Eats, shoots and leaves.

People don't realize how important punctuation is. A single comma can change the entire meaning of a sentence. Here is my favorite example. It's from a book Shimmy gave me for Christmas a few years back.

A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation. "Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

So, punctuation really does matter, even if it is only occasionally a matter of life and death.

Stolen!

This is kind of cool. I stole this from Dave, he stole it from I Am....Panda who stole this from Sunday Stealing.


1. Was your dad named after anyone?
No, well, at least not that I know of.

2. What do you think is the minimal age to get married?
In most states, it's actually 18 with parental consent. But then, who really cares?

3. What’s the longest time that you‘ve been involved with the same person?
Really? Depends on how your define involved...

4. What actor/actress do you consider hot at the moment?
It's kinda hard for me to say these days, I used to think about the famous people that way, but unfortunately (?), I can't seem to think of them that way anymore.

5. What is you favorite album by a band?
Probably Bella Donna by Stevie Nicks or perhaps some random musical soundtrack.

6. What is your favorite album by an individual artist?
I don't think I really have one....hard to pick favorites.

7. What is something that you‘d rather be a bit dirty?
????

8. What was the last TV show that you watched?
Nova.

9. How many people have you met from the blogosphere? Who are they?
2. Dave and the Bru...however, I knew them both prior to the blogosphere.

10. What's your philosophy on life?
The mask, given time, comes to be the face itself.

11. Do you think prescription drugs are over prescribed?
100%!

12. Would you keep a secret from me if you thought it was in my best interest?
It would depend on the person and the secret.

13. What is your favorite memory in the last year?
My times with my best friend.

14. What is your favorite guilty pleasure?
My times with by best friend.

15. Tell me one odd/interesting fact about you:
I'm sure there's something there, but sadly, I cannot think of anything.

16. You can have three wishes (for yourself, so forget all the 'world peace etc' malarky) - what are they?
1. Won't say it here. Dosen't matter anyway...

2. Thinner
3. To be happy

17. Who would you want to get together with and make a cake?
Cake, who eats cake?

18. Which country is your spiritual home?
US

19. What is your big weakness?
That I wear my heart on my sleve.

20. Do you think Judd Corizan is a good person?
Who?

21. What was your best/favorite subject at school?
Mathematics

22. Describe your accent:
Non descript...don't think I really have one, at least that's what I've been told...

23. If you could change anything about yourself, would you?
Perhaps, i've tried, but I haven't been that successful.

24. What do you wear to sleep?
It depents on who I'm sleeping with :)

25. What is your favorite casual outfit to wear?
Jeans and dare I say it, a Polo!

26. Do you use cigarettes or alcohol?
Well, yes....

27. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together? (If you have no idea, just say something crazy, it'll entertain me!)
Have a Vegas Bomb, and talk to be sure all the unsaid things were said.

28. Rate the memes that you play generally. Use any scale or just in order.
No memes!

I Got A Feeling

Someone showed this video to me sometime ago. Something made me think of it yesterday. I'ts a lipsync of I Got A Feeling. It's kinda cool as it was all shot in one take....

Top Geek Reads

A few weeks back, TechRepublic.com published an article of the Top 75 Geek Must Reads. I took out the autobiographies and have listed the top 25 below.

1. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
2. The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke
4. The War of the World, H. G. Wells
5. Neuromancer, William Gibson
6. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
7. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
8. The Sould of a New Machine, Tracy Kidde
9. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
10. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
11. If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Move Actor
12. Shadows Over Innsmouth, H. P. Lovecraft and others
13. The Call of Cthulhu, H. P. Lovecraft
14. The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
15. The Illustrated Man, Ray Bradbury
16. Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas Hofstadter
17. Show Stopper, G. Pascal Zachary
18. The Cuckoo's Egg, Cliff Stoll
19. 1984, George Orwell
20. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
21. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
22. Foundation, Isaac Asimov
23. Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling
24. His Dark Materials, Phillip Pullman
25. The Day of the Triffied, John Wyndham

What are your thoughts on the list? How many have you read?

Old Lady Gaga

Have you ever wondered what Lady Gaga might look like in 50 years? Thanks to Broadway's The Addams Family's Jackie Hoffman, we no longer have to use our imagination.

I'm back!

Well, I'm back.

Well, at least in spirit.

Who would have known that 2010 could be worse than 2009. My father passed away in March, my little Miniature Schnauzer of almost 18 years passed on in my lap in May. Then later that month we had the hail storm to end all hail storms in OKC. My car sustained $10,000 worth of damage and my house has to have a new roof!

Yesterday the body shop called me and told me my car was ready! Great news! So, today at lunch, I took my rental car back. I had a friend meet me at the rental agency and we drove to pick up my car.

Guess what? Yep, the car wasn't ready! They said it would be ready later today, and someone would come get me at 5. So, someone from the shop had to take me back to work. At 4:30 they called and asked if I needed the car back today? I said, I need A car, doesn't have to be mine, I just need a way to get around. So, back to the rental car store to get yet another car...

There are a handful of people, one in particular, to whom I owe a debt of gratitude that I can never repay. I would not have made it through all this without you. You all know who you are and I love you all more than you can possibly imagine!

That's not to say it's been all bad! There have been some good things happen too. I have quite a few new friends this year! The new friends are great and I am looking forward to many new happy memories!

One of the good new memories from this year is the drip to Dallas. David, Melody and Jacquelyn and I took a road trip to see Wicked. The worst part of the trip was the 45 minutes it took us to drive 7.25 miles from the hotel to the show. Got to love Dallas traffic. The traffic was so bad, they held the show for 25 minutes, but we still missed the opening number. The second worst part was the drive home. Dave and I were in my rental car (see hail damaged car above... and I was afraid I was going to have to peddle home driving into the head wind! I don't know how Shimmy does it every day!!

Life is a roller coaster ride! Sometimes you just need to let go of the bar, hold your hands up in the air, scream and try to enjoy the ride.

Anyway, like I said, I'm back to blogging...well, at least I'm going to try to update at least once a week! Hopefully I can maintain that!

2009 In Review

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way.”

I don’t believe there is another quote in the world of literature that could come closer than this to summarizing this past year for me. These immortal words from by opening of A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, pretty much hit the nail on the head. 2009 was a year that contained my highest highs and my lowest lows. My happiest and my saddest; in many ways 2009 was the best year of my life, it was equally the worst and I am glad that it is almost over.

2009 dawned a very promising year; a great fun year of going and doing. Early on I spent a week in London for a friend’s birthday.

It was the year of musicals and few people like a good Broadway show better than I. This year I saw:

The Adventures of Priscilla (in London)

Wicked (in London)

The Lion King (OKC)

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (OKC)

The Drowsy Chaperone (OKC)

Wicked (Tulsa) – Head and shoulders above the London production

The Producers (OKC) – possibly the best Lyric Theater production I’ve ever seen

Little Shop of Horrors (OKC)

Margaret Cho (OKC)

Sweeny Todd (OKC)

In 2009 something happened that I never believed would happen and for a time, I was the happiest person in the world.

The worst thing of the year was losing a good friend. Not just any friend, but my best friend of 7 years. The best friend I’ve ever had and may ever have. We took a trip to Tulsa this past summer and saw the Oklahoma Aquarium, but the highlight of the trip was going to see Wicked. We then went out of the town and had such a good time; we stayed an extra day, checked out the Philbrook Museum of Art and did it all over again.

There is a duet in the musical Wicked sang by Glinda and Elphaba called “For Good.” I have included a link to Kristen Chenoweth sining it. I would like to dedicate it to my friend.

I don’t know for sure what the future holds, I can only say 2009 did a number on me and I am not the same person that started the year.

Usually I stay home on New Year’s Eve as I consider it amateur night, but maybe not this year. The last day of this year is both a full moon and a blue moon. Perhaps I’ll venture out to say goodbye and good riddance to 2009. Then again, maybe I won’t….

Crazy Product of the Year?

A friend of mine found this product on Amazon.

I can’t help but think this is a disaster in the making and a product liability lawyer’s dream come true

Be sure and read the customer comments and check out all the pictures, espically the last few :)

My favorites are the transcontinental pilots using it during their flights on the “daily grind” and they guy who wants one for his motorcycle so he has a place to sit his blender while making margaritas.

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #270

I saw this on TV tonight and it made me laugh.....so I thought I would put it here for others to read....

Jillian had a urinary tract infection... again.

That sentence appeared in my head a few days ago, just as you see it above. I have no idea what it means, other than the obvious, and I don't know anyone named Jillian. Regardless, I thought it'd be interesting to begin a vanity card with it and just see where it goes.

Jillian had a urinary tract infection... again. Her doctor liked to abbreviate the condition to UTI. She liked to abbreviate it to TMH - Too Much Humping. Regardless, the road back to vaginal happiness was always the same: cranberry juice and abstinence. Thankfully, her boyfriend, Dudley, was always very understanding. He'd just smile, hold her in his arms and say, "Well, babe, when one door closes, another one opens up." She'd always giggle and blush when he'd say that, but deep down she wished she had the courage to cover his mouth and nose with a chloroform-soaked rag, and then, while he was unconscious, snip off his testicles with the little scissors she uses to groom her schnauzer.

All of which explains why the next sentence popped into my head recently.

Nobody sang Bee Gees songs on karaoke night like Dudley.

I put a spell on you...

Voca People

Wow! This is pretty amazing...

Mr. Buble....

I stand corrected, well, I sit corrected

Generally, I think I have a fairly decently sized vocabulary. I can’t spell worth a crap, buy I know more than my fair share of words. Today I used the word enormity at work. I said, “The enormity of this project is overwhelming.” Meaning the great size/scope of this project is overwhelming. But alas, I was corrected, ever so politely, after the meeting.

Enormity is not the noun from enormous – it doesn’t mean size at all.

Enormity (noun) – A monstrously abnormal act, an unspeakable atrocity or the state of being unspeakably atrocious.

In days past, enormous meant “abnormal” but over time it changed in meaning to “extremely large.” Enormity’s meaning has not changed along with it. The word is derived from the Latin work enormis meaning “abnormal” based on e(x) meaning “out” + norma meaning norm.

Well, there you have it….I’d bet, however, that over time, my usages becomes adopted….then again, in an enormous number of years, I may be corrected for enormity’s use again.

OMG

This made me laugh so hard, I had to post it!!