Chimeric Dream » Uncategorized

Premature Detonation

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:47:50 +0000

I just read about a dozen or so terrorists who blew themselves up earlier than planned when their bus exploded before they got to their destination. I can’t help but feel giddy about such an event. It reminds me of Achmed the dead terrorist, a Jeff Dunham puppet. See the following video starting at about 7:25 (or just watch the whole thing… it’s good).

Achmed the dead terrorist on YouTube

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The Holidays Are (Officially) Here

admin — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 04:11:05 +0000

Everybody has a different definition of when the “holiday season” actually starts: Thanksgiving Day; Black Friday; Halloween (if you ask most major retailers); when they bring home a their freshly cut tree; and so on. I am no different. My sign arrived in the mail today — galettes!

Galettes are a cookie that has been a holiday tradition in my family for as long as I have been alive (and for almost 100 years before that!). These cookies are made by hand, one or two at a time, and sent all over the country to members of our family. For years, my grandmother was the official galette-maker, but a couple years back, my dad took over. I don’t even want to know how many hundreds of these he has to make each year for our growing family (the galette iron he has handles two cookies per batch), but I certainly am glad he does it.

What holiday traditions do you celebrate?

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Hello Dolly!

admin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:49:23 +0000

It seems that Microsoft is pulling out all the stops now. In the video below, you see the latest in their attempt to halt the decline of Internet Explorer’s market share. In the video, Dolly Parton (yes, *that* Dolly Parton) praises Internet Explorer 8 for its webslices feature. She does this after a cliche remark about how little she knows when it comes to computers.

But I have to ask this: is she really the best choice for such an endorsement? Considering when Parton was in her peak years of popularity, I would say that the people most likely to care about her recommendations are exactly the people who have no idea what YouTube is. “U-Tube? Is that kind of like a pipe bent in half?” On top of that, how likely are they to care about webslices (the primary focus of the video) anyway?

To me, this endorsement says: “I have no idea what that interweb thing is, but Microsoft paid me to say Internet Explorer was great, so what the hell! So whether you’re a redneck, a retiree, or just lack them ‘computer skills’, give IE8 a try!”

Video after the break.
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Darth Vader Conducts an Orchestra

admin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:28:25 +0000

Ok… this is just awesome.

I got to play some of the Star Wars music in orchestra, but never had an experience quite like this. Major props to the orchestra’s director for doing something like this. I’m sure the audience loved it.

Darth Vader Conducts an Orchestra

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Common courtesy

admin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 02:18:05 +0000

Whether by malicious intent or otherwise, someone took the driver’s side mirror off my car this weekend. I was visiting Becca in Manhattan, and at some point between when I parked and when I went to leave, my car was damaged.

I have a few reasons why I believe it may have been a malicious act. 1) There is no other visible damage to my car, indicating that if it was a sideswipe, it was close enough to hit the mirror but far enough away to miss everything else; 2) The mirror was carefully place on the top of my hood where I would notice it quickly (as if the whole “missing mirror” thing might have escaped my attention); 3) There was no note on my car, which implies a certain “I don’t give a s**t” attitude; and 4) I have a KU parking permit that was prominently displayed on my car, which, depending on the person in question, may be enough to warrant such an act.

However, all of these things don’t necessarily add up to vandalism, and I certainly want to believe that it was a simple accident. But #3 above *really* gets to me. If it truly was an accident, how hard is it to leave a note with your information? This is just simple common courtesy. And if it was intentional, what is the reason? Are there really people out there who need only to know that someone is from a rival school to decide that person is worthy of being vandalized?

So now I am out $100 (my comprehensive deductible), and I will be without a car for two days. I realize that this is a minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things, but I just wish that people would have a bit more respect for one another…

But like my dad says, “wish in one hand…“

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The KC Swing Scene

admin — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:38:07 +0000

What follows is meant to serve as a response, though not necessarily a rebuttal, to this Facebook note. Feel free to read that before continuing. You don’t necessarily have to know all of the people involved, and my ~~rantings and ravings~~ thoughts on the situation are independent enough that you don’t have to read that note if you don’t feel like it.

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What a week…

admin — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:51:29 +0000

Man, this has been a strange week so far. Let’s work backwards, shall we? Today, we got our salary increase letters. Mine wasn’t quite what I was hoping for (and what I had been led to expect), but it was still decent — no complaints here.

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Moving woes

admin — Tue, 27 May 2008 21:35:34 +0000

For those who don’t know about my moving situation, it goes a little like this:

Last fall, I talked to the management at my complex about moving into a bigger apartment. We set everything up so that when a few of my friends moved out of their apartment this fall, and all was kosher. Then, about three months ago, management changed at the complex, and everything was thrown into a big bag of #*$!. At the same time, Tyler, one of my friends currently living in the apartment that I will be getting, mentioned to me that they may be moving out at the end of April instead of July. We worked everything out with the complex, and just needed to finish the final paperwork when one of Tyler’s roommates backed out, saying he didn’t have time to move then. We talked about pushing the whole process back a month to the end of May, but Tyler and his roommates dragged their feet too long. So it began to look like I would move in August like originally planned.

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Summer time!

admin — Sun, 25 May 2008 20:49:40 +0000

You know it’s summer time when you hear the familiar sound of the ice cream truck driving down the street. It just brings back all kinds of good memories of childhood and that feeling you got running down the middle of the street, cars whizzing by, clutching a dollar bill in your hand just to get a taste of an overpriced bomb pop.

Of course, that didn’t stop me from chasing the ice cream truck down just now. The fact that I have popsicles and ice cream in my freezer is irrelevant.

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The Night the Buzz Stole Xmas

admin — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:08:17 +0000

Last night I went to a great concert at the Uptown Theatre in KC. Nick got tickets for the concert and gave one to me as a Christmas present. The concert was fantastic! Coheed and Cambria was a really good band, and the headliners, Jimmy Eat World, were even better than I hoped.

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