Author: Allegra

Born when atmospheric carbon was 316 PPM. Settled on MST country since 1997. Parent, grandparent.

Twitter

I’m allegras on twitter, not that anybody reading this should care, and it gives me access to the following:

Bruce Sterling’s thoughts on technology and various cool conferences (when the f*** does he find time to write??)

Ashton Kutcher’s thoughts on a wide variety of subjects, most of which I find amusing.  His tweetblock on his stepdaughter’s high school grad was one of the funniest things I read this year.  He also tweets about serious stuff and spends way more time touting other people’s stuff than his own.

Neil Gaiman’s sweet natured running commentary on his rather busy life.

Local news outbreaks; Eddie Izzard documenting his entirely insane marathon runs through the UK; links to Tyee articles of interest; finding out the new Dawkins book drops September 22 from PZ Meyers; and loads of other interesting and bizarre stuff.

I don’t really tweet all that much, but I’m always entertained when I see what various people are up to.

I call this one “The Triumph of Enthusiasm over Knowledge”

Moose, like teenagers and occasionally older people, are not necessarily wise when gripped by hormones.

This pic is all over the web.  In one rendition, it has been transformed into a poster marked “Statutory Rape…. you’re doing it wrong.”

Let us all take this picture as a somber lesson that our senses … and our hopes … may deceive us.

mooseplusstatue

I really feel for the moose.  Springloaded for an amorous encounter, is he not an icon of every human being, mostly guys, but whatever, who wasted some time over an image rather than a receptive female?  If I ever open a shelter for over-enthusiastic practitioners of self-abuse, this will be the image over the lintel.

Saw District 9 this afternoon

It kicked ass.  It is also rather a guilty pleasure.  But really, worth seeing on the big screen.

Kat, Kashka and Katie, plus Paul and Keith, were here for supper.  Barbecued chicken thighs, garlic bread, broccoli and scratchmade cheese sauce, potatoes or yams.  Strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert.  Katie and her housemates are playing on the Star Trek…. happy sigh.

more True Blood and more cat fur

Another great episode.  This one Eric is barely in, but it’s still good.

Jeff and I have a busy day planned, culminating in  a barbecue for Katie and all the women she lives with.  First, a trip shopping, then District 9 at Metrotown (it will likely be nuts), then the barbecue.

My efforts to keep hair out of Miss Margot’s digestive tract have not been entirely successful.  She produced a tiny, ladylike little furball yesterday.  Hopefully this will inspire me to brush her more often, although considering I’m brushing her at least twice a day, while she grouses and grumbles and tries to bite and wriggles like mad OR sits there purring like mad as if she’s glad I finally got round to it.  Sometimes she asks to be be brushed – and still complains – and sometimes she runs away and wails.  The other night she spent I don’t know exactly where, but when she returned in the morning she had half the undergrowth of Burnaby lovingly stowed in her belly fur.  Normally I only brush her for about 2 minutes at a time, this time I locked the bathroom door and got really thorough.  MASSES of fur and crap came out….

I compost everything I pull off her.

Finally saw Driving Miss Daisy.  I liked it, but there were specifics about it I didn’t like all that much, like the soundtrack.

Watched the Ellison doc last night

Dreams with Sharp Teeth is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.  Mike, Paul, Keith, Jeff and I had a glorious evening of pizza, beer, G&Ts, wasps drowning themselves in our drinks (this being August in Vancouver and virtually impossible to avoid), me printing out songs of mine for Paul to put in his songbook, me and Paul hanging the Japanese door hanging in the R. John Caspell Memorial Pinball Parlour, pinball (Great Finagle, but how much better that thing works when it’s level), bodywork, cheesecake and fellowship.

Dreams with Sharp Teeth is a must see if you’re into Neil Gaiman, BSG, or the English language.  The initial ‘interview’ sequence between Robin Williams and Harlan Ellison is PURE COMEDY GOLD. Also Richard Thompson does the soundtrack.  Once again, how much do I miss sharing stuff like this with John.

Now I am trying to wheedle Jeff into getting milk so I can make waffles.  I haven’t made waffles in ages.

Paul and I said to each other last night how much we missed small group ministry.  You think it’s Newage Nonsense, but it’s not – it’s major amounts of stress relief for your poor ol’ brain.  I remember the group meditations as being just about the only thing that kept me sane during a very trying period of my life.  Earlier in the day Paul came by and remonstrated with me about my lack of a rear view mirror on my bike (as well as to pick up the sewing kit, which is going back and forth between our houses like a sorry assed ping pong ball) and then he went out and not only bought one for me and installed it free gratis he got me a couple of really good bungie cords too.   All demonstrations of interest in my safety and comfort gratefully accepted, thanks.  As soon as the weather cleared in the midafternoon I went to get beer on the bike, and what an awesome ride that was, the temp being perfect, and the only hitch was when I tried to clear the intersection at Mary and Edmonds and nearly got crushed between two cars, and pulled a muscle in my calf.  It still stings – it’s a consequence of my ongoing L5S1 nonsense in my back, with the sciatic nerve pinging like a gas station bell – but I am taking painkillers PRN and otherwise ignoring it.

Also, I watched a DVD about church growth from a U*U perspective (man, it was interesting!) and had a long, interesting conversation with the minister.  Also, I practiced guitar for two hours and worked out the chords for Catnip on My Shoes, which I had never done before, so I can actually perform it in public now.

And here I was thinking I didn’t DO anything yesterday.

London Cops is Dumb.

Drug addict shot at 19 times by one London ON cop…. do you suppose the cop hit him even once? But he managed to hit three houses!!! Cop should be suspended for failing to demonstrate firearms proficiency.

Reminds me of two London cop stories from my fabled youth.  In one story, a man wrestled a cop’s gun away from him and shot him in the head at point blank range.  The cop didn’t die; he went back on duty after he recovered.

The second story…. Cops are called to a ‘there is a man with a gun inside this house’ call.  They try to talk to him.  They lob tear gas in and storm the place.  There is no one in the house.

Not all London cop stories are bad.  If I can get permission from the participants, I may relate them.