You need a Ferd F-teenthousand!

Silly-ass cat

My musical fascination today comes from a Canadian by the name of Ewan Dobson.  I saw a video of him, the first one below, where he plays some trance-like music on an acoustic guitar (with the help of some reverb).  As is noted in one of the comments on YouTube, it's not terribly complicated (not that I could play any part of it), but it sounds cool.  And the guy seems to have a collection of Asian clothing.  I did some further searching and the guy really does have talent.  The second video below is about my favorite that I've found.  So, enjoy!

Time 2:



Motion Potion:

Sorry about that hiatus...

So I've been sick for a week and a half now.  I don't get sick often... maybe once a year on average.  Usually it's some chest cold and, while it may linger for a week or two, I'm not completely down and out for more than maybe a day or two.  As a point of reference, in the 13 years I've worked at Horner, I've maybe taken 3 days total as "sick" days due to some cold or virus hanging me out to dry. (This doesn't count an appendectomy and a broken arm.)

On Friday, March 4th, I started having a sore throat. Today is the 14th and I still have it.  This wasn't some run-of-the-mill sore throat.  I had strep throat in my younger days a time or two and this brought back memories of that... the level of pain was huge, so much so that it was hard to swallow anything, water included.  On Sunday, the 6th, I hit up the Immediate Care center.  Not strep.  Didn't tell me much else.  Hooked me up with Amoxicillan based on my telling them I was blowing rainbow snot.  I went home and started on my 'Mox.  Sunday night, I went ahead and called in sick for Monday barring a miraculous recovery overnight.

All day Monday, I felt like a toasted turd.  With a horrible sore throat.  Like, purposely spitting to keep from swallowing.  My bottle of 100 Advil started disappearing quickly.  I think I may have taken a 4 hour nap that day.  Following that, I felt bad enough that I didn't think I'd make it to work again, but good enough to go into the office that evening and grab some equipment so that I could work from home.  Tuesday, sure enough, crap.  Got some work done but continued feeling like crap.  I think I may have taken another nap, which then threw my sleep schedule to the wind... I ended up being up until well after midnight.

Wednesday, I took my THIRD sick day in a row.  By Wednesday afternoon, I was feeling much better.  I did have a sump pump issue that had cropped up with all the rain and felt well enough to crawl 5 feet into the crawl space to remedy that.  I actually felt better after I crawled out than I did before.

Thursday morning, I was back at work... still a sore throat that was subsiding, but I can sit in a chair behind a computer at work without using up personal time.  What I failed to do was bring any fluids or pain meds with me.  Thursday evening saw me coughing and feeling rather crummy again, sore throat back on full.

Friday morning after sleeping in, I felt well enough to go in but my voice had left me.  I ended up getting to work at noon.  Over the day, my sore throat started to migrate up my Eustachian tube to my left ear.  Then I made the mistake of having a bagel with cream cheese and triggering my wheezy-dry-cough lactose intolerance symptom on top of everything.  That wore me out.  Crashed Friday night around midnight and slept until I got up Saturday at 3PM.

At this point, I was on day 9 of a horrible sore throat.  The tally: 2 packages of Ricola Green Tea & Echinacia throat drops, 2 packages of Jolly Rancher hard candies, a finished-out bottle of 100 Advil, 2 gallons of Tropicana Trop 50 reduced sugar fruit juice (orange, pineapple/mango, and blueberry/pomegranate, if you're wondering), 3 Pho or Chicken Soup trips from my Vietnamese place, and untold hours of Hulu and Netflix.  And I had no voice.  My thoughts at this point, if not long before now; "This is bullshit."

Saturday evening, I went back to the Immediate Care (yes, I need to find a doctor). I whispered my issues to them, then to the doctor as he checked me out.  They put me in one of the kid-centric rooms since they had so many people in that evening.  I got to look at a whale and a big chart of what you can say to a child to let them know they're doing well.  The doctor played my belly like a drum and tickled me in my armpits (mononucleosis tests) and looked at all the boogers in my nostrils... I imagined he maybe read them like an old witch doctor who rolled some chipmunk bones out on a table or something.  He told me, "You're doing super, champ!" and "A-OK, hero!"

After telling me my sinuses looked wasted, he surmised Sinusitis was to blame.  Sent me away with a 'scrip' for Cipro and Vicodin, so I went and whispered sweet nothings to the pharmacy tech at Walgreens.  Went home, took a batch of Cipro and a couple Vicodin and went to bed.

Now, whether it was just the natural course of things or whether Cipro is just THAT badass, I was able to swallow without bracing or gripping something to death the next morning.  Still not gone, but much more tolerable.

So here's Monday, I'm feeling better (but still only about 70%), and I haven't posted anything on here for a full week... that is just how much zero I felt like doing last week.  And, gee, I feel bad.  Turns out, I found a treat.  Yes, it's the Top Gear guys, BUT IT'S DIFFERENT!!!  They evidently did a one-off episode of some garden show where they surprise a home owner with a garden/yard makeover before they get home from work.  It's a 3-parter (30 minutes and, coupled with the novella above, this should cover a week), so grab some popcorn and enjoy:

Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:

May the Friday be with you

My favorite Super Bowl commercial, by a long shot, was VW's ad, "The Force"... you know, little Darth Vader going about making the world do his bidding.  I actually saw it days before the Super Bowl on the internet somewhere, which leads me to believe that the Super Bowl will stop (or has stopped) being the first place we see Super Bowl ads.  Anyway, here's the original, but there's more below...




Just...... freakin............. *sigh*.  I WOULD DO THINGS LIKE THIS FOR MY CHILDREN!!!!

Anyway, turns out there's a "making of" video, a blooper reel, if you will, which is equally as cute....



And, for my final submission today, there's the Toyota parody...

Make-up day

So I was out of town early this week in Minneapolis for a work trip.  Looks like I have a few days to make up on.  Fortunately, I have just the thing.  So, sit back, grab some popcorn, enjoy the show.

Let's start with today's video... a cat video!  The subtitles kill me:



Alright, now here's a perfect occurrence; a three-part Top Gear feature.  I already showed you the one about how to kill a Porsche 911.  Here is one on how to kill a Toyota, parts 1, 2 and 3:

Some people really are this cool

Merry Friday to you all.

Today's entertainment comes from Mickey Rourke at an awards ceremony, probably hot on the heels of his movie, "The Wrestler".  Very good movie.  They turn him loose on the mic at this awards show and epic is what they get.

Here, officially, is your PROFANITY WARNING

Probably a repeat

I re-found these a couple of days ago in my quest to stock up on videos for this blog.  They're several years old but still quite creative.  I see myself doing something like this given the equipment (probably a Mac) and probably in my younger days.  So, sorry if they're a repeat for you, but I'm making up for it in the form of a two-fer.

First, Hyperactive:



Then, Amateur:

How to kill a Porsche 911

Today, Top Gear strikes again.  I'll be honest, there will likely be many more Top Gear clips in this blog in the future.

Just to get everyone on the same page, Top Gear is a British car-reviewing sort of show.  Some of what they test may or may not even be available here in the States.  And I can't say their reviews are always fair or reasonable or relevant to anything whatsoever.  It boils down to this... 3 car nuts having a LOT of fun, presented in a way that is entirely entertaining.  But first...

Ooh, a Nate character trait:

I am not a fan of misinformation.  I tend to correct things if they are wrong.  I get the feeling this makes me come off as an ass.  Sorry if I ever come off that way, my "don't be an ass" skills can be missing at any given time, but I won't apologize for correcting something that is not as it should be.  So this is informational, this is knowledge I'd like to impart on the masses (all 3 of you) who read this blog...

What's that singer kid's name that's all famous right now? Justin Bieber. I'm not a fan, but his last name is a good example of the point I'd like to make.  Is it pronounced "bye-ber"?  No, it's pronounced "bee-ber".  If I said, in a conversation, "that kid, Justin Bye-ber", would you correct me?  Probably.  I would hopefully appreciate that I learned something new and would try my best to remember it in the future so that I may pronounce it correctly from then on.

Let's move on to a different word: Porsche.  It is pronounced "porsh-uh".  A saying that has stuck with me; "You sit on a porch (porsh).  You drive a Porsche (porsh-uh)."  An explanation, "Porsche is a family name, and the family members pronounce their surname PORSH-uh, not PORSH!" (source: http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa020401a.htm)

Join us next time for, "It's BIMMER, not BEEMER!  (...unless you're actually talking about a BMW motorcycle)"

Moving on:

So this is one of the first clips of Top Gear I ever saw, years ago, and it certainly helped drag me in.  I haven't been able to get enough ever since.  I can't say I agree with the sentiments towards the car itself... I've actually driven two old Porsche 911s in my life (a '73 and an '81), in an environment that was fully supportive of actually wringing them out, and they were an absolute blast.  I can attest to the point made about "the engine in the wrong place" that affects handling and I actually almost wiped one out on a highway exit ramp... in front of the owner...due to that particular characteristic.  (Yes, I went into the corner pretty hot, but he WAS chasing me down in a BMW M5.)  However, the entertainment value of this video supersedes what is done to this poor car which, in my opinion, wins anyway.

Without further ado, How to Kill a Porsche 911:

Hey baby

There are some creative people out there

If you haven't noticed, there are some checkbox "voting" categories below each post for Reactions... "Ha" for amusing, "HAHAHA!" for laughing-until-tears-in-my-eyes, "riveting" for the super-interesting, "badassedry" for stuff that is jaw-dropping or that takes some serious skill or courage or stupidity-that-happened-to-turn-out-well, and "WTF" for stuff that makes you think you've been slipped some LSD... or that the creator of the video or post is definitely on something.  Please, feel free to vote in as many categories as you think apply.  I always vote when I post one so you have an idea of what to expect.

Today, I'd like to introduce you to the WTF category.  For those of you who may not know, "WTF" is an acronym for "What The Fudge" only not usually that family friendly.  And there seem to be plenty of people posting videos to YouTube whose purpose seems to be to make your sole reaction a hearty, "What the ............ ????????"  This category tends to amuse me due to the complete randomness, if not also for the creativity that goes into some of it.

I've found a following of the WTF that is contained in today's video... therefore, this is probably something a few of you have already seen.  It's a little song and video about the Bagger 288, which is an enormous mining machine.  Someone thought to put an Asian-sounding vocal (subtitled for your convenience), proclaiming the greatness of the Bagger 288, over some piano music.  Just about the time when you think you can't take it anymore, it goes into a fast, electronic-techno chorus mixed in with some completely unrelated clips of various animals.  The result... well, judge for yourself.  Make sure you at least get to the first chorus starting about 45 seconds in:

Better shown than said

It's not a big secret that I'm not much of a sports fan... football, soccer, basketball... pro, college, whatever. I like baseball alright because I actually know most of the rules and can follow it.

However, if someone asks me what I really like, the answer is racing. If you're one of those who don't consider racing a "sport" because anyone can drive a car and that it doesn't require any sort of fitness, let me know if you feel the same way after you put a few 10-minute sessions in at a true karting track (not just your average mini-golf go-cart track) in a helmet and racing suit... until then, stuff it.

One might inquire, "Oh, NASCAR? IndyCar?" These, unfortunately, seem to be the only types of racing that get TV coverage in this country, which is sad. I've probably worn out the adage, "Real racers turn left AND right." The next step seems to be, "Oh, so F1?" While more interesting to me, still no. F1 cars verge on driving themselves in some respects and open-wheel racing does pretty much guarantee you're out of the race if you make much contact with anything.

When I tell someone what kind of racing I do like, I think they tend to glaze over a little bit, perhaps because it's something they've never seen or heard of before.  My answer is usually Rally car racing, which involves some truly amazing driving... but rarely with any other cars on the course at the same time.

But just now, watching an episode of Top Gear, I had a moment of "oh, man, THAT'S the stuff!!!"  I was literally on the edge of my seat watching the little homage they had going, pulse rate up, riveted.  I had forgotten how much it pulls me in simply because it's never shown here.  It was a piece on Touring Car racing.  This bit was on the British Touring Car Championship, but I think there's also European Touring and Australian Touring as well.  The cars driven have roll cages and other safety features and have the interiors removed and a souped up motor, but they're a good bit more stock than "Stock-car" NASCAR. And just watch... American cars did make their mark!

So, without rambling on further, here's the Top Gear clip... this is what will get me yelling at a TV screen because I'm THAT into it:

It's Friday

Been an alright week. Used the trailer for exactly the purpose (or, at least, one of the purposes) I got it for; helping some friends get moved. I geek out a little when I get to use the trailer, I'll admit.

So today's video... there's comments on Youtube about torturing a cat but, I don't know, cats can just be wack-jobs sometimes and I find this fairly amusing if you look past the part where cat food is getting ground into a carpet:

Indiana's very own...

Good day to you.

Leggies and Genglefun

So I've fired this sort of thing up before, all bloggity and junk. Never gotten far. Different approach this time, I guess. Will try to keep things humorous and not rant too much... unless it's humorous. And videos... there's a crap-ton of entertaining stuff to watch out there, I'ma try to post such things.

For starters, here's one. There's a series of these, but this is the one I saw first: