The Naming of Things

A Partial List of Artists in My iTunes Library That I Cannot Decide How to Properly Name

• Joan Jett and the Blackhearts or Jett, Joan and the Blackhearts?
• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers or Petty, Tom and the Heartbreakers?
• Rilo Kiley or Kiley, Rilo?
• Ted Leo & the Pharmacists or Leo, Ted & the Pharmacists?
• Biz Markie or Markie, Biz?
• John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band or Cafferty, John & The Beaver Brown Band?
• Camper Van Beethoven or Van Beethoven, Camper?
• Lynyrd Skynyrd or Skynyrd, Lynyrd?
• Rob Zombie or Zombie, Rob?

What’s in Jimmy Kimmel’s pants?

Contextless Content: Episode #26 (David Bowie)

GatorDVG: I didn’t know Elton John was gay until like 2002.
a.friend: well, i can see that. I mean in the ’70s (when I was listening to him) he was considered cool rock and roll
a.friend: still kinda is, just the gay thing never came up
GatorDVG: I just thought the Donald Duck costume was him being kooky.
a.friend: so did everyone else…sort of like David Bowie
GatorDVG: wait
GatorDVG: David Bowie is gay?
GatorDVG: are you serious??
a.friend: u said that like you were a kid who just found out about the Easter Bunny
GatorDVG: dude
GatorDVG: come on
GatorDVG: really?
a.friend: really

Displaying Older Posts

I’m suffering from a little bout of writer’s block these days. When you combine that with the fact that I haven’t been cruising the ‘net finding new and funny things, it makes for a dearth of new content on this site. I was thinking that it would be cool to display a single post from the archives at the top of the home page when there’s nothing new to see. Something like, “Hey! Sorry I haven’t posted anything new in x days, but check out this from y years ago …” I got as far as writing the SQL for it, but then I stopped working on it. I think it’s a good idea, though. Maybe someone will decide to write a plugin to do this. (Or, more likely, someone already has and I am just too lazy to find it.)

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Heading for Alaska

The awe-inspiring Jennifer A. Gagne, my little sister, is en route to Alaska with her friend, Alicia. They are going to work for the Summer as rangers at Denali National Park. How friggin’ cool is that? (They’ve created a website to record their travels, of course.)

The Seam and the Hole

When the barista at Starbucks handed me my coffee this morning, the hole in the lid was directly over the seam in the cup. This, I have come to learn, is a recipe for disaster. If the hole is within a centimeter of the seam you are almost guaranteed to experience “coffee drip” on your shirt. Walking into the office with a coffee stain in the middle of your shirt is a rotten way to start a Monday.

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Plugged in and Ready to Fall

One of my favorite songs is “Radio”, by Alkaline Trio. (mp3, lyrics) My sister got me to start listening to this group a few years ago and I’ve since collected everything they’ve recorded. What’s really funny is that for the longest time I thought it was a beautiful love song. Part of the chorus is — I thought:

I wish you
Would take my radio to bed with you
Plugged in and ready to fall

“What a romantic line,” I always imagined. The rest of the song is so sad, and sounds so angry. But with that one line he’s saying that he wants her to listen to him singing to her as she falls asleep. I thought this for many, many months … until I actually read the lyrics one day. I was so wrong. He’s really singing:

I wish you
Would take my radio to bathe with you
Plugged in and ready to fall

He’s no longer in love with her at all. He wants her to get electrocuted! So. Yeah. Totally changed the song for me. Still a great song, don’t get me wrong. But completely different. Talk about misheard lyrics!

2008 PTO Calendar

Looking for a list of the typical PTO dates for 2008? Yeah, I was, too. Here it is.
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Faceted Email Browsing

Seek allows for ‘faceted browsing’ of email and looks, pretty much, like the coolest thing to hit email since the @ symbol. It’s Thunderbird only, though. At this point I don’t know if it would be possible for me to abandon Outlook. The email functionality I could take or leave, but the address book and calendar are so entwined in my life there’s no way to chunk them. I need to be able to synch with my iPhone … mumble grumble … <rolls up sleeves> … must to do something …

It’s been ages since I posted an mp3 for you. Here’s a great one for today »
Song of the Moment

Yes, I know not always. But some days it would just be nice if you felt like every now and then you could.

I’d have to say that “the back seat of my car” is somewhere near the top of my list of Places Not to Keep an Alligator.

Congratulations to my little sister-in-law! Last night she was named the State of Florida’s 2008-2009 Seminole County Teacher of the Year!

Contextless Content: Episode #25 (Cottage Cheese)

kelly: You eat cottage cheese?
GatorDVG: never
kelly: Ah. Too bad.
GatorDVG: as far as I’m concerned, it’s just some sort of cheese and spoiled milk combination. two of my least favorite things on the planet.
kelly: Excellent for breakfast and before bedtime. Just the right blend of slow digesting carbs, protein and fat.
kelly: I hear you. People either like it or loathe it.
GatorDVG: and, I can only assume, it’s produced in cottages. that can’t be sanitary.
kelly: They’re very clean cottages though. They sweep them with those handmade brooms, like in fairly tales.
GatorDVG: ahh

Sampa Grill - Encino

For lunch today a few of us walked next door to the new Brazilian restaurant that opened this week. It is literally in the building next to my office, so the bar at The Sampa Grill was the absolute closest place we could go to watch the second round of the Masters. The style is Churrasco, which basically means a tremendous amount of fire-cooked meat. I had pork, chicken, some sausage, and three different flavors of beer beef (typo!). I also had a salad and a bowl of soup. Even though the food was fantastic and all-you-can-eat, at $22 (including a Coke and the tip) it’s a bit pricey to become a lunch-hour standard for us. But it was definitely a nice Friday afternoon treat. Too bad Tiger didn’t seem to be doing so well.

Twittering

I jumped on the Twitter bandwagon when someone mentioned it to me at SXSW2006, but immediately forgot all about it. I’m starting just now to pay attention to it. It’s nifty. What are you doing now?