Three Songs I Can't Stand

Hope I don't offend anyone, but here are three songs that make me want to bash my head into a wall. For what it's worth, a few of my jackass friends really enjoy Depeche Mode. Not sure about their opinions on the other two though. Either way I'd rather eat a light bulb than listen to them another time.

And with that, enjoy!




Pretty bad, huh?

My Starbucks and iTunes D'oh

I was in Chicago the other day and grabbed a couple of those Starbucks iTunes song redemption cards at a Starbucks in a Target. Which is pretty wild. I wish there were more Starbucks in places like that. Not that we have Targets in Canada, but most of them are in Chapters (Canada's equivalent to Borders and Barnes and Noble) with a handful of separate locations besides. And really, you can never have enough Starbucks. There's the tops.

But anyway, I tried to redeem one of the codes and it didn't work since it was designed for the US iTunes and not the Canadian one (yeah, there's a difference, and don't think I'm not cheesed off by that). It's for Yusuf, the artist known as Cat Stevens' "Welcome Home". The codes are 9W3NAXLFPYWK and KWYRYYW6AFAJ. If you use them, just let me know so I can check them off.

Chicago was nice, by the way. Did a bit of a driving tour of the downtown, went by Target for some cheap tube socks, Cherry Coke Zero and Pretzels, and caught "(500) Days of Summer" at an AMC by the theater. It was a nice little trip.

What the - - ?

Now, I'm not an English professor, and on occasion I've even been known to mispronounce easy to say words like "crayon" and "thermometer", but can someone explain what this woman is trying to say. I heard a few familiar words there, but the order in which they're spoken vexes me.



Vexing. Definitely vexing.

Cripes.

I think I have the swine flu. Which stinks. Not that it's that big a deal, I mean, it's just a new version of the flu that's considered risky because most folks immune systems aren't familiar with it, but darn if it doesn't sting all the same. Especially the name. I haven't told my friends about my suspicion yet because I'm not sure I want to give them an invitation to make pig jokes about me. I didn't even think I had it until I saw a list of symptoms at the local drug store -- until that point I'd figured my coughing was related to how dehydrated and sore my throat got at my grandmother's funeral (it was ridiculously hot and humid that day, and the heavy suit, a lack of air conditioning, and a 90 minute funeral service did a number on me), and that my stuffy nose was just my allergies acting up (as is the norm this time of year anyway). Still, I suppose I have been fatigued lately and have had a decrease in my usual appetite.

Hopefully it'll pass soon, especially since I've realized I might have it. It's been about a week and a half now since I've been coughing and all that, which is usually the amount of time a mild case lasts. Still, the fact I might have it really stinks. It's a real kick in the head.

My Almost Quandary (of Sorts)

So, Ally McBeal is coming to DVD later this year and Fox, for some reason but arguably a welcome one, is releasing the first season and the complete series at the same time. Back in the day I watched Ally McBeal fervently -- it was probably the first "grown-up" series I really enjoyed and followed regularly. At least the first dramatic one, since I did, curiously, watch Murphy Brown for a good three to four pre-puberty years, and that was a pretty grown up show. Granted Ally McBeal wasn't a straight up drama, but it was more serious than most of the shows I'd been following to that point in my life. And it was pretty enjoyable. For the first two or three years at least. Then it got kind of... not good. But the first few years were good enough to buy the show 'viewer credit' with me, and I stuck through to the end with it.

And so my quandary lies with the DVD releases. I'm looking forward to revisiting the show, but, well, I'm concerned how it'll hold up. I have fond memories of the show and if it hasn't aged well, that'd be pretty disappointing. I'd really hate to find out it's as lame as my friends thought it was went I was watching it new, but since my initial viewership was part genuine enjoyment and part 'watching a prime time drama for the first time, all adult and such (and on a school night, no less!)', I have a feeling it might not hold up. I probably wouldn't even have these fears if I hadn't caught part of a first season episode when I went to Mexico a few years back (specifically the one where Ally humiliated a guy by making him walk around with pants around his ankles, and yes, it's a good as it sounds...), and part of me would rather leave it be as a show I enjoyed from my teen years than find out it stinks.

On the other hand, Peter McNicol's John Cage was the man, so that might be enough to make me buy the bloody thing, quality be damned. I mean, say what you will about the show, but John Cage was really awesome.

My grandmother, Eleanor "Nana" Morrow passed away on the weekend. She hadn't been doing well for the past year and a half, a strange bit of immobilizing back pain leading to hospitalization and then to a nursing home. Last week she took a turn for the worse -- we weren't sure if it was due to an infection or if she had a stroke, but she couldn't move or speak very well, if at all. She went back to the hospital last Monday, briefly though, since the doctors couldn't find anything wrong with her, and again on Thursday.

I saw her on Friday night for a good couple of hours. She still couldn't move or communicate, but when my brother took her hand she seemed to react facially and her grip tightened. She died the following morning. It still hasn't really sunk in, like I know she's gone, but I don't really think of her like that, like she's still around. I've been busy doing stuff to help out my dad, like rewriting his two page obituary into something that'll fit into the average obit space in our local paper, but it doesn't feel like I'm doing enough. I don't know. It's a weird feeling.

Anyway, I'll try to post something non-death related as soon as I come up with something. Little hard, is all though.

Cripes.

Today Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died. I was a generation too late for either to have the kind of impact they had on other folks, but it's still pretty shocking stuff. Besides being pretty big pop-cultural touchstones, they're both about the same ages as my parents, which freaks me out a little bit. I mean, neither was that old and they're gone. My brother Kerr, who's a bit of a Michael Jackson music enthusiast, seems pretty let down by the whole thing.

Cripes. Heck of a thing, huh.

Here's Where I Talk About Nachos

I'm not dumb. Even with the tomato and lettuce and all that nachos can't be that great for you. But I do enjoy a good plate of nachos. I suppose I could make them at home, but I'm a lazy eater; when I'm hungry I'm all business, no frills, from the fridge to my plate. Getting from hunger to food with the shortest distance and all that. Not that I short-change meals or anything, but I eat as I'm cooking, usually going from one bit of food to the next. That sounds pretty bad, but it works. I start with rice or vegetables and prepare the more complicated course while I'm having that. So I usually have nachos at restaurants. But even then, that's infrequent, because, like I said I'm all business when it comes to meals.

When I go to a restaurant it's for something substantial. Not nachos which I'd probably have too much of and fill up on them, throwing the whole meal off. That said, there are times when I go to a restaurant specifically for nachos -- there's a great place a few minutes from home that has a great nacho platter that I enjoy every now and then. I still wish I could have nachos more often, but I guess if I had it with greater frequency it'd lose the punch when I do have them, and I'd probably feel more guilt about all that cheese and such.

And that's me talking about nachos. Don't worry, I promise the next post will be slightly more interesting. Unless you're a nacho enthusiast, in which case this must've been something else for you, huh.

Fun With Youtube VIII

Here we go with the latest batch of interesting clips I've come across on Youtube, as always in lieu of actual content or insightful commentary. Enjoy.

(A warning for the easily offended out there -- some of the clips contain "language" that may shock the young and stun the elderly. I'm not going to say which ones though. Think of it as a game or something, I suppose. Although I probably could've pointed them out more clearly. But this whole post is designed to give me less work, so there you go. But just so I don't come across totally shiftless, you can probably tell which ones I'm talking about from their titles. I guess that kind of saves face for me.)

This Just In: Captain America: Not Dead.

Which is kind of lame, especially since his "death" (and I say that with the possibility that it'll turn out he never died in the first place) gave the comic title a real shot in the arm and drew it a lot of outside attention. Heck, Stephen Colbert still has the shield he was given as per Cap's will hanging on the wall of his set.

Not that I ever expected them to keep Captain America dead for any great length of time, but bringing him back barely two years after they killed him off in the first place is... well, it's kind of a joke on how comic book characters keep coming back to life and is going to cheese off a lot of folks who were drawn in because of his death and the direction the book took, and folks like me who kind of like Bucky as Captain America.

Plus wouldn't something other than the totally expected "surprise announcement" have been fun? Seems like all of the build-up and hub-bub called for it. I wonder what this'll do to the value of the issue he died in. Not that I'm that kind of person, but I paid 15 bucks for the bloody thing.

News care of the New York Daily News.