort of thing.
-Muse: Like Radiohead without all the computer shit and pretentious. Solid musicians - I like the cool, angular guitar solos (nobody else on the radio plays around with intervals quite like that!) and groovy, driving bass lines. Has gotten a bit played out, though.
-Tunng: Catchy, spacy, folk rock. Very listenable, but sort of borders on pretentious sometimes. Another good band to listen to at work, when the stress level is high.
-The Arcade Fire: But only their first disc. Kind of hard to explain, but I've heard more than one person (and I whole heartedly agree with all of them) describe the music on this CD as reminding you of what it's like to be a kid again.

Then there's all the old standbys and Desert Island Discs:
Alice In Chain's Unplugged album, classic metal, Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Miles Davis "Kind Of Blue" (I actually don't think that's as revolutionary as everyone else seems to, but it's damn good music to have on when nothing much else is happening), classic metal (Metallica, Judas Priest, Ozzy), you have to throw in some 80's metal and power ballads once in a while to remember the roots, the 'Stones, Dylan, Led Zep, classic metal. Did I hit all the bases?

As Promised

Here are pictures and the details of my life. Which are quite inconsequential...

Every fall, Banker's Orchard, near (or possibly in) Plattsburgh has a petting zoo and hay rides and pumpkin patch and a terrible Michigan stand. Or maybe I'm just not a fan of Michigan's as I think that's the only one I've ever had. Anyhow, here's Connor with a Llama. I think this was the one that kept "talking" in a really creepy "I'm a human who's fallen down and broken my hip" sort of way.


Here's Ethan feeding the Llamas. This really is a cool petting zoo, but in this same pen, with the Llamas (actually, maybe these are Alpacas. I wouldn't know) were two deformed looking pigs. I don't think they were the normal, run of the mill farm pigs that give us delicious bacon. I think they were mutated Harkonnen pigs.


There was also a pen full of goats that were either kids, pygmies, or both (there was also a bird/rabbit pen, and some donkeys, and a big goat with Llama life partner pen). There was a ton of the little goats, but these two little bastards kept fighting with each other. I wanted to get a better picture or some video, but someone's unhousebroken rugrats kept pushing me aside. They nearly let the goats out with there shenanigans. What happened to the days when you could give someone else's kids a good yelling at without fear of someone getting all ACLU on you?


I think I caught this Jake in a wistful or plaintive mood. Either way, I bet that in another month, he's going to be delicious!


This goose kept attacking me. Try as might, though, I couldn't get a picture off just as he gave the camera a wack. I'll be he's going to be tasty come Christmas!

Mmmm. Delicious animals.


Cindy cut her hair - it looks adorable. It was a necessity, as Desmond attempted babycide via hair noose one morning, but I think it's a nice look. I took this picture because Desmond and wife looked cute, and then everyone else gathered around, so here's the fam' in all of there a glory. You're welcome.

Skeery!

Oh, and now that I've finished watching the Rugby World Cup (South Africa deserve to be world champions...but I still think they're a bunch of blond haired rich kids), I'll post some pictures and some "witty banter" when I get to my sort this afternoon.

Yer Damn Right That's A Glass And A Half Full Of Fun!

Oh Really?

If you are a fan of "The Office," then this will completely blow your mind. And there's even videos of "The Grassroots" on YouTube to back it all up.

Is it a character or a real damn guy?

The Whole Thing Is Back!

That animation short that I tried to share a couple of months back, but it had been pulled down after I posted, so I was only able to show the preview? The whole thing is back online, and it is every bit as great as I remember it.



Also, here's a video of some Japanese dude getting shot through the air.

Hot Damn!

If this isn't the most weirdly and hilariously violent thing ever, then I don't know what is:


If that isn't it, maybe this is?

The Lately Happening Things That Are Going On!

Olives have been a big hit lately. The spaghetti featured in this picture was eaten mainly by hand. And boy, isn't my man a ham for the camera.

Different day, different olives - I kind of hoped that all the pictures I took at this particular meal would get themselves Flickred because they kind of made a flip book of olive-related humor.

See-food!

The little rock and roller. If you page back through the last few months, you can kind of tell how big he's getting by comparing his size in relation to the giraffe on the quilt.

One gray squirrel and one fox squirrel have recently appeared in the back yard - Cooper nearly caught this little bastard just this morning! This was last weekend - the rodent would grab an apple from underneath the tree and then scamper around with it in his (her?) mouth, like a dog. I tried to get close enough to take a good, clear picture. Instead, I had to chase him up a tree branch (at first he was sitting on a stump and it was a quaint little scene), and then use the shitty extreme zoom on our camera.

The day before Deener shipped out, Cindy took her and the boys out to Saranac Lake to ride the train, and as you can see, learned a valuable lesson concerning train safety.

Will I have more later?

A Couple Of Headlines, Maybe a Video?

I can't tell you how much I love this story. The sheer absurdity (and awesomeness) of it all really warms my heart. God bless you, Chuck Norris. Disclaimer: This was my first exposure to worldnetdaily. I'm not, by any stretch of the term, a very liberal person. Or a very conservative one. Holy shit, are there really people out there that believe the kind of crap they have in their headlines?

You mean this isn't legal any more?

That's just creepy.

I've been putting the Rugby World Cup replays up on the computer for a little background noise while I'm reading some papers (the schedule's been pretty light so I've been making myself busy with some other projects) and one of my favorite new things is that now, whenever some of the ruggers start to get into a dust-up on the field, the commentators will say something like "looks like there's some handbags going on down there." The reason it's funny? This.

Finally, can anyone tell me what the name of the Greek song played at the very beginning of this video is? (Or the name of that generic instrumental Hawaiian song I hear on commercials and in movies all the time that goes "ooh ooh wee ooh"?)