from a hike on sunday

Why do I keep finding this stuff, take pictures of it, and get odd looks?

Well, the latter is actually pretty self-explanatory really, isn't it. I do get strange looks from people fairly often it seems.


I also realize that I need a lens that does more than ƒ4.0 (for those that don't know, it's an aperture setting and the lower the number, say ƒ2 or ƒ1.8 would really blur the background, thus making the chair more of a center of focus).

better to just not ask

I managed to rescue this from my back pocked before the jeans got washed. These were my very sad directions to a Multi-Cultural Festival here in St. John's and personally, I'm a little amazed I made it myself. Particularly with the "???" street that wasn't listed in Google Maps. Apparently I also didn't think it was necessary to indicate which direction to turn or anything.

So really, it's best just not to ask me for directions to anywhere. Who knows what you'll get.

I'm betting lost though.

concerning toothbrushes

A very small part of the excitement of the trip I just took to Gros Morne was that I would finally get to use the new toothbrush holders I bought not that long ago. It would seem, for my entire life, the solution to taking a toothbrush while traveling was to wrap it in a facecloth. Which is all fine, but does seem a bit peculiar. Like I'm trying to disguise it as something with this silly bit of cloth wrapped around it's head. Try explaining that to airport security. "Oh, that? it's simply a suitcase ghost. Just ignore it and it'll go away on it's own."

This is, of course, quite fine on the way there but on more than one occasion, on the way home the last thing packed is the toothbrush. Meanwhile, the facecloth has somehow managed to find it's way to the bottom of the suitcase. And, after spending ten minutes you don't have trying to madly unpack your bag without really unpacking it (never works, does it, always ends up worse), you find that facecloth in amongst socks that have been worn one too many times and should be fumigated before even being washed. Or just thrown out altogether. As a result, you borrow a facecloth, promising to return it, and just add it to a growing collection of lost facecloths.

This is, of course, absurd and only a slight exaggeration. It only takes five minutes to get to the bottom of a suitcase.

So, bring on the plastic tubes.

Which, sadly, are too small for my toothbrush.

a scary halloween

On the drive back from Gros Morne, the idea of decorating my place for Hallowe'en with these guys somehow crept its way into my mind and was too good to pass up. Not only that, but it's been expanded to the St. John's Farmers' Market on Saturday (though they don't know it yet).

If you like them, the PDF can be grabbed here. Just print, cut and attach to any practical surface. I recommend trying your boyfriend/girlfriend/hamster.

PS — I'm pretty sure the Boo Buddies, and their retro-likeness are © Nintendo and are used without permission.

they do exist!

It's bigfoot, right? I mean, it is close to Halloween.

Just got back from Gros Morne and I'm pretty tired. Will have more later.

nothing but self-taught here

There's a new Instructional Video out in theaters now called "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People".

Seems like it might have some good lessons in it in case I ever need to alienate someone so I decided to contact a few friends and see who was interested. This brought on the usual barrage of emails back and forth asking about this night or that night. And so on and so forth. In the end, they've all become sadly unavailable. One, apparently, had to do something called "work" and another mentioned something about "last man alive" (which is strange, that movie isn't even in theaters).

Is it wrong to go see something called "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People" alone? I'm sure there's irony in there somewhere. Personally, I think it's rather hilarious.

Clearly this is like the Ring, except instead of causing people to die after watching the video, just making plans to see said movie will send them scattering.

up again, for now.

I've discovered, as has Alexa over the last little while that web stuff is a lot of mumbo-jumbo and about as convoluted as possible (up there with assembly instructions from Ikea — even the ones in your own language). The kind of deal where it'll only work on the third try, while on a laptop, in the kitchen standing on your toes. Oh, and only on Mondays. Don't even try on a Tuesday. Bad, bad things happen on Tuesday.

The challenging bit I found was getting the shiny new domain (RetroBot.ca) to display the blog. Sounds pretty simple right? Yeah, it does sound simple.

While there was no actual conversation between the servers and I, had there of been, it probably would have went something like this:

Me: I'd like you to display my blog.
Server: Oh, a blog eh? Fancy. We've got our own blog system you know.
Me: That's nice, I'd like you to display the blog I already have.
Server: You're sure? Ours is pretty fancy.
Me: Yes, I'm sure.
Server: Okay. I can't do that.
Me: Why not?
Server: No idea, probably something you did. User-error and all that. How about this hosting package instead? It's shiny, you like shiny right?
Me: uh, no thanks. So about that redirection to my blog?
Server: Yeah, today's not so good for me, come back Monday.

RetroBot.ca

I'm on the move to www.RetroBot.ca!

Course, it's not up yet, and I'm still working out some of the minor little details. But, if this page suddenly stops working one day (possibly tomorrow, or the next day — both of which are days), then that's where you can find me. Or, you can read some other absurd blog. I recommend a shiny new one starting up at www.RetroBot.ca. It's not up yet, but I assure you, it's being worked on by the finest robot monkeys.

I've also spend the morning listening to the John Cleese Podcast and finishing off sundry products. It's is now 12:17 (Newfoundland Time) and I'd like a sandwich followed by cookies.

-d

still classy

A week ago the Waffle Lady from the Farmers' Market was having a fundraising garage sale and my neighbor (Sarah) and I went for a visit. She got an amazing cow lamp (yes, it's the cutest non-edible cow that lights up) and I bought a chair. Since I've been doing the freelance thing I thought it was about time to get myself set up a bit more comfortably with a home office. Buying the chair resulted in a trip across town and the eventual purchase of a desk.

The chair, however, is still with the Waffle Lady, pending delivery.

So, for about five days I was using this, an upside-down laundry basket (the same basket that I grew up with my entire life. As I'm fond of saying, it's not retro, it actually is that old.




Thankfully, the same neighbor lent me one of their kitchen chairs in exchange for fresh lemonade. It's like a very strange prison barter system.

-d

fickle? me? never. maybe.

My memory, from time to time (apparently), can be a little on the non-cute fuzzy side. It's a bit of a problem at times. But I seem to recall a fellow student asking one of the teachers about tattoos. He attributed his lack of tattoo's to always changing his mind. To be permanently adorned with something has kept him from getting a tattoo. At least any that he's willing to tell students about of course.

Now, if this is completely wrong, well, you'll just have to change your stories. It's online now and that makes anything fact.

So, as a result, this blog will be changing yet again. It started innocently enough at theExperiment.ca/travel as a means for friends and family to keep in touch while I was forging a new life in Newfoundland. When that became a bit too much to manage by hand (and really I just got tired of looking at it), baconrobots (two things I love and the first Penny Arcade collection book) was born.

But now I'm thinking of taking it a step farther, still using blogger as a base but posting to my own domain. We'll see where it goes, but it should be a fun ride.

-d