In honour of...

Paul Newman's passing, I bought some of his mango salsa at the store yesterday and let me tell you, it was delectable. Everyone that was over enjoyed it (except those that don't like tomatoes).

You should try some.

Yes, I know what you're saying....

"Not another effin WotM post... damn, get some content ffs!"

Sorry.

Vapid:

• bland: lacking taste or flavor or tang; "a bland diet"; "insipid hospital food"; "flavorless supermarket tomatoes"; "vapid beer"; "vapid tea"
  
• lacking significance or liveliness or spirit or zest; "a vapid conversation"; "a vapid smile"; "a bunch of vapid schoolgirls"
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

WotM x 2

Apoplectic:

• pertaining to or characteristic of apoplexy; "apoplectic seizure"

wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Apoplexy:

• stroke: a sudden loss of consciousness resulting when the rupture or occlusion of a blood vessel leads to oxygen lack in the brain

wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

WotM

Disonance:

• disagreement: a conflict of people's opinions or actions or characters
• noise: the auditory experience of sound that lacks musical quality; sound that is a disagreeable auditory experience; "modern music is just noise to me"
• disagreeable sounds

wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

In light of my new WotM "thing"...

it was interesting to see this guy's rule 132:

132. If you don't know what a word means, ask. Before it's too late.

WotM

Affectation:

• An attempt to assume or exhibit what is not natural or real; false display; artificial show; An unusual mannerism

In case you were wondering how I came across this word, I was reading a tumblr called 1001 rules for my unborn son. The author says "Let's get some things straight before I get old and uncool." Some are really neat. The one that I got this word from was:

135. Avoid affectations, lest they become habits.

We need your help!

*** Update... I jumped the gun here... actual voting starts October 4th. You can sign on and rate it now so that it gets to the top of the list and more people will hear... we'd still appreciate that!. Anyway, I'll bug y'all again in October. :) ***

Marie wrote a piece to submit to the Hockey Night In Canada anthem competition. We'd really appreciate it if you logged on and cast a vote for her. I wish I could have done it justice with regards to the production quality but I have no skills with that stuff. We did the best with what we had and I think the spirit of the piece comes through.

For those of you that may not be aware of the competition, the winner will win $100,000 CDN and their music will be used by CBC for Hockey Night In Canada. There are also royalties paid every time it's played - half are paid to the songwriter(s) and half goes to support minor hockey leagues.

Anyway, have a listen and most importantly, cast a vote for Marie's entry please!



You can sign up here to cast your vote and if you're already signed up you click the login to the right of the player (below the rating scale) to cast your vote.

Thanks everyone for you help!

g.

WotM

Misanthrope:

• someone who dislikes people in general

Maybe I should start saving some of these for days I don't have a word.

Nah. We all know I'd never come back and look it up.

Stuff it... I'll post 'em when I get 'em.

WotM

Eviscerate:

• resect: surgically remove a part of a structure or an organ
• remove the contents of; "eviscerate the stomach"
• disembowel: remove the entrails of; "draw a chicken"
• take away a vital or essential part of; "the compromise among the parties eviscerated the bill that had been proposed"
• having been disembowelled

I heard this word (actually eviscerated) in Keith Olberman's reaction to the 9-11 themed video that was shown at the RNC.

Word of the moment (WotM)

Elucidate:

• clarify: make clear and (more) comprehensible; "clarify the mystery surrounding her death"
• clear: make free from confusion or ambiguity; make clear; "Could you clarify these remarks?"; "Clear up the question of who is at fault"

This is something I feared...

with Marie and her health issues when she gave birth to Gracie.

Take a read of Matt's account of what happened to his wife.

I can't imagine how it was to feel such joy and grief at the same time.

I think I'm going to start a word of the moment thing...

I find myself running into words that are new to me as I read online so I thought I might start a word of the day post.

Today's word:

Fugue:

• dissociative disorder in which a person forgets who they are and leaves home to creates a new life; during the fugue there is no memory of the ...
• a dreamlike state of altered consciousness that may last for hours or days
• a musical form consisting of a theme repeated a fifth above or a fourth below its first statement

- source

I'm trying a new comment tool...

I've added Disqus to my blog. Here's a description of Disqus:

Disqus, pronounced "discuss", is a service and tool for web comments and discussions. The Disqus comment system can be plugged into any website, blog, or application. Disqus makes commenting easier and more interactive, while connecting websites and commenters across a thriving discussion community.

Disqus is a free service to the general public with absolutely no inline advertisements.

I think I like the idea of what they're going for but we'll see what the reality is... if it lives up to my expectations it should be pretty neat. I almost like this as much as the reblog feature on tumblr. I learned about that one in a lifehacker.com article.

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PMS sucks

Women think they have it bad when it comes to PMS... try being a husband when your wife's world is imploding every 28-32 days. :o

Marie did an extreme act today in response to how she's feeling... she committed facebook suicide by deleting her facebook account. She said she was getting sick of all the BS that she had to wade through every time she logged on. She also muttered something about it being a full of self-absorbed people, many of whom were no longer relevant in her life... she continued "if they really cared about me, they would call me to talk". She said she didn't even think that anyone would notice she was gone off facebook... I think her words were "I've been gone from facebook for 2 hours now and NO ONE has called me yet!"

I suggested that she may want to give it a little more time... just a little.

It was at that point that the cordless phone died... well, at least that's what I think happened 'cause line went dead and all I heard was dial tone.

Anyway, I've gotta get going, I need to to leave early and stop by the flower shop on the way home. I think I'll get a big ol' load of chocolate too. For no reason really... only self preservation. :)

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My musical taste is very eclectic

I had seen a documentary on TV about the Buena Vista Social Club in Cuba and it had performances by some of the artists that performed there in its golden years (I think it was the 1940's-1950's) and this one is one that I really liked... again, thanks to yootoob you can find almost any music you want. This one is called Chan Chan and I really love it... I hope you do too.



Let me know what you think of it.

The documentary made me want to visit Cuba... maybe one day I'll get there.

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I love my Sirius satellite radio

I get to hear artists that I may not come across when I listen to local radio. Here's one that I like called Shine On by the Kooks... first heard it while listening to BBC Radio One, specifically The Chris Moyles Show which is the morning drive show that is time shifted to be on during the morning drive here... cool eh?

Anyways, here's the song on youtube:




Another one that had grown on me is Shut up and Let Me Go by the Ting Tings. They won't allow embedding so here's the link.

Let me know what you think.

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I had to share something from Randy Pausch

He said this in his last lecture that I'm watching and I wanted to put this here... more as a reminder to me but perhaps it'll have some impact with others out there too.

The brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things

- Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008)

I was reading Jill's blog...

and it had a picture of a puglsey (and it's rider) in a precarious position that I couldn't stop laughing at... it was originally on another blog called Mrs. North of 60 which I've never read but thought I should credit her directly for the pic.

Now for the pic... wait, before I show it to you, you have to look how the guy is still holding on to the handle bars! I mean, it's like he doesn't even realize that no good can come from the position he is in... I can't stop laughin' even now so here's the pic...

Because I HAD to share this

I hear Stewie when I read this.

So I talked with Jim today

and our trip is off for this year. He's training for his tri up in Orillia and he's gunning for 1st in his group. He was able to get 3rd for his first tri so now he's stepping it up and the trip would interfere with his training schedule. It also makes things easier for me since I've burned up extra vacation days with some stuff I'm doing and I only have (I think) 2 days left for the rest of the year. I'm disappointed but at the same time I'm very supportive of Jim and his goal for the Orillia Tri.

I also talked to Jim about the post I did the other day and I feel better about things. I guess I'm struggling to get organized to a point where I am able to fit everything in that I want to, which includes hanging out with Jim more. I've resolved today to get my sh!t together and stop wasting time. I think I got into a bit a funk with my ankle injury and I let that get the better of me. I'm feeling better and will be going to the gym to try and run on the treadmill. I figured that was a good place to test the ankle out since there would be less impact running on the treadmill deck versus the road.

Along the "getting together with Jim" lines, we're going to get together this Saturday to watch a few fights. I haven't watched a fight in a while and this Saturday is supposed to a great lineup.

In light of the fact that Jim and I are not doing our trip I am thinking I should plan a trip with my boys for the August long weekend if I can get in anywhere. I would like to do a similar trip to the one Jim did with his daughter but I don't know that I can put that together at this last minute (getting a reservation, planning, etc). I'll have to talk to Jim and pick his brain for information. It's great having a friend like Jim with the knowledge he's accumulated about Algonquin... it's almost like have a personal Algonquin Park Ranger! LOL! It's kinda funny when you think that I sort of introduced Jim to north Algonquin and now he knows more about it than I do!

Well, I talked to Jim for a while today and I've been doing some reading online so I had better get a few things accomplished from my to do list here at work so that I don't go home feeling guilty.

Have a great day everyone!

g.