the pod bay door

A warning: this is rude but hilariously funny.

Frito-Lay Angrily Introduces Line Of Healthy Snacks

PLANO, TX—”Look at what you’ve reduced us to,” said CEO Al Carey, as he disgustedly held up a bag of Cranberry Spinach Explosion snack chips.

.: My thanks for Geoff, who visited this morning and worked for four hours, installing laminate flooring in the front and hall closets, followed by moulding (baseboards) in the same areas as well as in the downstairs bathroom.  I stayed out of the way as he used his mitre saw and airnailer to complete the tasks at hand.  Such skills are ones I lack, and I am very grateful to have friends as kind and generous as Heavy G.

.: It has been snowing here all day – always a bad sign for me when this happens before Hallowe’en.  I can only hope it melts in early November.  Don’t forget to set your clocks back an hour tonight, if you live in (most parts of) North America.

.: It’s been a while since the last post. I’m taking time to work on a new template, but continue to hit roadblocks because I don’t understand php. It’s very frustrating. Meanwhile, check out the MySpace site for Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys, which is under continuing development.

.: After maybe seven weeks away from any form of exercise, I’ve been at the YMCA the past two days, getting in 40-45 minutes of cardio on the upright cycle. I’ve been in a rut of some sort, unable to find the energy or drive to work out. I’m hoping I can sustain it indefinitely for now. Since I switched to the upright cycle, I’ve been reading while working out. I’ll get back to this later.

I’ve stuck to my resolution to not watch any new television shows this fall, and surprisingly enough, the sun continues to rise in the east every morning. Imagine that. Right now I’m watching Bono and the boys on a DVD borrowed from the library, of the 09 and 10 May 2005, Chicago, performances from their Vertigo tour. This was the same tour I saw twice in NYC last October. The DVD quality is quite good, and includes songs U2 didn’t play in NYC, at least at the two shows I saw, such as Zoo Station, which rocks on the disc.

I’ve ordered three CDs from Amazon, and was prepared to order a fourth, but it wasn’t available for immediate delivery, so am postponing its order for a few weeks. I haven’t bought a new CD since Donald Fagen‘s Morph the Cat was released earlier this year, so to have four new discs from artists that matter to me appear almost simultaneously is amazing. The artists in question are TV on the Radio, Los Lobos, Pete Yorn, and Shawn Colvin. I’ll order Colvin’s disc in a few weeks to coincide with the release of the second season DVD of Harvey Birdman, the most brilliant cartoon I’ve seen in years, which I will order as well at that time.

I’m still working with the band, aka Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys. It’s still fun, and I get to make lots of loud noise in David’s basement while we rehearse and work on tunes. I think my lead playing has actually improved, which is very cool, considering it was 40 years ago this month, October 1966, that I started guitar lessons in St Boniface, Manitoba, at the age of 13. Time flies when one is having fun, right?

.: Every fall I review the list of new television shows with a nod towards adding one or two to the list the ones I watch on a weekly basis. Well, not this year. The shows I will watch are ones already established: Rome, The Wire, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Lost, 24, Saturday Night Live, MAD-TV, Battlestar Galactica, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and the occasional MLB, NFL, and/or NHL game. I think I’ve reached a point where I can’t absorb anything more. Shows with completed seasons already viewed in 2006 include Deadwood, The Sopranos, and Brotherhood.

Yes, it’s an addiction, the idiot box, or as Newton Minnow once noted, “a vast wasteland“, but I continue to watch. One reason is that in recent years, some episodic television, especially on cable, has improved to the point where its quality now matches or surpasses most movies. Additionally, most of the shows on cable have much smaller “seasons” than network television, most often clocking in at 10-12 episodes. Keith offers another view with Your New Mean TV (22 September 2006 entry).

.: It was 54 years ago today that my parents were married in Winnipeg. So I want to wish them a very Happy 54th Wedding Anniversary today! Way to go, M and Da! 🙂 BTW, I arrived in the world some nine months and eight days later… I can also report that my Dad is doing well, so thank you to those who have been asking about him. Plus, he has a new car!