Recently, WordPress had sent out notifications to its bloggers that there is a slim chance some of their passwords might have been compromised, so, everyone, please, change your passwords.
And, as it is a good idea to change passwords regularly anyway, I tought it might be useful to re-publish xkcd’s public service tutorial on passwords:
May 20th, 2011 is International Draw Muhammad Day 2.
May 21st, 2011 in Armageddon Day, according to many thousands of Christians.
If you would like to send in contributions for International Draw Muhammad Day, please do. I’ll save them up for publication on May 20th.
I don’t do movie theaters.
If you’ve ever been in one, you probably know why: the uncomfortably big contrast in lighting between the dim movie theatre and the bright movie screen is enough to trigger seizures, even in people who don’t usuallyget them, the sound is so loud, it is bound to trigger a migrane and spending a few hours in uncomfortable seats with insufficient legroom, surrounded by tens or hundreds of other humans in close proximity, most of whom you don’t even know – I’d rather stick sharp bamboo sticks under my nails that subject myself to that.
The fact that so many people consider this ‘entertainment’ must indicate the surprisingly high number of members of our society who are so self loathing that they would not just permit themselves to be subjected to this demeaning ritual, they would actually pay money to do so…
And, then there are the movies themselves!
Again, one would have to have real self-esteem issues to voluntarily subject themselves to the level of emotional manipulation that most Hollywood-style movies throw at them. And I find it difficult to believe that people would watch Hollywood-style movies for the intellectual stimulation…
Every now and then, however, there comes along a movie worth watching.
This weekend, we watched a movie as a family – it was a breath of fresh air!
OK – it was not your conventional movie.
And, there was music in it – it seems that one can’t get away from that in movies today – but it was not manipulative and, most of the time, it was in places where it belonged (like, when the band was playing…). And it did have Zelda music – which is better than most.
Just for the record – the fact that they referred to Tetris is NOT the only reason I liked “Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World”.
The movie just flowed.
It made sense.
Whenever there was a moment that got too emotionally charged, it ‘switched modes’ and made it OK again. (I can’t elaborate without giving too much away.)
Sure, the movie was not perfect. We all agree on how the ending could have been seriously improved.
But overall, it was very fun.
My younger son liked it so much, he watched it 5 times – plus he watched a bunch of YouTube videos of it….
I still wouldn’t go see it in a movie theatre, but I would strongly recommend it as something to watch at home, alone or with family and/or friends.
The movie mocks vegans – for the right reasons. Just like so many others…
And they pay homage to Rowan Atkinson‘s pronounciation of ‘Bob’.
You can almost hear echoes of Silent Bob…
Last week, my uncle passed away.
OK – uncle-in-law.
But, my hubby was pretty close to him.
And this has stirred up our otherwise uneventful lives.
On so many fronts!
Yes, there is that whole ‘examining one’s life’ thing. The natural result with a brush with mortality – something an unexpected death usually leads to.
Then there is the deluge of relatives, coming in to town to celebrate the uncle’s life. This, in itself, is fascinating: relatives one had never met before, kids, attitudes, support – it is confusing, at best, for an Aspie like me (and, of course, my Aspie kids). Some of these relatives are fascinating, some are perplexing, others are just incomprehensible: yet all of them are part of our extended family and I owe it to my ‘little ones’ (both are taller than I am, so I can now refer to them as ‘my little ones’) to get to know them, at least a little bit.
All kinds of ‘family stories’ come out, are re-told and (I hope) embellished.
And then there is the funeral ceremony itself.
Aspies – like us – tend to have difficulties handeling the outward display of strong emotions. It has something to do with that whole hypothesis of mine that Aspergers is a condition marked by a disfunction in ‘progressive filters’. To make a long story short, imagine that both your perceptions and your emotions are ‘controlled’ by a number of ‘filters’: if one is exposed to a smell, one stops perceiving it after a while, or if one is experiencing touch (like, say, the rubbing of clothes or one’s own hair), one begins to be only aware of the stimulus if there is a change.
This is not true for Aspies: it’s like the number of ‘filters’ is greatly reduced….
Which is why the rubbing of a clothes tag – or, in my case, the rubbing of my own hair – is not ‘diminished’ and causes physical symptoms, like exzema or rash. This goes for sounds, smells, and so on. And – perhaps especially – for emotions.
Which is why so many Aspies have a difficult time with situations which are emotionally ‘highly charged’.
Like, say, funerals…
Which is why we often attempt to reduce the pressure we feel by making highly inappropriate jokes.
This has no relation to the deceased – or our feelings towards him/her.
Rather, it is a coping mechanism which prevents us from spiralling uncontrolably into the abyss…
So, please, take the following in that ‘sense’.
Coming home from the actual funeral ceremony, remembering the ‘musical’ selections that were used in the ceremony itself, we have come up with a list of our own of the ‘music’ we would like used in some potential (hopefully far in the future) funeral of our own:
This one, we all agreed, would be most awesome (especially if we chose to be cremated):
Followed by:
This, of course, would be stricly to assure our loved ones who survive us that we are ‘not truly gone’ but will be with them for EVER!
I do hope this would be of comfort to those I, eventually, do leave ‘behind’!!!
I just love conspiracy theories – especially if they have secret societies and mysterious influential people….and if there is a hint of the supernatural, even better!
Yesterday, in Ottawa, during a ‘routine traffic stop’, cops found 2 pipe bombs in the trunk of a car.
Now, I have not been stopped in many ‘routine traffice stops’, but the times I was, nobody ever searched the trunk of my car!
I smell ‘a conspiracy’ here!!!
So, where did they find this bomb?
In ”The Glebe’.
Which is a part of town riddled with trendy cafes, overpriced boutiques, little art galleries and other ‘hot spots’ which appeal to the aging yuppies and retiring civil servant boomers who have taken this honest, working class neighbourhood and turned it into pretentious snobville.
It is also the part of town where a bank was firebombed last year.
By an aging yuppie boomer, a retired civil servant.
Probably too young to have taken part in the ‘wild 60’s protests’, but young enough to idolize them….and too stoked up to know better.
I can’t wait to hear what the story with this newest arrest is going to be!
Puns are, indisputably, the highest form of humour!
Playing in different languages is a bonus. Let me give you an example:
“Semper ubi sub ubi!” is just a load of the proverbial ‘Dingo’s kidneys’ in Latin: ‘semper’ = ‘always’, ‘ubi’ = ‘where’ and ‘sub’ = ‘under’.
Yet, say “Always where under where!” out loud in English – and you get a giggle!
* * *
Since skates were invented in Brussels, the Czech word for ‘skates’ is ‘brusle’.
The Czech word for ‘he is skating’ (yes, they squeeze all this grammar into one word) is ‘brusli’. Pronunciation: the first syllable ‘bru-‘ is pronounced like the word ‘brew’; the second syllable ‘-sli’ is pronounced long, like ‘sleet’ – but without the ‘t’.
In the following video (an ad – so ignore the voice-over at the end), a woman asks a by-stander to please take a photo of her and her son – today is the first time he is skating……the rest is self-explanatory and, in my never-humble-opinion, rather punny!
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 