Halloween 2

It's that time of year again!

So last year I carved my first pumpkin (see it here if you missed it). I had so much fun doing it that I've decided to make it a new yearly activity. So without further ado here is this year's carvings for your viewing pleasure.

This year's pumpkins (these were a bitch to carry back from the store as we didn't have a car this year).

The stencils we decided to use this year.

Stencil transferred onto pumpkin.


The beheading, gutting and cutting begins.


After the carnage.

Lighting them up.


The pumpkins all lit up in the dark.


... and that folks is it for another year.

Aaeeeeeh! Aaaeeeeh! Aaaeeeh!

Oh why don't they make fight scenes with top quality actors like this anymore? Keep an "eye" out for the fantastic one liner at the end of the clip ;)

Pa, Pa, Pants Man!

I'm dedicating this one to Ronan and Keiko... Pa pa pants man!



Sometimes I wish I grew up in Japan. :D

I just noticed that it seems that lately this blog has become less about my musings and more of a "post a random link because I got nothing else". Oh well. Diversification can only be a good thing at the end of the day.

Ravage!

He's not quite a cassette (what's a cassette I hear you ask) but the nerd and nostalgia hound in me says "I want one".

I wonder if they're going to release Soundwave as a transforming MP3 player to keep up with the times...

And I thought I hated veggies on my burger

Once again in the land of stupid lawsuits we have the pleasure of reading about some guy who is suing Burger King for $100,000 for putting pickles, onions and tomatoes on his burger. His reason for suing is that the oversight in his order made him suffer an allergic reaction to the food.

Now, I dislike veggies on my burger just as much as the next guy and I've been given my fair share of burgers in the past with every veggie under the sun on it despite having asked for no veggies or any other crap on it but it has never crossed my mind to sue over the oversight. Depending on my mood I usually either just politely tell them that they got my order wrong and hope that they don't spit on my food or else suck it up and eat the damn thing because veggies are good for you. I guess I'm just not cunning enough.

Also, despite the fact I may have asked for said burger without veggies, it has always occurred to me to double check said burger before biting down on it. It's sort of a natural reaction to getting any sort of food I ask for that may be altered from the norm in some way. Now, luckily for me I don't have any food allergies (I'm just not a big fan of veggies). However, if I did have any such allergies I would make damn sure to double check my food before taking a bite (I'm not even going to mention the fact that the guy only noticed after he had swallowed his food!).

Further more, look at that fine picture above of the finer specimen which is a lovely big BK burger. How the hell could you not see a big hulking slice of tomato, pickle or onion hanging out of it? OK, granted that not all BK burgers look that fine and delicious but still, you got 3 frickin things that are slapped onto your burger which should be large enough to have the potential of making themselves known to you. They'd have to be minuscule for them to be hidden under the bun. Either that or you'd have to be blind with hunger not to notice (or just plain thick).

And of course, not to be outdone by BK, Micky D's (aka McDonalds) has also gotten a slice of the stupid suing pie (other than the famous hot coffee lawsuit that is). However, in this instance, it involved some rogue cheese that shouldn't have been on a burger and $10 million dollars!!! Luckily common sense won the day and that lawsuit has since been thrown out.

Game Over

This has got to be the best resignation letter/message I have ever seen! If anyone who worked for me ever came up with such an inventive and fun way to hand in their notice I'd give them a big raise and promote them on the spot (they're quitting anyways so no biggy :P).

R.I.P. Frankie Manning

Frankie Manning

Those of you who know me know that I dance quite a bit. Out of all the dance styles I do, it is Lindy Hop (the grand daddy of all swing dances) that I dance most.

So, I was saddened this morning to wake up to the news that Frankie Manning, one of the original father's of Lindy Hop had passed away. He was a few weeks shy of 95. The whole Lindy Hop community from all around the world were all getting ready to gather in New York to celebrate his 95th birthday next month. Now it looks like it will be a memorial gathering instead :(

Those of you who don't dance Lindy Hop will probably have never heard of Mr. Manning. But for Lindy dancers, Frankie was the great ambassador of the dance and an inspiration for all Lindy Hoppers of all levels. He was still giving classes and shaking it with the best of them up until last year when he injured himself.

Here's a famous footage from the 1941 film "Hellzapoppin" featuring Frankie (he's the guy in the mechanic's dungarees) and his fellow Lindy dancers (known collectively as Whitey's Lindy Hoppers) doing what they do best:





RIP Frankie.

I'm still here!... Unlike the Irish economy

I'm still floating around! I've been so incredibly busy in work in the last couple of months I've had very little time to do anything exciting or even to find anything interesting on the interweb to blog about.

Speaking of jobs, I came across this recent youtube video that I just found so incredible I had to share it (no its not the Susan Boyle, Britain's got talent video). I knew the Irish economy was bad but I never knew it had gotten this bad!





I'd hate to be the interviewer. What I find interesting in the video is the considerable lack of Irish faces in that queue and the number of people of "foreign" decent. I suppose you can't say that people aren't willing to work.

If this is the type of crazy competition that is going on for a (probably low paying) till job in Londis it looks like I may have left Ireland at a good time.

Vancouver Fog

It's been really foggy here for the last week or so. As a result there have been some amazing photo's showing up of the fog in Vancouver. Unfortunately non of these photos were taken by me :(

Non the less, these photos are so class I've decided to share them. If these photos are yours and you want them taken down or at the very least want some acknowledgement for them then drop me an email and let me know.



The above photo was taken from Cyprus Mountain (one of the three local mountains). It was taken either by Scott Miller from the Vancouver Sun or Blair Kent. Can't really tell which one of them this particular photo belongs to since both took almost identical photos. Apparently this has led to a bit of an argument as to who took the photo. But as the comparison done here shows, there are actually two photos which are almost identical.

Now some more photos.... I actually don't know who or where these photos came from (as these were emailed to me). So again, if you own them or know of who took them let me know and I'll credit the appropriate person (or remove them if you so wish).

Happy New Year!

Better late than never.... Happy New Year!

Mormon Wedding

Last week just before we were meant to make the road trip back to Vancouver again (this time thankfully the roads were clear all the way up to Vancouver and quite uneventful) I went to my first Mormon Wedding.

We never actually got to go to the actual wedding ceremony, only the reception. Apparently if your not part of the Mormon faith you are forbidden to be present at the ceremony. The groom converted to Mormonism for the girl. So, it turned out that the groom's parents were also not allowed at the wedding ceremony. Only to the reception. I was told that the groom's father (understandably) was not impressed.

For the most part the reception was ...err... reserved. The complete lack of alcohol probably had a little to do with that as well. I wasn't too concerned about the total absence of alcohol but then I found out that no coffee would be served either! So it would seem that Mormons don't drink alcohol or caffeine. I suppose that's why they allow polygamy. Got to have some sugar to sweeten the deal somehow I guess.

Oh, and just in case anyone was wondering, the lucky girl was wife number one and probably will be the only wife (barring a divorce or some kind later on down the line). I believe the US Mormons (in Utah anyways) gave up the right to polygamy so that they could join the union back sometime in the 1890s.

The couple in question were very young. No older than 20 and 21. So that meant a good few of their guests were also within that age range. So when the dancing started it sort of looked like a high school disco.

In short, it was a nice wedding if not a little more sober than I'm usually used to for a wedding.

The Great American Christmas Road Trip - Part 3 (Finally entering California)

After filling up the car and ourselves we were off again. This time in snow free conditions... or so we thought.

After a couple of happy snow free hours on the road, just as we were about to hit the mountain pass that would have taken us to the Californian state line we were presented with lots of enforced snow chain requirement and snow chain inspection signs all along the highway.

At this time I was driving so that the lady friend could take a break from driving and get some shut eye. Fortunately she was woken up by her dad calling her on the phone and she noticed the signs too. We decided to go buy snow chains at one of the little towns before we hit the mountain pass. It was one thing to lose control and spin off the road into a snow bank but its entirely another thing to lose control and spin off the side of a mountain!

Also, I wasn't aware that you would be asked to turn around by the cops at the snow chain inspection stop if you didn't have snow chains. If she hadn't had woken up I would have happily kept on driving until we hit the mountain pass ignoring the signs about snow chain inspection oblivious to the fact that we would have been told to turn around without them.

So, we found a Wal-Mart and decided to pop in there to buy chains. While in there we met a guy who was also buying chains because he got turned around at the inspection point. We also got talking to another guy who lived in the town who was buying chains and other supplies for a road trip himself and his wife were going to embark on the next morning. Upon hearing that we were going to attempt to drive over the pass that evening (it was about 10pm at this stage and there was a storm warning for the pass) he warned us against doing it saying that it was far too dangerous. He said that "only idiot drivers and crazy trucker try going over the pass at night".

It so happened that himself and his wife owned a B&B in the town and it was closed for the winter season. So he offered us a bed for the evening free of charge to dissuade us from attempting to go over the pass that evening. We were a bit iffy at first but eventually took him up on his offer as we were quite tired from driving all day.

As it turns out the B&B was a really nice place and the guy and his wife were super nice people. If anyone is ever travelling through Oregon, passing through the little town of Ashland and are feeling tired, you can't go far wrong popping into the "Chanticleer Inn" for the night.


(The B & B we stayed in)

We set off early in the morning to face the mountain pass to the California state line expecting the worse. As it turned out once again it wasn't so bad. The snow ploughs had once again done their job in the morning and we really only had to concern ourselves with the roads being all gravelly due to being torn up by people not removing their snow chains when they should have.


(The mountain pass)

Six very uneventful hours later we finally made it to our destination in California... only 2 days later than expected and one day before Christmas eve :(

The Great American Christmas Road Trip - Part 2 (Washington to Oregon)

The roads through Oregon were not forgiving. We had hit Oregon just after a really bad snow storm had hit it the night before. There was a mandatory snow chain rule being enforced on all roads within the city at Portland. Unfortunately we had previously decided against buying snow chains for our little trip. However, fortunately, we were not required to go into any cities in Oregon as the I-5 highway ran right by them.

The snow and ice on the highway was really bad so I can only imagine what it was like within the city where less cars were traveling.

We managed to get through Portland without any incidents. Again we were driving at a max speed of about 20 to 30 mph. If we went any slower we would have more than likely gotten stuck in the snow and if we went any faster we would lose control and spin.

Speaking of spinning. It was just shortly after passing Portland that we had our worst spin off. We were driving on a perfectly straight stretch of highway going up a little incline, when out of nowhere the car just lost control and started to slide and spin. This time no one was at fault and also, this time there were lots of cars on the highway. We more than likely just hit a really bad patch of ice and that coupled with our rather non snow conditioned tyres and lack of snow chains the car lost it.

We luckily were at the outer lane at the time and didn't spin into the middle of the road but instead into the snow bank beside us. This time we managed to bury ourselves quite good. No amount of pushing by little old me alone was going to get the car out. Luckily this time around we spun off the road in the middle of the day and there were lots of cars on the road. Two cars eventually stopped (probably out of pity watching me struggling in vain at trying to push the car out by myself) and between myself and the drivers of the cars we managed to push the car out of the snow bank while the girlfriend/wife of one of the other drivers directed the traffic around us as we backed out of the bank back onto the highway again. Upon finally getting going again I had to run after the car and hop in while it was moving because we couldn't risk stopping because stopping would mean possibly getting stuck in the snow or else slipping back down the little incline on the road.

I can now say I've run down the middle of a busy highway chasing after a car in America.

After about 8 or so hours of extremely tense driving and keeping the car wheels perfectly straight the snow disappeared and the roads were drivable once again. It was at this stage we decided to pull into somewhere to get something to eat and to fill up the tank as we couldn't afford to pull off the highway previously at the risk of getting stuck in a snowed in town and having no way to get back onto the highway again.

Interesting side note. Apparently Oregon is one of two states in America where you are not allowed to fill up your car yourself. You have to let the petrol pump attendants do it. Your breaking the law otherwise.

The Great American Christmas Road Trip - Part 1 (Vancouver to Seattle, Washington)

Warning, this is a long posting but an interesting one (well at least I think it is) non the less. It's split into several parts for your reading pleasure.

I left for Sacramento, California from Vancouver, Canada two weeks ago to visit the lady friend's parents for Christmas. We decided to drive down. A 15 to 16 hour drive. No problem says I. We'll do it in a day... was I ever wrong. It ended up taking us 3 days to get to our destination in California.

On the night before we were meant to leave it decided to snow quite heavily all day (as can be seen from the picture of the view from our balcony window).



This resulted in the car being buried in about a foot if not more of snow the next morning. We had to dig the car out and even then we had to push it out from the curb since the snow had it stuck in good. Little did I know that this was the start of a lot more pushing out of snow to come. We had contemplated on getting snow chains for the trip but decided against it at the last moment thinking that we wouldn't need them once we got out of Vancouver. Big mistake.

From the outset the weather was not our friend. There was snow and ice all the way from Vancouver, through to Seattle continuing all the way into most of Oregon; And just when we thought we had made it through the worse of it with the Californian state line in site the snow got us again. More about that later.


(The Road out of Vancouver)

On a "normal" day the drive to the Canadian/US border from Vancouver would take 30 to 40 minutes. Then it would just be a simple case of staying on the I-5 highway for a leisurely cruise all the way down into California. On this day the drive to the border took us an hour and a half and when we hit the US side the snow and ice on the highway was so bad we literally had to travel at 20 to 30 mph max. It just felt really strange going so slow on a highway but I'm very glad we did.

We managed to spin off the road a couple of times. The first time was when we were on our way to Seattle. The idiot driver in front of us decided to inexplicably slam on their brakes despite the fact that there was not a single car or turn ahead of him/her. They somehow miraculously managed not to slide or spin (if they did slide I might have seen it as them just slowing down). This caused us to slam on our brakes to avoid a head on crash. Instead of stopping, the car just kept on sliding towards the car in front of us. Fortunately we were a good 6 car lengths if not more away from him at this stage and we were only traveling at about 20 mph or so and we were the only 2 cars on the highway at that time. We tried turning the wheel at the last minute to avoid a crash but this just made the car spin. The result of this was we spun off the road. Of course the idiot in front of us was oblivious to this and simply just sped up again and went on his/her merry way. Luckily we didn't spin too far into the snow bank so we could easily enough back out again without anyone having to get out and push.

We had to stop off to fill up the tank and our bellies before we hit Seattle and this resulted in more getting stuck in the snow and pushing. The petrol station we tried pulling into was so deeply covered in snow that we got stuck trying to get into it and then again when we tried to get out. It took myself, a friend who was traveling with us who we were dropping off in Seattle and some other people at the station to push the car to the pump. We left the car sitting at the pump as we ran across the road to grab a quick bite to eat... but not before stopping to help push several other cars who had gotten stuck trying to get into the petrol station. We eventually decided to play dumb to all the other cars otherwise we would have been there all night pushing cars in and out of the petrol station never making it that 20/30 odd yard to the burger joint.

So, what should have been a 3 hour trip from the Canadian/US border to Seattle took us 6 and a bit hours. We decided to stay the night in Seattle at the friend's place and continue the trip in the morning. There was a lot more pushing and getting stuck in the snow inbetween that I've skipped over.


(Setting out on Seattle roads - there's a road under there somewhere)
In the morning we continued our trip but this time it was just the two of us. Once we got onto the Seattle freeway it was surprisingly snow and ice free. The snow ploughs had obviously done their jobs that morning. Then we hit Oregon and it all started again.