Thankful

It’s the American Thanksgiving, which is different from the Canadian Thanksgiving in that it happens in November instead of October. It also differs in the amount and variety of things that we shall consume, and the kinds of thanks that shall be given.

And around these blogospheric parts, it seems we’re directing those thanks appropriately, to the people who enrich our lives and give us reason to give thanks. We do not thank the seemingly-random set of circumstances that brought us together, or some nonexistant monotheistic deity who supposedly directs these circumstances, but we thank instead the people themselves for how they bring us comfort and joy. Telling them so is a bonus, but reciprocating the comfort and joy is paramount.
Continue reading “Thankful”

Thankful
{advertisement}

Busy first day in MN!

For our very first day of vacation in Minneapolis, we’ve already done a week’s worth of stuff. Woke up really early to get FtB’s own Stephanie Zvan to her hosting gig at Minnesota Atheists Talk Radio, where FtB’s own Greg Laden interviewed not-FtB’s-own Shawn Lawrence Otto, author of Fool Me Twice. While there, I got to see AM 950 KTNF’s sound board, with sound tech William working it like a boss despite a whole-station internet outage. Massive respect for what amounts to, as far as I can see, constant juggling even on a supposedly slow day like Sunday.
Continue reading “Busy first day in MN!”

Busy first day in MN!

Leaving on a jet plane, again

This post is scheduled ahead of time to coincide with when the airplane takes off. Hopefully it’s on-time. Jodi and I are heading to Minnesota again, and very soon, will be touching down in Chicago after the first leg of our flight.

I’m planning on doing some writing on both legs of the plane trip, assuming my laptop battery holds out. If I have anything exciting written by the time we land, I’ll post it via the airport wifi in Chicago, otherwise you’ll just have to enjoy some video game music in a post scheduled very shortly.

In the meantime, don’t mess up the place too badly, please. Stephanie’ll stomp you if you try. With words, of course… because she’s capable of that sort of thing.

Leaving on a jet plane, again

Got a buck? Sponsor a rescue kitty!

My sister-in-law Teri, living in Georgia with her husband Shannon, has just rescued a ten-year-old cat she found near her place of employ. This kitty either ran away or was abandoned, was extremely sickly when Teri found her, and evidently has a lump on her thyroid.

Kitty Tapia. Yes, that's her name at the moment. Maybe send suggestions for a name, too!

Since Teri and Shannon have enormous hearts but only regular-sized wallets, the new cat’s vet bills are a bit onerous for them, and she put together a Facebook page and accompanying Fundrazr page to ask for help paying her vet bills.

So if you’ve got a spare dime, if you’re willing to downsize your Starbucks coffee from a Macro to a Normale (or whatever the hell the stupid size names are), throw it her way. Give this kitty a little comfort for her last few years.

Got a buck? Sponsor a rescue kitty!

Blog entering low-power mode now.

The big blog server migration went about as close to swimmingly for me as can be expected given the nature of the debacle. Two posts and a handful of comments gone, and that’s about it. Thankfully I don’t get nearly as much traffic as Ed or PZ, though I’m certainly getting a hell of a lot more comments and traffic here than at my old self-hosted domicile, so I’m not surprised I didn’t totally escape the fallout from that mess.

Jodi and I are making a trip out to Minnesota to spend the American Thanksgiving with our extended family, the Zvans. They are our extended family not by blood, but by choice. And I expect to get very very fat off the rampant gluttony attendant to this holiday, should my metabolism so allow. It doesn’t usually. Somehow despite eating like a pig and hardly exercising near as much as I should, I’m still an ectomorph. If I worked out, I’d end up looking like Spider-Man, not Batman. As it stands, I’m just Peter Parker pre-bite.

Additionally, I have to beta-read a novel for Kelly McCullough; the third book in a series whose first book (Broken Blade) is about to hit the bookshelves in time for the Christmas rush. So I expect I’m going to need to get very lost in that book this week, in between the pressures of getting work to a position where it can coast for the duration of my vacation.

Of course, Stephanie’s a blogger too, so I fully expect nobody will be offended if I sneak off now and again to throw stuff onto the blog. So during the next two weeks or so, I will try my damnedest to keep bringing you lots of little oddities that I find, but I don’t know how much meat I’ll be able to add to them. I want to keep putting up at least a post a day, though. Feel free to send me stuff to serve as extra content, whenever you find something cool or meme-worthy. The more I can crowd-source my blog content, the happier we’ll all be!

Blog entering low-power mode now.

Remembrance Day – My Grandfather

Reposted from here.

My grandfather was a war veteran. I didn’t get to say goodbye before he passed away, from long-standing health concerns that finally caught up to him. I was in Toronto at the time, and was actually in the process of saving up to make a visit back to Nova Scotia when I got the news. I arrived two weeks after his burial.

14568_208322530389_587480389_4575592_7151474_n

Poppy

I miss him. My familial neglect at the sunset of his life is going to haunt me for a long time.

Remembrance Day – My Grandfather

Hero worship

Yesterday was a very good day for hero worship in my corner of the world. First, Greta Christina sent me a package filled with delicious chocolate:

A much-too-small token of my gratitude. Enjoy! -Greta

Then my wife, my sister and I went to the James Randi talk in Halifax. We got this picture of Randi looking suitably impressed:

Who's next to Randi? THIS GUY.

Yup, it was a good day yesterday if you happen to consider this Lousy Canuck a personal hero.

Hero worship

Happy birthday Stephanie Zvan! Here’s your gift.

My dear lady. Congratulations on lapping the sun once more. Though I’m sure you didn’t put any direct effort into it, you’ve managed to make it all the way around again. Sure, Earth may not be where it was this time last year, what with the movement of the solar system in this galaxy and the movement of the galaxy in this universe, but hey. As fixed frames of reference go, this is the best we have, saying that we made it all the way around the sun again. And as is customary for marking such an arbitrary and otherwise fluid milestone, I did something for you that I hope you’ll appreciate.
Continue reading “Happy birthday Stephanie Zvan! Here’s your gift.”

Happy birthday Stephanie Zvan! Here’s your gift.

To prove my blogging chops

Have been told today that I’m a good blogger by both Stephanie Zvan and Greta Christina. In defiance, I will now post Youtube videos of turtles.

Yes, the second one’s a tortoise. That’s the kind of attention to detail I’m talkin’ about!

Also, two anonymous shout-outs. To the girl working the drive-through at the Dairy Queen, keep smiling. Your smile makes me smile. And to the emo tween chickie that pulled up next to me, the correct orientation for sitting in the passenger seat of a car is not, in fact, facing the trunk cross-legged.

To prove my blogging chops