Unfinished Rambler

This past Saturday instead of being the slugs we normally are, The Wife and I ventured forth into the world. We even had a goal or a few goals in mind: producers of maple syrup near us that were taking part in a "maple syrup weekend."

We visited a few producers, but unfortunately I didn't get very good photos of the process.


Beneath that smoke is sap bubbling that will be distilled into maple syrup, and where there's smoke, there's...

...yep, fire which was used to bring the sap to the right temperature to boil to make maple syrup.

However, The Wife did get a good photo of me with this delicious chili that was made by a brother of one of the owners of Butler Family Maple in Farmington Township, Tioga County, Pennsylvania:



I think this was my third bowl and that isn't just any normal cornbread in there. That's maple cornbread, of course.

On one of the roads up to Butler Family Farm (<--- See link for more lack of photos of actual process), we passed a house with a unique mailbox. The mailbox itself was made in the shape of a tractor trailer with the stenciled signatures of NASCAR's 2008-09 drivers on it, and behind the mailbox was a track that included models of NASCAR cars.

This to me was the highlight of the trip, except that the person who made it had the No. 3 in the middle of the track, with myself being no Dale Earnhardt Sr. fan (may his soul rest in peace). However, the person at least included my driver Jeff Gordon in it.

I'll leave you with this video made and narrated by The Wife, who was afraid the owner was going to come out and tell us to get off his property. Personally I was just hoping not to interact with any fan of the No. 3 car, and luckily, we made it out without any physical altercation.



Humor-Blogs.com

Humor Bloggers

BlogStorm

CommentLuv should be working again. Please leave your url and it should grab your latest post.

This week's Sunday Shout-Out goes to Bunk Strutts @ Tacky Raccoons, whom I met over at Humor Bloggers Dot Com.

He's one of the new folks over there, and unlike some of those other hosers over there (yeah, you know about whom I'm talking, don't you? I don't have to point my finger at you, do I?), he's actually funny.

On his front page, he's even prepared The Ruff N' Ready Sample Plate for you to get a taste of his own absurd take on the world.

Favorite posts this week:

1. Bunk Strutts @ Tacky Raccoons yesterday encouraged his readers to put their lights on last night in 28 MARCH 28 8:30 PM PARTY LIKE IT'S 2009.

2. Meg @ Prefers Her Fantasy Life celebrates a birthday and blogoversary and announces a breakup all in the same post.

3. VE @ VE's Fantastical Nonsense gives his analysis of the Vicki Lawrence song "The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia" in The Night the Logic Went Out of Lyrics.

4. JohnnyBTruant @ The Economy Isn't Happening comes out from behind the apple in Heeeeere’s Johnny!

5. Joel Klebanoff @ Stuff and Nonsense talks about Going Down on Traffic and how he plans to boost his readership by including in his blog posts "words and phrases that people use when searching for porn."

6. Jenn Thorson @ Of Cabbages and Kings shows why you should Hide the Children, Subversive Cabbages are Here! in a wrap-up of posts that have earned her being banned at public libraries. I know of what she speaks as I've been at the library and couldn't access her befouled site.

7. Margaret @ Nanny Goats in Panties celebrates her ninth wedding anniversary in Hawaii earlier this week.

8. moooooog35 @ Mental Poo (yes, I did cut and paste to make sure I got all the o's in there) shares how he became The Cookie Pimp at his workplace for his daughter.

9. My wife, Shieldmaiden96, @ Dispatches From The Northern Outpost gives you the lowdown on the latest college craze, inserting beer into your anus, in Rollin' With The EMS Homies (link there to another of her blogs; like me, she's not monoblogamous).

10. My sister, Lisa, @ Boondock Ramblings thinks Hmmm...maybe we'll just find a new church after her experience in church last week.

11. And in case, you missed my post about the chicken barbecue last Saturday with the men's chorus to which I belong and the concert that night, here's a link to it: Off on one terrible chorus and going down in flame.

What caught your funny bone this week? Let me know in the comments. Also until I get CommentLuv working again, please feel free to leave a link to your latest post with your comment, so we all can check your own hilarity.

Humor-Blogs.com

Humor Bloggers

Blogerella

Which one of these forks is the best fork?

If you chose the second from the left, you would be right; at least, it's the best fork for me. I'm weird like that.

If my wife hands me the wrong fork, believe me, I let her know. She asked me the other night if I needed to take my own forks with me like Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets. I told her, "No."

Well, at least, not yet.

Speaking of weird like that, I'm going to go off on a fork theme in the tradition of VE's Fantastical Nonsense.

Sometimes you just need a big fork...


Credit: Madslauritzen

...and sometimes even a bigger fork...


Credit: Electrasteph on Flickr

Want to sit down on a fork chair? Here you go.


Credit: Nerd Approved.

Looking for the perfect gift for your mother, your wife, your girlfriend? Look no further.


Or the perfect gift for your father, husband or boyfriend so he can look...well...cool..or at least he'll think so.



Or for yourself to help you eat your bacon?



I could go on about all the different weird forks out there, but I have to go have some popcorn now with...



If looking for a fork fan and finger fork, it can be found at (where else) Found Shit.

Humor-Blogs.com

Humor Bloggers

Blogerella

When I was a young'n, back before my family had color TV, we had records or LPs. Among my favorite records back then were the Disneyland Records with songs from Disney movies. My mother says that she believes we belonged to a Disney club where they sent us albums every few weeks. Two of the ones I remember the most were from the movies The Boatniks and Song of the South.





I don't think I ever saw the movies to either one, but we had the soundtracks to them. As for the first one, I'll just leave this trailer I found on Youtube for you:



...because I don't think it warrants much more discussion than that, if even that.

As for Song of the South, however, I have learned since my childhood that the movie is quite a bit controversial because Joel Chandler Harris, the author of the Uncle Remus stories on which the movie is based, is considered a racist and Disney has not released the movie on DVD. However, an online movement is afoot to get Disney to rerelease it.





Now while I'll leave the argument open as to whether or not the movie should be rereleased, I don't know about you, but personally, I believe everybody needs a laughing place, especially lately with the world crashing down around us. Don't we? So where's yours?

More than a few of my favorite laughing places can be found at the following sites:

Humor-Blogs.com

Humor Bloggers

BlogStorm

Author's note: Any racist comments will be deleted without...ahem...prejudice.

In Tuesday's post, I joked about starting another alliterative-themed day, Thirsty Thursday, where I would review microbrews. So today, for one day only (because as I said Tuesday, I like girlie drinks normally), I am presenting Thirsty Thursday in the spirit of Review Spew.

Tröegs Mad Elf

This past winter, as I was watching the NFL playoffs at a local restaurant/bar because The Missus and I don't have cable or satellite (we survive, though, on Netflix, thanks for asking), I decided one afternoon to try one of the said drinks pictured above.

I had heard it had a little more kick (11% alcohol by volume) than other beers and thought since I had walked to the restaurant/bar, I could handle whatever punch it packed, especially since I was going to be there for back-to-back playoff games.

So I order it and my first warning should have been that it came in a 21-ounce glass. However, I didn't heed the warning and proceeded to quaff the beer as I would any other beer or Nyquil Cough Syrup, in other words, heartily, but with a little bit of trepidation because I usually make a face after drinking beer or Nyquil because of the bitterness (in case of the beer) and taste (in case of the Nyquil, even with cherry flavoring, it's nasty).

I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t have to make the face as the beer was as good as Tröegs' website (click on photo above) advertised:

The combination of Cherries, Honey, and Chocolate Malts delivers gentle fruits and subtle spices.

Not only did it deliver that, but also a buzz that this lightweight drinker (I think the wife says "wuss" or "pansy" or "pantywaist") couldn't shake for the next few hours, forcing him not to have any more alcohol for the evening. It was like the alcohol was injected into my veins, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

As I stumbled up the sidewalk to home, I was still a little woozy like I feel after taking Nyquil at night and waking up the next morning, and the only two words (maybe three when I added the word "Batman!" for some reason) that could form in my consciousness were these:

Holy shit!

Unfortunately, you can only get this beer in November and December, but believe me who is Mr. Lightweight Wuss Pantywaist Pantywaist Beer Drinker, when I tell you that it is worth the wait, and you don't need to insert this one anally to feel the full effects either (no, I kid you not, it’s the latest craze among college kids, according to The Missus, who is an EMT, and learned about it recently at an International Trauma Life Support class).

No, sir, just pour it down your gullet, or if you’re smarter than I am, sip this sweet libation hand crafted by the Tröegs Brothers, whose real names aren't Tröegs (for the full story, see this page, which includes the real definition of Tröeg) to savor what they call quite appropriately on their site:

"a jolly and delicious beer for the holidays."

My final analysis: a solid four-star rating and only deducted a star because I'm not a real beer connoisseur (I don't even know if that word is the right word when you're talking about beer, I think that only refers to wine -- but I do know about the overuse of parentheses as you can tell that I used them in every single paragraph in this post, not counting quotes) and may be completely off-base here. Somehow I doubt it, though, because even in this 2004 Philadelphia Daily News column, it beat out the likes of similarly-named, punch-packing holiday ales: Victory Hop Wallop, Stone Double Bastard, Weyerbacher Insanity, Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale and Anchor Our Special Ale.


Humor-Blogs.com

Humor Bloggers

Blog-Storm

* Full disclosure: I was not paid by the Tröegs Brothers to write this review. Also I am not related to them and do not have stock in their company.

I was out walking today to the store to pick up my usual southwestern chicken salad at Weis when I saw this sign:



Even though Weis is only about a mile from where we live, I thought as I was coming back that I was getting tired and wondered if I might go in and sit and sleep. That would be nice. I didn't do it, but I thought it's always good to know of the option.*

A couple of updates:

1. Moolah: Back in November, I wrote a post called "Moolah is back? For mwah? Naw" (click on photo below for link to post).



Today I stopped by the store, The Farmer's Daughters, where the original sign was and learned from co-owner Debbie Youmans (along with Danelle Fuller) that "moolah" is a special coupon the store has around Christmas time and the sign was to inform customers who were familiar with the program that it was back.

Here's a photo of one of the moolahs:



Personally, I just would have preferred if they had been handing out free money, even if it was in euros. I'm just saying. **

2. _____ Or Less: Last month, I used the photo below for a post (again click photo for original post) and today, as I was walking by, the sign still hadn't changed. I guess all those things President Obama and Co. are doing really isn't helping yet, is it? (Note to Merrill Guice of The Daily Egg for you and you only, this is not a rhetorical question, please feel free to leave your political analysis.)



How do you know I didn't use the same photo? Um. You don't. Suspend your disbelief.

Humor-Blogs.com

Humor Bloggers

Blogerella

* Okay, actually, it's a store that sells recliners, couches and mattresses, but it sure sounded good, didn't it? For more information on the main store, which specializes in carpets, click the photo.

** But really if you're in the area, stop by and visit The Farmer's Daughters, where according to a brochure I picked up, you can find "antiques and old collectible items" along "with new home accessories, giving you lots of decorating ideas to make your home and hearth warm and inviting." And naw, they didn't give me moolah of any kind to say all this. Neither Chip's nor The Farmer's Daughters are paid advertisements (unfortunately).

Oh, great, another alliterative themed day. I know that's what you're thinking.

I mean, this Unfinished Dude already has Sunday Shout-Out, Meandering Monday, WTF Wordless Wednesday, Flashback Friday and Superfluous Surfing Saturday (by the way, which he never uses) and now Takeback Tuesday. WTF indeed? What's next? Thirsty Thursday where he reviews microbrews?

Well, don't worry, my faithful followers and those of you new to this enterprise. No, not that Enterprise, this enterprise I call Unfinished Rambler.

First of all, I'm not a beer drinker, I drink girlie drinks. No, really. Ask The Wife, she drinks Guinness Stout, I drink blue drinks.

Second, it's not often that I have to take something back (snicker, snicker) and apologize. But today that is just what I am going to be doing: taking back some of things I said or did (or what you might have thought I said or did anyway) and apologizing (or based on that last parethetical remark, pretending to apologize anyway).

So without further adieu, all apologies to the following individuals:

1. ettarose from Sanity On Edge: who thought from what I remember, because unfortunately neither you nor I can access all the hilarious and insightful comments posts prior to my "upgrade" to a new domain (working on it with JS-Kit), that I was making fun of gays when I wrote in a footnote to post about my days in musical theater in high school:

As for that "ahem" comment I made earlier in the post, strangely or is that queerly enough?, I've since learned that the friend who asked me to be in "The Music Man" and later went on to play Curly in "Oklahoma" was...ahem...well, he is letting his flag of many colors fly now, shall we say?

What I think is sad, though, is that he hasn't returned to a class reunion since either; ostensibly because of how his ex-classmates, mostly a bunch of rednecks, might treat him. This post is for you, my friend, wherever you are.

In her comment, she said something to the effect that she thought it was sad that I cared what flag he flew. I believe she may have missed my point. The point was the second paragraph, and maybe I should have spelled it clearer than I did. To wit:

This post is a tribute to you, my friend, wherever you are and whatever your sexual orientation. I still would like to see you, no matter what flag you fly because you were a good friend in high school and I would like to "catch up" with you. If any of our ex-classmates have a problem with your sexual orientation, let them. I won't and don't.

Plus I have at least one homosexual friend (okay, she's a friend of my wife's) and I've even allowed Kids of Queers to advertise on my blog through Entrecard. So there, etta. ;-)

2. hate the book big time: who, speaking of gays, on a post on one of my other blogs in which I reviewed The Giver by Lois Lowry commented recently:

i hated this book so much it was so g@y and stupid now i have to do a book report on it this sux.

i'm sorry you hated the book so much and you thought it was so g@y that you had to use the @ sign to censor yourself and stupid and that you had to do a book report on it that probably also sucked and sux based on your impressive writing skills in evidence here.

3. Lisa, my sister, from Boondock Ramblings: whom I called on her cell phone during church and she wasn't there to answer it and was subsequently embarrassed when she returned to the pew to find it sitting there as if someone had placed it there accusingly after rooting around in her purse to find it and turn it off because everybody in the whole church had turned around and was looking, as if to say, "Why don't you shut off your cell phone in church, lady?" but the lady wasn't there and as if that person who had left the phone there on the pew was saying, "How rude."

Sorry, I called you on your cell phone, which you should have shut off in church, lady. How rude.

4. Merrill Guice from The Daily Egg: who took issue with the jumping off point for my St. Patrick Day's post called Where's My Freaking Pot of Gold? (complete with comments). I used AIG execs getting millions of dollars in bonuses to lead to a silly post about why the government is giving me a pot of gold.

The first part of the first of three well thought-out responses from Merrill, each one longer that the one before it, was this:

Ahh, listening to the liberal fascists on NPR again are you? Just remember that your brain is what it eats!

1. The reason we bailed out AIG, is so its counterparties wouldn't fail, too. Most of them being European Banks. That's why they are getting billions.

2. The reason AIG made bonuses to its financial products group is so they wouldn't all run off and take hedge fund jobs and leave amateurs to sort out AIG's derivative book.

I'm sorry that I used a jumping off point about which I obviously know nothing for a post that was meant completely as a lark. I'm sure this will lead Merrill to respond with a comment something to the effect that premises are especially important if trying to attempt a stab at political humor, which obviously said "stab" was a stab in the dark and completely off the mark.

Seriously, though, as I said in my last response to your last response:

I was mainly using the AIG situation as a jumping off point for a silly post, not an economics class, but I appreciate your intelligent replies about the AIG situation. Really.

I'm sure it was enlightening for readers of my blog as well, because I think really none of us know much about what's going on. We get our information from soundbites from talking heads, don't bother to take the time to really understand the situation and then joke about it.

For lighter fare from people not bothering to take the time to really understand any situation and joke about every situation, politically correct or not, please visit the following sites:

Humor-Blogs.com

Humor Bloggers

BlogStorm

P.S. Right before I hit "publish," I realized I had typed quickly and put in "Where's My Freaking Pot of God?" instead of "gold." Imagine the apologies I would have had to be making then. I imagine the outcry: "Are you saying God can be put in a pot? Or are you equating marijuana with God?" Although that last point from what I've heard has merit, in that it can be pretty cosmic -- um, from what I hear.

My day Saturday began at 5:30 a.m. Normally Saturdays begin for me a little later. Okay, a lot later like four to five hours later.

So what prompted me to get up this past Saturday? I belong to a men's chorus in our town and we were having a chicken barbecue. The chicken had to be prepared - wings "tucked" - and the first started, racks loaded with the chicken, etc.

What follows are a few of my observations throughout the day, including leading up to-- and at-- a concert the chorus had that night.

1. Note to self and other members of chorus: When using a "bug sprayer" to put the barbecue sauce on the chicken, be aware of the lock button. I didn't and ended up spraying one of the other members of the chorus with said barbecue sauce. Only later did we learn of a finger lock on the sprayer.

2. Note to self and people in our town: Don't go to our local McDonald's for hot chocolate. Just go to Dunkin' Donuts instead. I learned that our local Mickey D's doesn't have hot chocolate the hard way. To wit, I went there to grab a hot chocolate Saturday morning. I asked the employee behind the counter if they had hot chocolate since I couldn't see it on the menu and thought I might be missing it somewhere. I asked twice and twice, he said, "Yes."

I then proceeded to order a breakfast sandwich. He asked what I would like to drink with it.

"Hot chocolate."

"We don't have that."

"I thought you said you did."

"Oh, I thought you said, 'Hot salsa.'"

"Hot salsa. What the hell would I need that for?"

Okay, that last part I didn't say out loud, but might have thought it. I think I just glared instead, and said: "Okay, just a fountain drink then."

Aside: Personally I think I was jinxed by Jenn Thorson's post over at Of Cabbages and King called The Bagel Shop Sketch. Damn you, Jenn Thorson.

3. Note to bartender at our local hotel where we were singing Saturday night: Don't throw another log on the fire in the fireplace in the lounge to appear cozier to customers when the men's chorus is gathered in there in their full suits and it might make them sweat even more and maybe even irritated.

In fact, don't throw three logs on the fire, thanks.

As we were "warming up" for Saturday night's concert, we were literally "warming up." I had to step out of formation during the warm-up and tell the young (read: clueless, naive), female bartender: "Thanks for putting not just one log, but three logs on the fire, because when you're in jackets like we are, it makes us feel that much warmer. Thanks."

She missed the sarcasm and said, "You're welcome."

I did apologize later, because I felt like that was probably one of those comments that I could not have said (like "What the hell" comment that I didn't say to the McDonald's employee earlier) but she even missed the apology and said: "That's okay. I've turned on the air conditioner." Now a fire with air conditioning? Makes sense to me.

I would have told her about that too: "I bet the air conditioning will help put out those embers that fell on to the carpet and not fan the flame," but she probably would have missed the sarcasm again.

4. Note to chorus director: Don't have us sing "Armed Forces: The Pride of America" arrangement that we do which includes the songs from all the branches of the military, but most especially "The U.S. Air Force." To wit, "Down the dive, spouting your flame from under, off on one terrible course. We live in fame or go down in flame. Hey, nothing 'il stop the U.S. Air Force."

Aside from the fact that the lyrics are wrong: Down we dive, spouting our flame from under, Off with one hell of a roar! or "terrible roar," depending on the group of people for which you're singing and "nothing can stop the U.S. Air Force"...

...it's also not in good form to be singing a song that has the lyrics "off on one terrible course" or talks about going down in flame when in fact we are singing "off course" (bad pun intended) and are (!) going down in flame. It's one of the few songs on which we do go "off course," and it's partially because we just added it to our repertoire this year and haven't learned it yet..well, at least, not the right way.

Afterword

On Sunday, on my way home from visiting my parents who live the next county over from us, I encountered a billboard similar to this one but 10 miles from our local McDonald's:



Humor-Blogs.com

Humor Bloggers

BlogStorm

With the NCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball Tournament starting this week, I thought back to my own days in sports in high school and the music that got our teams pumped up before the Big Games or, in my case, meets (cross country) and matches (wrestling).

Previously on this blog, I mentioned that I was in cross country in high school for a short time, from my freshman to my junior years. In fact, I was Senor Largo Calcetines. To see what I mean, visit the post. I won't repost the infamous photo here, but will only say that I was stylin' (I won’t say what style I was stylin', but nonetheless, I was).

I don't think I've mentioned here that I was in wrestling, but I was for a season in ninth grade when I wrestled, or at least pretended to do so, on the junior varsity squad. I was what other wrestlers term a "fish" because I flopped around on the mat instead of actually wrestling and was the one kid on the squad who was always said to be "counting the lights," because while getting pinned, I would be looking up at the ceiling.

Aside: Why are wrestlers often referred to as being on a squad, but basketball players are referred to as being on a team? A typical high school wrestler's response probably would be something like "Because we're tough like the military while basketball players are pussies." I'm not saying that's my response, I'm just saying. Of course, a typical high school basketball player’s response might be “At least, we don't roll around on the floor in tights." At which point, the wrestler would kick the basketball player’s scrawny little ass.

Mostly I remember listening to music on the buses to matches and meets. In cross country, the song that stands out in my mind is this one:


Extraneous comment on the video: Dee might be scarier now than he was 25 years ago when the song was first released, but he still can sing-- or at least scream hoarsely-- his ass off, and what’s up with the bass player on the right at the start of the video. I think I could slap that bass like that.

I remember all of us short-haired cross country runners headbanging in the back of the bus, shouting the lyrics at the top of our lungs like each of us was Dee Snider sans the long hair: "Whoa..whoa..."

As for the wrestlers, they were even more hardcore and would just go right for the throat with this song:


Extraneous comment on the video: What the hell were those girls screaming at like these guys were The Beatles? I mean, you'd be hard pressed to pick out one of AC/DC, past or present, who were "hot." They were, and are, some ugly mofos. Bon Scott, may your ugly soul be resting in peace—uh, sorry, to say, but probably in hell after all those songs you sang about it. Again, I'm just saying.

Concrete shoes
Cyanide
T.N.T
Done dirt cheap
Ooo, neckties
Contracts
High voltage
Done dirt cheap, eah

Nothing else can get a high school sports team pumped up to go out and kill its opponent like this song.

The other song I connect with which I connect those bus rides with the varsity wrestling squad was this one:


I guess the varsity wrestlers were hoping to get some after getting back to the school and driving their girlfriends home in their own cars. Me? I was just hoping I'd be able to cry myself to sleep as my mommy and daddy took me home. Waaaaah.

Humor-Blogs.com

Humor Bloggers

Blogerella

In honor of my new domain, www.unfinishedrambler.com (update your blogrolls as I update my comments section ;), I present my super hero alter ego:


To create your own, visit The Hero Factory. Thanks to Kelly @ The HumorSmith Chronicle and Sandy @ Chat Blanc for pointing out the site to me. Or should I say The Mighty Thoughtful Philanthropist and The Fearless Whipped Lash for helping me to find my inner hero?

For other superheroes, see Redhead Ranting's super hero alter ego and Canucklehead's too.

And for other bloggers who like to think they are super heroes, but well, really aren't, visit the following sites:

Humor-Blogs.com

Humor Bloggers

Blogerella

Well, except for this blogger, who thinks that not only he is one superhero, but many superheroes-- well, if you want to call this ragtag bunch "heroes."

Today after listening to Terry Gross talk to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gretchen Morgenson on Fresh Air on NPR about AIG and the billions the government has paid out to it, and now that the company in turn is paying in millions in bonuses to the very people that screwed it all up, I began to wonder where is my pot of gold?

Unfortunately, while I do have a modicum of Irish in my blood, mostly I have Scottish in my blood.






Haggis: something that looks likes a potato (or at least a cousin)...



...but really no matter how you try to dress it up...



This is part of the Humor Bloggers dot com St. Patrick's Day Carnival. Click the link to find out more about the carnival and other posts in honor of St. Patrick's Day, which will be featured tomorrow on Humor Bloggers

For other funny and engaging blogs, also check out Humor-Blogs.com and Blogerella.

This week's Sunday Shout-Out goes to a new blogger to me within the last few weeks: The Shark Tank: The Blog That Bites Back.

I disovered him through Entrecard (uh, which I may be dropping in the near future) and also through comments here on my blog, and unlike some other Entrecarders who have stopped by my blog, he hasn't dropped and ran or dropped and then left a comment like this:

Me so funny. Won't you plz link to my site. I exchange link for link free.

Or like this:

You want to make money? Who doesn't? But I've got the way you can do it. Check out MakeBigShitloadsOfMoney.com. Oh, by the way, love your site and what you've done with it.

Go jump in The Shark Tank NOW. I don't think you'll be disappointed.



Now hoping that The Shark Tank doesn't jump the shark after I post this, but first clip I could find on YouTube with sharks.

What are you waiting for? Five links already. Go visit him already. Geez.

Humor-Blogs.com

Humor Bloggers

Blogerella

Don't know why but tonight while listening to blip.fm, came across one Queen song which reminded me of another Queen song, "One Vision," which was used in the 1986 movie Iron Eagle:



The movie was pure cheese, a Top Gun-esque (I used that for the wife, because she hates when I "esque" things, like "Beatlesque," which is one of my favorite "esques") movie but not as good. If you haven't seen it, I highly encourage you to see it just for the cheese.

This got me to thinking about other Queen songs used in movies. So on with the cheesefest:




















Which one is your favorite? Or are there others that I've left out that you think are just as funny or bizarre or even (like the Moulin Rouge clip) done well.

Humor-Blogs.com

Humor Bloggers

Blogerella

7,200 minutes, 7,200 moments so dear, 7,200 minutes
how do you measure,
measure five days (without my blog)?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in bottles of vodka,
In inches, in miles, in (lack of) laughter, in strife...

Yes, it's been a whole five days since I blogged last, and the blogosphere somehow has neither collapsed...







it has held together, because after all, this thing called Life is bigger than just one person.



Tomorrow: a new Flashback Friday, but just wanted to let y'all know I'm back...



...yes, in black...

...and you better not try to mess with my cat either, beyotch. He'll get you with his laser eyes.

So will the bloggers from these blogging communities:

Humor-Blogs.com

Humor Bloggers

Blogerella

As everyone is doing one of these lately, I felt like I should too!

So here it is.

Yep, my computer crashed _______________ (insert time when: for me, it was last night).

It's at the shop until __________ (insert day: for me, at least Friday because we're broke and won't be able to pay for it until then; blame Obama, why not? Everything else is his fault).

So I'll be back ______________(insert day when: for me, hopefully next Saturday when I should have plenty to write about, like...hmmmm...what else is there besides life on the computer? is there a world outside cyberspace? Well, now I'll be able to tell you what it's like out there IRL).

See you all then!

In the meantime, go visit the funny and engaging blogs at these sites:

Humor-Blogs.com

Humor Bloggers

Blogerella

I'd write more blog posts during the week, but just to get this post up at the library, it took me about an hour after getting through all the parental controls, just to get into my blog and then to get the image up. Unfortunately, that's not a joke. Well, off to pick up tickets for Watchmen, which The Wife and I are going to see.

Once upon a time before I became the Kenny Loggins/Kenny G-loving freak that you know (and love?), I was a metalhead.


No, IRL I'm not Ronnie James Dio (I wish). But I knew how to throw Dio's sign, yes, I did. However, that doesn't mean I was down with the devil.

No, IRL I'm a Christian (actually a believer in Jesus Christ since the age of 4) and while before I attended a Christian liberal arts college where I actually met and hung out with a Christian heavy metal thrash band (okay, mostly their hanger-ons, but actually did one time interview the band for our college newspaper), I was into Christian metal.

For me, I was baptized into Christian metal with this band, Resurrection Band, which arose out of Jesus People U.S.A. in Chicago:



My immersion continued with bands like Barren Cross (which despite the resemblance to Motley Crue were actually pretty cool back in the day):



...and Bloodgood (which actually was the surname of the lead singer, Michael Bloodgood, and not some corny take on the blood of Christ, although it worked for them as evidenced by their...ahem..."cool" album cover):



...but it was this band:



which brought Christian metal into the mainstream with yellow and black spandex.

So by the time I got to college, I was well on my way to becoming a Christian metalhead and while there at Messiah College, I met members of the band Believer. As a freshman and sophomore, a couple of its members at the time lived in the dorm next to mine, and then somehow I found myself hanging out with them, at least peripherally, through friends of theirs.

I went to one of their shows at the fire hall in Hummelstown, with this guy named Andy, who was on crutches and bummed out that he was unable to mosh because he had broken his leg at a previous show. He went to stage dive and nobody caught him, thus breaking his leg on a concrete floor, he said.

Later, I had an oral communications class with Andy and Wyatt, who later became a member of the band. Andy brought in a frozen, dead squirrel to show us how to skin it and Wyatt, who actually had the class push back the chairs in the room in Kline for us to form a mosh circle and taught us the subtle difference between mosh and skank (no, not definition No. 1, but definition No. 2 - subheading 1 in The Urban Dictionary).

Since I had become acquainted with the band and I was a writer for the college newspaper, The Swinging Bridge, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to interview them. At the time, they were working on getting contracts with major Christian record labels and were just "bursting onto the scene," plus I figured not a lot of the students at the college realized just how popular they were becoming.

I think it was near Mechanicsburg at the house of lead singer, Kurt Bachman, where I interviewed the band -- or at least tried to interview Kurt and the other members of the band as beneath me, in the basement, members of the bands practiced. It was so loud that the room actually shook, which at the time I thought was pretty cool.

Surprisingly, band founders Bachman and Joey Daub, drummer, are putting out a new album, Gabriel, on March 17 with a new lineup. To find out more about what the band is doing now, visit the official Believer MySpace page and its official website.

I was very surprised to see on the band's website that Howard Jones is providing guest vocals for the band. Talk about a WTF (again What The Fahrevenugen, Mom and Dad, if you're reading this, because after all, I am a Christian and as we all know, Christians like Bono and the like never, ever use curse words). However, once I clicked on the information about it, I learned it wasn't this Howard Jones, but this Howard Jones of the band Killswitch Engage.

I'll sign off with a little Believer that I found on Youtube:



Humor-Blogs.com

Humor Bloggers

Blogerella

If you're interested in finding more examples of Christian rock, I encourage you to check out YouTube user Christianoldies.

Last week I noticed that I had lost some followers here on my blog through Blogger. Whereas the number used to be in the mid-40s, it had dropped to the mid-30s.

I wondered what I had said to piss off those 10 or so that had left my flock. I checked back through my posts (and this was before I used the "sh**" word again in this post, in case, you missed it and really want to see it, or if you want to have a real reason to "unfollow" me) to see what it might have been:

1. Was it the Christian right readers that I offended by making fun of Awana youth clubs and comparing them to the Soviet Red Pioneers? But really look at the red uniforms in my post and remember back to the good old days of Breschnev and his comrades. Tell me there isn't a similarity.

2. Was it the people who had been laid off from their job and really weren't fishing as I said some of them were in this post?

3. Was it the closet Ray Conniff and the Singers fans I had offended for making fun of the iconic singer and his group?

I was really becoming concerned.


Saturday, the mystery was somewhat resolved as through Tricia @ papercages that it's all Blogger's fault for being as she put it "Stuck on stupid." Seems as the fine folks at Google decided to make changes without telling anyone until after the fact. Today, I actually (and this is a shock, believe me, I think it might have registered on the Richter scale) received an e-mail from Blogger, telling me about the changes.

To skip all the boring shit sh**, what it boils down to is this: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=141159.

If you were following someone publicly, now you have to go and manually set all that. Before I could just click and follow through my Google Reader, but now!!!!?#&$%(!+_*^&)!!!!!...and with 180-plus blogs I'm following in one reader and 40 in another, that's more than 220 I have to...excuse my language here and you can unfollow me for this, if you'd like...dick around with.

I'm with Tricia, who said in her post: "I am quite fond of all my followers and don't like anyone messing with them."

So bottom line is if you were following me publicly and still want to do so, please come back. I won't reject you. I'll accept you with open arms into the fold as I'm sure you'll accept me back too.

Humor-Blogs.com

Humor Bloggers

Blogerella

I'm dedicating this week's Sunday Shout-Out to one blogger, Joel Klebanoff @ Stuff and Nonsense, whose subheading is "To worry is to be. To be is to worry." The guy is that good that he deserves the spotlight all to himself. Really. I am even forgoing other links this week to showcase his blog.

On his profile page on Humor-Blogs.com, he describes himself thusly: "An empty-headed individual, but humorous notions occasionally percolate up through his brain. Often not."

Joel is also a member of Humor Bloggers, where often can be found poking around the forums regaling the rest of us with his low-key brand of Canadian humor. Oh, didn't I mention? Yep, he's one of them.

Canucks.

I've been finding them creeping up everywhere online. I first encountered them on a site called SparkPeople and then some of them there followed me (at least, that's how I perceived it) to Facebook. And now, now they're freaking everywhere! They're like online rabbits, they just keep multiplying.

Anyway, back to Joel, about whom this post is, not me (you get enough of me throughout the week, don't you? it's sickening)...

...I think his best posts are his multi-part posts.

For example, speaking of Canada, Joel debunks myths about his Motherland in a (so far) four-part post: Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV.

He also related his advice to the American government on slaying the debts and deficits in a (so far) three-part post: Part I, Part II and Part III.

In additon to Humor-Blogs.com and Humorbloggers.com, this post also can be found at Blogerella.