Categories
Critters

Four-cat pile-up

It’s been raining for two days, and will rain for two more, if the forecast is even remotely right. My baby curled up and went straight to sleep, and I realized that the sight of my kids sleeping triggers an instinct in me…

…you thought I was going to say “to stand guard and watch over them”, right? Aw hell no. It’s an instinct to nap at the same time. While I can. It’s something that kind of overwrites your DNA when you stay home with an infant: either nap while you have the chance, or get something done somewhere in the house.

And with the rain beating down 24/7, let me tell you, that switch gets flipped solidly to “nap”. Surrounded by cats.

Four-cat pile-up

Enjoy, then, this fine view of Obi’s junk.… Read more

Categories
Funny Stuff Toiling In The Pixel Mines

Troubles hooting

At work, for reasons I cannot even begin to fathom, the factory in China gets to mangle our manuals, requiring me to fix them. Word files of the manuals come to us with either no spaces whatsoever between words, or spaces in the wrong places. Every so often, there’s a paragraph that has spaces in some of the right places, just to lull you into a false sense of security. And thus was entire work day for me turned into combing through several manuals and occasionally finding gems of Engrish hilarity.

Troubles hootingRead more

Categories
Funny Stuff Toiling In The Pixel Mines

Well, there went MY plans for fun today

Had to start designing packaging for a garden hose adapter kit yesterday, and my instructions noted that product shots aren’t in from the factory yet, so “use placeholders“. Someone apparently felt the need to hand-write ‘don’t use porn to mock up the inlet nipple kit’ in the margin. Geez, do I look like I’m the biggest perv in the whole areola area? Oops. Sorry.Read more

Categories
Critters

Happy rescue day, Puck!

Today is Puck’s rescue day, but only by virtue of there not being a term for “little wandering kitten who strays into a clearly inhabited man-made structure for of TV station stuff and goes to sit on the first sucker for cats he finds”, and a holiday to go with it. Puck didn’t really get adopted, he adopted me.

Puckalucka

And I’m totally okay with that. He was the best “perk” I got from my last few years in TV. And he still is, every time he curls up next to my year-old baby and leaves himself wide open to being petted, patted, and grabbed. He has the patience of three saints. And he’s so fluffy.… Read more

Categories
Music

The Electric Lightsaber Orchestra

Alone In The UniverseAs anyone who exists within my orbit has been unable to escape knowing, there’s a new ELO album due out November 13th, the first in 15 years, although Jeff Lynne’s been active in recent years, either rehashing classic ELO songs or other people’s songs, and re-releasing some of ELO’s stuff with brand new tracks cooked up in his hermitage studio tacked onto the end. It’s not like there’s been any shortage of my favorite musician on the planet this year. What’s funny is that this year – which, from my adult perspective, has sucked horribly – would’ve made six-or-seven-year-old me incredibly happy. New Star Wars! New ELO! New pictures from a planet we’ve never seen before! If I had only the responsibilities of a six-or-seven-year-old, I could’ve enjoyed this year immensely.

I think that’s why the “new ELO” part of that equation is so important to me. It’s musical comfort food. It’s my grandmother’s gooey-but-not-too-gooey grilled cheese sandwiches in aural form. ready to stick in my ears next time I want to remember the warm fuzzies of childhood. Which, granted, isn’t how one normally thinks of grilled cheese sandwiches. Naturally, the impending relaunch of Star Wars for my sons’ generation is also eagerly awaited. But which did I discover first?

Would you believe me if I told you that Star Wars and ELO are intimately intertwined in my head? Sit back, put your feet up, and I’ll tell you the story. A long, long time ago…

They've got us in a tractor beam
That’s no ticket to a small moon, that’s a space station!Read more