Year: 2006

Past Due

…and just before the holiday season wraps up, let me sneak in these two links that I totally should have mentioned before Christmas: Venture Aid 2006–the cast of The Venture Brothers, a show for which I am so the target audience, doing… well… here’s what they say about it: “This year, Dr. Venture has pulled together family, friends, and enemies… Read more →

Words of Wisdom

Let’s go out for 2006 on some quotables–things that either amused, or enlightened me in the waning hours of 2006. “Anyone who gets married is a fool. I can understand why a man would get married. Everybody can use a wife. it’s just that nobody needs a husband. If women are fool enough to get married it really doesn’t matter… Read more →

Some bookery

Yes, I am being a lazy poster during the intra-holiday week. You can’t complain about the cost, though, can you? M. John Harrison, one of the authors I hold in particularly high esteem, has a lovely piece up at his site about his writing process. Here’s a little taste: I don’t have any writing pattern. I hate being professional. I… Read more →

Late December Miscellany

Why we love Jon Sung. I am a failure as a consumer. I live somewhere people would rather have a day off than shop, and even today the only shopping I did was to take some stuff in to get framed at the half price framing sale. Will points us to the Global Rich List, which helps put some things… Read more →

…and a modern favourite.

It wouldn’t be fair to post about my favourite classic Christmas carol and not mention my favourite modern one. So, without further ado, I present: Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin’ by Tinsley Ellis. (That link is to an Ogg Vorbis file, rather than to the perhaps-more-expected MP3. It will probably just work in your music player of choice, but if… Read more →

My favourite carol

Just for the record, this is my favourite classic Christmas carol: Good King Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Stephen, When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even; Brightly shone the moon that night, tho’ the frost was cruel, When a poor man came in sight gath’ring winter fuel. “Hither, page, and stand by me, if… Read more →

The Dragon

In a little bit of synchronicity, the random Russell quote that popped up just now in the sidebar was this one: “It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.” –Bertrand Russell That’s topical because… Read more →

Merry Christmas

(See also: “Nine Days Of Judgement“. Oh, and “Evil Christmas Carols“, which isn’t all Cthulhu, but just familiar tunes moved into a minor key–it really makes them sound like something from a silent film score during the Snidely Whiplash bit.) Read more →

A lull

Just an FYI that there will be a definite lull this week. We found out on the weekend that my wife’s mother had passed away–it was not a surprise–and this week is pretty much going to be dedicated to dealing with that, so no time for hobbies like blogging, etc. I’ll catch back up with all you people on the… Read more →

The Drake Equation

No, it’s a real thing. No, it’s not “half your age plus seven”. In the course of some research today I ran into this, and thought I’d report on my findings here, since it will amuse some people, and interest some others. The Drake Equation looks like this: N = R*fpneflfifcL I’ll get into what each term means in a… Read more →

Complete Miscellany

The best news story in the world: Camel crashes party, drinks Guinness. I like a Swiss Army knife as much as the next guy (although I greatly prefer my Leatherman), but this is a bit ridiculous. I give money to ORC. You should too (at least the Canadians amongst you should.) I know what an aglet is. I know what… Read more →

Another happy post about torture

Let’s start with a piece in the Guardian: Last week, defence lawyers acting for José Padilla, a US citizen detained as an “enemy combatant”, released a video showing a mission fraught with deadly risk – taking him to the prison dentist. A group of masked guards in riot gear shackled his legs and hands, blindfolded him with black-out goggles and… Read more →

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada
This work by Chris McLaren is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada.