Monthly Archive for November, 2005

Here’s a bottle and an honest friend!

Happy St. Andrew’s Day

There’s nane that’s blest of human kind,
But the cheerful and the gay, man,
Fal, la, la, &c.

Here’s a bottle and an honest friend!
What wad ye wish for mair, man?
Wha kens, before his life may end,
What his share may be o’ care, man?

Then catch the moments as they fly,
And use them as ye ought, man:
Believe me, happiness is shy,
And comes not aye when sought, man.

Thanks, Bobby.

This combination of drink and poetry riminds me of my college days. Boston University has a private pub (in the basement of the Castle, no less), and at said pub they have what they call a “beer quest”. You would get a card on which the bartender would make a mark for each of the many different beers they had available as you consumed them. Once you, the drunkard, completed the quest, he would be inducted into an exclusive group known as “the Knights of Gunnungagap”. You would be dubbed with a silly title (”Sir Tainly a Slacker” at your service) and given a glass mug which they kept for you behind the bar.

The highlight of my own poetic attempts was when I composed a toast for a friend of mine, which I read at his “knighthood” ceremony. That toast became the official induction recital for at least one of the bartenders at the BU Pub and lived on for an indeterminant amount of time after my graduation. I wonder if it still is…

The knighter reads from a plaque on the wall about the Quest to the new knight, who kneels down upon one knee.

I doubt that’s the toast, but I don’t recall a reading from a plaque in my day.

Congrats! It’s a Vedvik!

My CL350 wrenching buddy (and coworker) Erik Vedvik and his wife Taara welcomed their brand new baby boy into the world on November 26th at 10:23pm.

Tale of the Tape:

  • Weight: 8 pounds, 2 ounces
  • Length: 21 inches
  • Name: Ian Andrew TBD (This isn’t really a surprise to us.)

Mother and child (and Papa) are doing well according to reports. Congratulations to the three of them!

The Resurgence of Chuck

Chuck Norris.

I’m sure many of you figured he had faded into a halcyon semi-retirement of Total Gym hucksterism, anti-drug campaigning, and… um… praying after the demise of his Walker, Texas Ranger series. I’m doubly sure you all had figured Chuck had strayed far, far away from his Lone Wolf McQuade martial arts badassedness of yore.

Well, I’m here to set you straight, boys and girls.

Chuck Norris‘ return to glory was first hinted at when he became the subject of one of the most entertaining internet memes of the past ten minutes:

To prove it isn’t that big of a deal to beat cancer. Chuck Norris smoked 15 cartons of cigarettes a day for 2 years and aquired 7 different kinds of cancer only to rid them from his body by flexing for 30 minutes. Beat that, Lance Armstrong.

That was just the beginning, though. Now it has come to light that Chuck Norris is the driving force behind an all new form of ass kicking for entertainment known as the World Combat League:

There is currently no full-contact martial arts team sport in the United States. The WCL will be the only venue to offer the public full-contact martial arts fighting. There is literally no competition for the services and products the WCL will offer to the public. There is a huge demand for martial arts in the United states and the WCL will be the first sports league to offer the excitement and unpredictability of full-contact martial arts fighting.

Sure, Chuck is only a “suit” at the top of the WCL ladder. And yeah, it looks like the fighting is just glorified kick boxing — hands and feet only (stick to the UFC if you enjoy elbows, Muy Thai knees, and grappling). But they have women on the teams (WCL is a “team sport”… kind of like Davis Cup tennis…?), and the whole contest is supposedly set up to encourage action. In fact, there are penalties for being too passive or stalling.

Might be worth checking out.

One is only left to wonder if all of this is happening because of the fact that Chuck Norris is Dubya’s favoritest actor in, like, ever!

Score!

So we’re almost one third of the way into the first season of the “new” NHL and we have players with as many as 21 goals, 31 assists (Go Foppa! We miss you.), and 39 points.

That could work out to season numbers in the neighborhood of 70 goals, 100 assists, and 130 points. Those aren’t quite Gretzky in the ’80s numbers (”He ended that 1981-1982 season with records of 92 goals, 120 assists, and 212 points in 80 games.”), but they are quite a jump from the past few seasons’ totals.

Of course, the goalies must be hating life. ;)

God Bless the Socialized North

Good news for inmates who aren’t already tattooed

“The program has advantages in that we can take a practice that already occurs, and make it safer,” said Holly Knowles, a spokeswoman for Correctional Services Canada. “We’re trying to reduce the amount of make-shift needles.”

Isn’t that nice? Now the boys in the joint can get their prison tattoos without fear of infection. Yay!

I wonder if the authorities will try to censor content at all.

Oh, and since when are Canadian dollars almost neck and neck with US greenbacks?!

Prisoners are allowed a one-hour controlled session with an inmate tattoo artist for C$5 (US$4.25).

Wasn’t it almost two-to-one a couple years ago? Looks like the Loonie has been on the rise as of late, while the green stuff has generally been sliding. So much for that “act like a millionaire gansta” vacation to Canada, eh?

Delicious Peace

Need a fresh cuppa Joe? Think about ordering some Mirembe Kawomera Ugandan coffee next time you stock up.

Mirembe Kawomera (mir´em bay cow o mare´a) means “delicious peace” in the Ugandan language Luganda. It is the name of a Ugandan cooperative of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian coffee farmers.

The farmers of the Mirembe Kawomera Cooperative are a courageous example of people of faith working together for peace, tolerance, and economic justice.

Thanks to the good folks at Thanksgiving Coffee (who have been doing the whole fair trade thing forever) we can get the product of this co-op’s toil right here in the USofA. And lest you suspect your pruchase might only line the pockets of fat Americans:

On October 1st Thanksgiving Coffee wired $2,500 to the co-op’s bank account in Uganda. This is an advance on future rebates from sales of Mirembe Kawomera Coffee, and will enable a dramatic expansion in coffee production this year in Uganda.

That money is being used to purchase hand-cranked coffee pulping machines, of which the co-op has only had one to date, thus limiting their production capabilities.