Freyburg

The Japanese geek hierarchy. I can categorically state this chart is right on the money.

Check out this review of “Outfoxed,” the new docu-polemic floating around about Fox News. You’ll have plow through one of Salon’s ads, but this glimpse into a ultra-right wing loonjob network is probably worth it. Particularly since we don’t get the channel here yet.

Yesterday I was waiting for YAP (yet another parade) to zip down Main Street so I could take pictures for the newspaper, and as I was standing there I started talking to a couple of cyclists sitting outside at the local cafe. Turns out they used to live in Edmonton. No biggee so far, but they lived in the apartment complex across the street from the house I grew up in. Now, that’s weird. But it isn’t quite as weird as the girl I met in Tokyo who also grew up in Duggan.

Duggan, much like the Crowsnest Pass, is becoming the new Tatooine. A seemingly insignificant place that a lot of people, for one reason or another, happen to have lived in or near.

I decided to toodle down to the States today, just for the hell of it. I went down to Omak, Washington, which is a fairly small place about an hour away. I wandered into a bookstore, where I spied a copy of Neal Stephenson’s Confusion. Not just a copy, but a proof (also known as a galley), which is a freebie sent out before the actual release of the book to publishers, bookstores, and the like. It cost $5 US, which even with exchange is a steal for something that won’t be in paperback for a good year and a half.

So, being a bookstore veteran myself, I jokingly mentioned to the owner/clerk that technically she wasn’t even supposed to be selling these proofs (handily indicated by the “NOT FOR RESALE” emblazoned on the cover). A bookseller in Canada would have given me a nudge and a wink and laughed as we merrily traipsed over the half-assed rules of some distant publisher. Not so with the Yanks.
This woman gave me the most pissed-off “EXCUSE ME!?!?” I think I’ve ever heard. I guess Americans hate being told..well…anything, really. Her reaction was about what I’d expect if I’d been wandering through the town with a “Free Saddam” t-shirt and offered free beheadings, not throwing some well-meaning jive her way.

At any rate, it’s kind of cool to go down to the States on a whim, but when you get back to Canada it’s like a weight just came off your shoulders. They’s a cranky bunch down there. 🙂

This will probably only interest a couple of my buddies in the Crowsnest Pass, but here’s a history of the Greenhill tavern, the greatest force in liver destruction since Mickey Mantle. 🙂 Scroll down until you get to the picture.

Once again my post-slackery has been inexcusable. Other than the fact that I rushed off to Edmonton for a wedding, then rushed right back to Osoyoos.

Regardless, have you ever wanted to integrate your old Sports Walkman case and your iPod? No, me neither. But these goofballs sure have.

And while you’re listening to your retroPod, you can hang around in your tiny, tiny condo.

Enough of that stylish crap, what’s with the Terry Nation estate keeping the Daleks from appearing on the new Doctor Who?!? WTFBBQ!!

Happy Canada Day. I’ll leave it at that, as I’m sure the Lillerant will throw down some enthused raving about how great this country is, along with a couple of “Dybya Sux0rs!”

By the way, I’m pleased to see that Saddam has decided to keep the beard. As genocidal maniacs go, he’s looking pretty suave. Way more sharp than that Idi Amin character, anyway.