Categories
It Happened to Me

Bustin’ In

You’ve probably seen this type of door lock, common in older houses:

Door lock

They usually sport a switch that sets the lock into “automatic” mode; close the door and it automatically locks. These locks can cause problems, such as accidentally locking yourself outside. Apparently, if the switch breaks while set in “automatic”, not even the key will unlock it, as Dan, who works with me at TSOT, discovered two nights ago. Worse still, his landlord was out of the country and the locksmith was asking $400 to drill through the lock.

I live pretty close to Dan, so when he asked me to give him a hand getting into his place, I was happy to oblige. Luckily the house’s garage had a ladder, and after trying a couple of second-storey windows, we hit the jackpot:

Dan on a ladder, entering the second-story window of his place via the window

Our mission accomplished, Dan took me and the Ginger Ninja out for dinner by way of saying thanks. Glad to help, dude!

Categories
Music

Dada Album Cover Exercise

Via David Janes, here’s a little Dada album cover exercise. You can come up with an album cover for a hypothetical band by doing the following:

Here’s what I got: the Wikipedia entry for “hematoma block”, the quote “It is hard work, but there is happiness in it.” by the creators of the game Animal Crossing: Wild World and this photo by Emmanuel Smague. Based on these results, I made this album cover:

Hypothetical album cover: “Is Happiness in It” by Hematoma Block

Look out, Nine Inch Nails, I just out-moped you!

Categories
Uncategorized

Facebook Asked to Remove the “Scrabulous” Game by Scrabble’s Rights-Holders

“Cease and desist” spelled out using Scrabble tiles

The toy companies Hasbro (who own the rights to Scrabble in the U.S. and Canada) and Mattel (who own the rights to Scrabble for everywhere else in the world) have asked Facebook to remove the “Scrabulous” application as it infringes on their copyright for the game.

Mathew Ingram has already said this but I’ll say it again: Mattel and Hasbro are making a mistake by giving in to the knee-jerk impulse to think “infringement!” and calling in the legal team. All that will do is generate ill will towards them. A far more profitable approach would be for them to simply buy the application from its creators — which they could easily do for a few hundred thousand dollars, mere pin money to them — and use it as a marketing tool for Scrabble as well as other games in their stable.

[This article was cross-posted to Global Nerdy.]

Categories
funny

The Seven Minute Rule, as Explained by “Tip Me Over, Pour Me Out”

One of the things I noticed at Tom and Michele’s housewarming party (which I covered in this entry and this entry) was that the people there, whether or not they realized it, seemed to be observing the Seven Minute Rule, pictured below:

Excerpt from the webcomic “Tip Me Over Pour Me Out”: “The Seven Minute Rule”
Click the comic to see the full version on its original page.

As the comic excerpt above puts it:

…if you’re a girl with a boyfriend and you meet a guy at a party, you MUST make a reference to your boyfriend within the first seven minutes of conversation.

Girls with boyfriends are shameless abusers of the long-flirt. Since they already have someone to go home to, they don’t have to float from guy to guy searching for meat. Because of this, the guys they talk to mistakenly believe the girls are interested in them, ESPECIALLY when they talk for hours without mentioning their boyfriends.

The excerpt above comes from Tip Me Over, Pour Me Out, an autobiographical webcomic written by Raphael Bob-Waksberg and illustrated by Lisa Hanawalt. Being a rather relaxed kind of guy, I find neurosis highly amusing and Bob-Waksberg’s ability to tell a funny yarn makes it doubly so (he’s part of a comedy troupe called Olde English). Tip Me Over, Pour Me Out has been finding its stride in its most recent episodes; I’m going to be keeping an eye on this webcomic.

Categories
Accordion, Instrument of the Gods It Happened to Me

More Accordion Photos from Tom’s Birthday / Tom and Michele’s Housewarming

If you missed the first set of photos, they’re in this entry.

One More Accordion Convert…

I didn’t get a photo of Anneke trying out the accordion, but Michele did:

Anneke playing Joey deVilla’s accordion
Click the photo to see it on its original Flickr page.
Photo courtesy of Michele Perras.

…and Me!

We can’t forget Yours Truly, pictured below in his Accordion Happy Place…

Joey deVilla playing accordion at Tom Purves’ and Michelle Perras’ housewarming
Click the photo to see it on its original Flickr page.
Photo courtesy of Michele Perras.

There are more photos in Michele’s photoset of the party.

Categories
Accordion, Instrument of the Gods It Happened to Me

Pictures of the Day

I attended Tom and Michele’s housewarming party on Saturday and took some pictures. Here are my favourites…

The “College Girl Dorm Room Poster” Shot

Tom did a little birthday dance number to entertain the crowd — first solo, then joined by Michele. It concluded with this smooch, which just cried out for the Robert Doisneau black-and-white treatment:

Tom Purves and Michele Perras in a post-dance smooch
Coming soon to an Imaginus poster sale near you!

Another Accordion Convert

I’m always happy to let a friend try on the accordion, and since Michele asked, I got these photos.

Michele Perras playing Joey deVilla
She hasn’t hit that moment of accordion transcendence yet…

Michele Perras playing Joey deVilla
…ah, there we go!

Categories
Uncategorized

“Mommy, Where Do Subprime Loan Meltdowns Come From?”

Here’s a photo that recent appeared in the blog Consumerist. I had to borrow the title as well; it was perfect and couldn’t be improved upon:

Table at Wal-Mart with sign: “Apply for a credit card and receive a free 2-liter bottle of Pepsi or Diet Pepsi”
Click the photo to see the original article.

According to Consumerist, the photo was taken on January 10th at a Wal-Mart in Albany, New York.