Coffee Klatch

Okay, America’s Funniest Videos is one of those shows that is either really funny or not particularly funny. Tonight I was watching it and saw some hilarious shots. The segment was about marching bands and sports teams. (I was in marching band in high school, so I could relate. Well, sort of.)

Anyway, some of the shots were people in marching bands falling down. As the musicians do their show, sometimes they have to walk sideways or even backwards. Now imagine one person tripping and falling down. The people walking backwards in front of them can’t see and start falling over the person. Or a drum line where it’s hard to see over the big drum you’re carrying, so you can’t tell when the person in front of you falls. What a riot!

Even better was the cheerleader that got in front of the banner that the football team burst through. Ha! There were several versions of that, with basketball or football teams crashing through and running over people that were in the way.

Violent? Yes! Funny? Definitely! And, as usual for funny home videos, they’re funnier when you see them than when you read about them.

[tags]videos, AFV, marching band[/tags]

A 94-year-old legally blind woman in Centralia, Washington, recently bowled a 244! She could see just enough of the floor to line up in the lane, then her 86-year-old husband had to tell her which pins were still standing. Not that there often were–EIGHT of the 10 frames were strikes!

Read the full story here.

[tags]bowling, blind woman[/tags]

Just added to the top of my Christmas Wish List: the Monty Python Black Knight Plush toy with REMOVABLE LIMBS! From ThinkGeek, one of the best places for geeky toys and gadgets!

Just a Flesh WoundIn the workplace, there are many adversaries and obstacles between you and success. They take the form of many things, such as reams of paperwork, volumes of webpages, hoards of underlings, or lines of stubborn computer code. And then, right when you are about to succeed, one more annoyance (normally that dreaded monster called “Boss”) shows up, breathing noxious stuff like corrections and deadlines. But fear not, dear friend, for we offer a solution proven by history to work: the King Arthur Approach to Problem Solving.

You see, King Arthur had a similar problem, as documented in the historical/factual epic Monty Python and the Holy Grail. You will recall, in his journeys, King Arthur came to a bridge which was guarded by a Black Knight. King Arthur, in all his wisdom, first tried to make friends with the Knight. Turning a problem into an advantage (or an enemy into a friend) is step one in the King Arthur Approach. And, when befriending the Black Knight didn’t work, noble King Arthur hacked the rogue to bits. That’s what we call step two: breaking a problem into manageable parts. We offer you this plush Black Knight as a reminder of the King Arthur Approach. And, if you get seriously mad or stressed, you can tear its limbs off. However, please do not attempt tearing anything off your coworkers.

Dimensions: Approx. 7.5″ tall with removable arms, legs, and 5.35″ sword

And in case that’s not enough, they also have Monty Python plushes of the Killer Rabbit and the Holy Hand Grenade!

[tags]Monty Python, Holy Grail, black knight, killer rabbit, toys, comedy, movies[/tags]

A friend of mine clued me in to this most excellent and funny thing. RiffTrax is produced and performed by Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett, late of Mystery Science Theater 3000. You thought that MST3K was over and the days of spoofing movies with the gang were gone. But no longer! Mike and Kevin have taken some popular movies and done the MST3K thing to them, creating RiffTrax. Their motto: “We don’t make movies; we make fun of them.”

The really cool thing is that you can download the audio files for just a couple of bucks. Then you play them while you’re watching the DVD. They have instructions and synchronization helps and now you’ve got a couple of funny guys watching the movie with you and making hilarious comments. Just like MST3K. These were the guys that did the voices of Mike and the Bots on the show.

Check out the website: http://www.rifftrax.com

Some of the movies they’ve done are: The Matrix, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, The Fifth Element, Star Trek V, and Road House. Visit the website to see the complete list. You can even get a sample of each one by clicking on “More Info” and selecting the “Listen to Free Sample” option.

Very funny and highly recommended!

[tags]MST3K, Mystery Science Theater, movies, humor, Mike Nelson, RiffTrax[/tags]

Following up on the last post about the Christmas Story House, here is a Flickr slideshow that somebody made of pictures from the grand opening they attended on Saturday. Pretty cool!

They also blogged about the event.

Probably my favorite Christmas movie is A Christmas Story. It has become a Christmas classic (it’s hard to believe it’s been 23 years since it was made). Ralphie and his quest for his very own Red Rider BB Gun (a “200-shot carbine-action range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time”) is filled with childhood memories that almost everyone can relate to in some form or other.

I just learned recently that, while the setting of the movie was a smallish town in northern Indiana (probably Hammond), the actual filming location was Cleveland, Ohio.

Anyway, this was a special weekend in the Christmas Story scenario. NPR produced a story today that the actual house that was used in the movie was purchased by someone who specifically decorated it to look like it did in the movie. Down to the Leg Lamp in the window. (And, yes, you can buy all kinds of versions of that leg lamp on that website.)

Visit http://www.achristmasstoryhouse.com/ to read about the house, see pictures, find out hours, get maps and directions. There’s a museum for the movie right across the street from the house and tickets get you access to both places.

ALSO, the actual Chinese restaurant from the movie is less than 10 minutes away. If you bring your ticket stub from the Christmas Story House, you get 20% off your bill. “…And yes they do serve Peking Duck aka Chinese Turkey.”

[tags]Christmas story, movies, holidays, Ralphie, Red Rider[/tags]

One of the food traditions in my wife’s family for a long time now is Sweet Potato Souffle. I believe it was her sister who found the recipe somewhere and it’s been a regular side/dessert at Thanksgiving (and sometimes Christmas) for many, many years now. I’m sure it’s similar to what many of your families make for the holidays, but I thought I’d share it with you anyway. I’m not partial to sweet potatoes myself, but the dish as a whole is quite good. I think it’s the topping.

Sweet Potato Souffle

Ingredients:
3 cups mashed (cooked) sweet potatoes (about 3 large sweet potatoes)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 stick butter
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla

Topping:
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 cup nuts (walnuts or pecans preferred)
1/2 stick melted butter

Steps:

1. Combine the main ingredients (hot sweet potatoes will melt the butter).
2. Pour it all into a greased casserole dish or 9×9 pan (13×9 will work for a double batch).
3. Combine the topping ingredients and spread evenly over the sweet potatoes.
4. Bake at 350˚ for 35 minutes.

And it’s great chilled as leftovers, too.

[tags]recipe, sweet potatoes, thanksgiving[/tags]

I am SO glad for Finale. It only makes sense that computer technology (over time) would allow better and more efficient production of printed music, but hand-engraving does allow full customization. Just the same, it takes 8 hours to hand-engrave one page of a symphonic work, and considerably less time with a computer. And the technology is getting pretty close. So much so that many publishers use a program like Finale instead of hand engraving. It’s cheaper, quicker, and easier for smaller publishers to master.

Take a look at this video about hand-engraving music that’s on YouTube. Sure makes me appreciate Finale!

[tags]music, publishing, engraving[/tags]

With all three boys staying home sick from school on Wednesday and two of them on Tuesday, we’d tentatively planned on celebrating Thanksgiving on Friday. Since they were having a hard time keeping food down, a big celebratory meal didn’t seem wise. Last night they seemed much better and were able to eat some dinner. By this morning everyone seemed just fine and ate breakfast okay, so we stuck with the normal day.

I got up a little after 7am and made a pecan pie. Then I started setting up for cooking the turkey since we tried deep-frying it for the first time this year. Never did that before and it turned out really good. We heard that it works best with an injected marinade, so we tried a mild Creole Garlic marinade, injected it throughout the turkey (focusing on the meaty parts), and then used a Rasta Rub on the outside. VERY tasty! Not a traditional turkey taste, but quite enjoyable. The turkey came with a bag of gravy mix that you add to 2 cups of drippings/water. Since there was a little of the marinade left that the needle didn’t suck up, I added that to the gravy. That gave it a similar taste to the turkey instead of having a regular gravy on a perky fried turkey. (Perky turkey! HA!)

With mashed potatoes, corn bread stuffing (with the turkey giblets), green bean casserole (complete with french-fried onions on top and fresh green beans), dinner rolls, and a sweet potato souffle, it was very filling Thanksgiving dinner with lots of leftovers.

And now there are THREE football games to watch! It’s 60 degrees outside, so it’s too warm for a fire in the fireplace. But a full stomach, plenty of football, and a Sam Adams Winter Lager make for a pleasantly sleepy afternoon/evening. Got to have some more sweet potato souffle and/or pecan pie later. Warmed up with whipped cream.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

This morning on the way to work I heard a story on NPR about how job recruiters were using social networking software to do their jobs. The example they used was Linked-In. I’ve been on Linked-In myself for well over a year now. It’s pretty cool to hear a story on the radio about software that you’ve already been a part of for so long.

Linked-In, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is a networking-style platform similar to MySpace or Facebook. The big difference here is that Linked-In is PROFESSIONAL. It’s not designed for chit-chatting or making new friends (although that can happen). Instead, its focus is on making professional contacts. Which explains why recruiters can use it effectively.

So check it out. You never know when you’ll need somebody who knows somebody you need.

Here’s a link to my profile. Be sure to invite me to join your network if you sign up for Linked-In (which is, of course, free).

[tags]social networking, social software, technology, linked-in, NPR[/tags]