Not Like Normal People

Bizarre and Wonderful Beard

Once upon a time I lived in Gold Rush country, where beard competitions seemed fairly common. This...well, this is nothing like that.

h/t to @jaydeflix who sends me lots of funny

BlogHer Convention Week - a song with apologies to Tom Lehrer

I am a huge Tom Lehrer fan. After watching today go by on twitter, what with the 'who is a real writer' kerfluffle and all, I had this refrain in my head. Obnoxious earwormy thing. As far as I know, the only way to get rid of those things is to share. So share I am...

BlogHer Convention Week

with apologies to Tom Lehrer

Oh, the Sparkly folks hate the Mighty folks
And the Mighty folks hate the Sparkly folks
To hate all but the right folks
Is an old established rule

But during BlogHer Convention Week
BlogHer Convention Week
The Blogess and the dooce
Are dancing cheek to cheek
It's fun to eulogize
The people you despise
As long as you don't let 'em in your school

Oh, the marketers hate the purists
And the purists hate the marketers
All of my folks hate all of your folks
It's American as apple pie

But during BlogHer Convention Week
BlogHer Convention Week
Breastfeeders love the Nestle
'Cause it's very chic
Step up and shake the hand
Of someone you can't stand
You can tolerate him if you try

Oh, the homeschoolers hate the publicschools
And the pubicschoolers hate the homeschools
And the infertile hate the breeders
And everybody hates Anna Viele!

But during BlogHer Convention Week
BlogHer Convention Week
It's National Everyone-Smile-At-
One-Another-hood Week
Be nice to people who
Are inferior to you
It's only for a week, so have no fear
Be grateful that it doesn't last all year!

National If a Guy Grabs Your Boob, Kick Him in the Crotch Day

These stupid things pop up every so often. Some idiot at a con or at a college or on the Internet - which seems to breed this shit - says, "Hey, I know! Let's make sexual assault into a flashmobby meme thing! It's so edgy!!!" (And yes, they use lots of exclamation marks when they talk.)

Today's stupid is brought to you Sam Bukkak...er Bogucki who is - surprise - single according to his Facebook profile. (Don't shove, ladies!) Little Sam has decided that what the world needs is an excuse to grab women's boobs.

I know! See how edgy he is? (Hey, you hispter girl. No shoving!)

Anyway, Same has declared that from noon on September 14 to noon on September 15 it is National Boob Grab Day.

Oh, he's original, too. Because, that name! 

Well, Sam got me to thinking. See, the only people getting their bits handled on that day are the women, and that's just not fair. We KNOW how much boys love having their bits handled. So I thought and I thought and I came up with my event:

If a Guy Grabs Your Boob, Kick Him In the Crotch Day!

Here's our Facebook page, please share the link with your friends. If a Guy Grabs Your Boob, Kick Him In the Crotch Day!

Bonus from the department of you can't make this shit up, here's Sam's favorite quote, also from his Facebook page:

"He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."

— Samuel Johnson

hat tip to The Undomestic, whose tweet alerted me to this.

Doing the Electronic Street Slide

Slide over, Google Maps. There's a new kid in town.

Microsoft's Street Slide combines Google's Street View style virtual wandering with a blocks wide, side-scrolling long view. You can even sort of see down the side streets. It's actually very cool, and the interface seems much easier to use than Street View. Take a look at the video, it's easier to understand if you see it in action.

It looks like it is still contained in Microsoft Labs and if/when it escapes it will have the obvious limits on coverage as it builds the image libraries. If the interface is anywhere as slick as the video - always a good question - it looks to be a promising option for checking out new cities.

'dorable Kittens ~ Ginger Tabbies, Mine and Not

I give up!

This week has taught me one thing: Migraines trump snark.

Hell, migraines trump most things that are not soft, gentle and quiet. Fortunately for me, I happen to have things like this little girl on hand. She is one of a pair we adopted a few weeks ago from a farm in the next valley. Her baby brother is a few weeks younger and until a few days ago, when his legs grew a few inches overnight, he was more galloping fluffball than anything else.

The two of them are at the age where they have three modes: sleepy, snuggly, and batshit. )If we had three cats, I might name them that...) I swear there is an invisible batshit ray that comes through here about 1am. Every. Damned. Night. After waking and sleepy snuggles from us, they will both suddenly perk up and do a synchronized dive off the couch and they are off!

They have what we call the racetrack, created by a combination of open, but cluttered design and hardwood floors. It goes something like this: under the coffee table, over our feet, behind an end table, on the piano base, in/out of their sleeping basket, through the legs of a small side table, a jump over (or in) their food, a bounce off the wicker basket with recycling, through the dining room chairs, a slide around the corner into the kitchen, out the other door and down to the end of the hall. Did I mention we have hardwood floors? Yeah, Lots of sliding. Lots. Once the inevitable tussle at the end of the hall is over, they run back into the living room, under the coffee table, and the thing starts over again.

From the couch, I can see about 8 discrete spots along this route. It's like an odd live-toon with the kitten in the lead changing from glimpse to glimpse. I've been trying to catch them on film memory card but no luck yet. I don't want to think about what they do when we aren't around to watch. I imagine it's something like this...

Good News, Bad News: Astronomical Division

One thing I would put on my life list if I was vain crazy organized enough to make one would be "See the Northern Lights" probably along with "Go to Alaska" since that's the usual place to go see them. ...or maybe not.

Apparently the Pacific Northwet is likely to be treated to Northern Lights tonight - if the cloud cover burns off - which is good news for me. I'd rather sit on my porch with a cup of tea and a camera for free than go all the way to Alaska to maybe find some Northern Lights. I am entitled to make the universe come to me, right?

That's the good news. The bad news...?