Bryan Kilian

Me at the Courthouse, applying for a passport:

Lady at other window, also applying for passport: Are you from South Africa?
Me: Um, yes, originally.
Lady: You must be so proud of Charlize Theron.
Me: ...

This is well worth watching. I laughed out loud a number of times.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/a/alpinelegend/default.htm

A yodeling video game. Best April fools production values I've seen in a long time.

The awesome awesome video must be watched.

Only the Japanese. (I used the american name of the program, it's japanese name will become apparent when you watch it)

So I’ve had Win 7 on my machine for the last while, but I hadn’t really looked into the new Windows Live stuff that shipped for it. I decided to try Live Writer just for larks. It’s actually pretty cool, it gives you “previews”, and seems to understand quite a few blog types.

It appears easily extensible, but there doesn’t seem to be much for LJ addins yet.

I’ll have to play with it some more and see what else it can do, but all-in-all, a nifty tool for today’s blog-centric world. (Certainly better than the horrid web-based rich text editors)

Watch this, listen to the narrator, and try _not_ to think of Iron Chef.

If Memory serves me correctly...

I went to the allergist this morning, because my hayfever makes me miserable through most of the summer months, and I wanted to find out what I should punish for its insolence.

It appears I should punish the whole of Washington.

Things I am HIGHLY allergic to (As in, their scale doesn't go high enough to express my allergic reaction):

• Any grasses
• Red Alder
• White Birch (which I think are the trees outside our bedroom)

Things I am strongly allergic to (top of their scale):

• Weeds: Sorrel, Lambs Quarters, Plantain
• Trees: Cottonwood, Siberian Elm, Red Oak
• Cats and Dogs (wtf?)

Things I am mildly allergic to:

• Weeds: Pigweed, Cocklebur, Russian Thistle, Kochia
• A number of molds
• Trees: English Walnut, Ash, Poplar
• House Dust
• Hypoallergenic type dogs.

And, amusingly,

• Peanuts and Wheat

So next week I go in to start getting the injections, since without razing most of western Washington to the ground and paving over it, there's very little chance of me just avoiding my allergens.

That's not a phrase you ever want to have apply to you. The "only" part is deceptive, it's really three lifetimes. I was seeing other peoples lives flashing in front of my eyes. (No really, at one point, I was a spy of some sort, and my enemy had poisoned me)

Everything I ingested, solid or liquid, was Detected, Inspected, Rejected and Ejected, with the direction of ejection apparently randomly chosen.

Feeling much better now, after being infused with 2 litres (that's half a gallon for you merkins, or four ninths of a gallon for the brits) of saline, jabbed in the ass with an antiemetic, and some pain meds for the muscle aches. Note that after both bags, I still had no urge to pee, proving I was quite dehydrated to start with.

Currently it only hurts when I breathe, talk, or move, so a definate improvement.

As an aside, my doctor is hot. That picture doesn't really do her justice either. This, of course, meant that the uncontrollable physiological effects of close proximity to hotness made for amusing problems.
[nurse] Pulse 102
A few minutes later
[doctor] Pulse 120, even higher than the nurse recorded.
After some saline:
[doctor] Aah, pulse 92, getting better
[mike, the LPN] Pulse 80, you're doing great
[laura] *MPFFT* *trying not to LOL*

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=216541&title=Bishop-Gene-Robinson


For those who don't know, Gene Robinson is an openly gay Anglican (Episcopalian) bishop.

Watch the video for the chess joke :)

So I grew up in a country where, from an early age, I was exposed to multiple languages. Most of my early childhood friends were afrikaans, if you wanted to watch anything decent on TV (all the good stuff got dubbed) you had to understand english and afrikaans (and sometimes zulu or xhosa - "Rabobi, Rabobi, yanga sizwe Rabobi...")

As a result, conversations could take place in both languages simultaneously, with people switching in and out as the mood took them. This seemed perfectly normal to us, although, in general, it was considered polite to speak the home language of the person you were talking to (which sometimes had the hilarious result of the english person speaking afrikaans - badly, and the afrikaans person replying in english - badly)

Even now, when I would have difficulty holding a conversation in Afrikaans (I pretty much stopped speaking it when I went to Rhodes, not much call for it deep in 1820 settler country), it seems perfectly natural to hear it. I can't imagine someone not understanding it.

As an example, here is a youtube clip where both the interviewer and interviewee switch between english and afrikaans randomly. (The interviewee is Pieter Dirk Uys, in his alter ego of "Evita Bezuidenhout")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XPCIAjQRts

When I came across the clip, I thought, "hee, I should show this to Laura and Kris". And then I realised that they probably wouldn't understand some of the funny parts of the conversation, it not being in english.

So we might like to think that the crazy unfettered mortgage lending and credit crunch was a unique happening, it's pretty much happened before.

You may not remember it though, since it happened in AD 32.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/fourmilog/archives/2008-12/001089.html

Hence followed a scarcity of money, a great shock being given to all credit, the current coin too, in consequence of the conviction of so many persons and the sale of their property, being locked up in the imperial treasury or the public exchequer.

Looks like they solved it in pretty much the same way too...

The destruction of private wealth precipitated the fall of rank and reputation, till at last the emperor interposed his aid by distributing throughout the banks a hundred million sesterces, and allowing freedom to borrow without interest for three years, provided the borrower gave security to the State in land to double the amount. Credit was thus restored, and gradually private lenders were found.

Laura will be coming home today, probably around noon I suspect. Anyone wanting to come visit to keep her company, worship her, or just say hi, is welcome to come around this afternoon and evening.

Thanks for all the support so far, I have been reading Laura all the responses and messages, and it has helped her stay upbeat.

8. a Have you ever been a member of or associated with any organization, association, fund, foundation, party, club, society or similar group in the United States or in any other place?
8. b If you answered "Yes," list the name of each group below. If you need more space, attach the names of the other group(s) on a separate sheet(s) of paper.

Seriously? Seriously!?!? Do I have to list Art Club? The Choir?

15. Have you ever committed a crime or offense for which you were not arrested?

Like who in their right mind would ever answer yes to this? And what do they mean by "offense"? I believe both G.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton would have had to answer "Yes" to this.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090110/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/state_department_e_mail

Officials said the storm started when some diplomats used the 'reply all' function to respond to a blank e-mail sent recently to many people on the department's global address list.

Most demanded to be removed from the list while others used 'reply all' to tell their co-workers, in often less than diplomatic language, to stop responding to the entire group, the officials said.

Some then compounded the problem by trying to recall their initial replies, which generated another round of messages to the group, they said.

Reads like something that the Onion would post, but it's actually real...

http://factorytown.blogspot.com/2005/11/how-to-eat-pho.html

... just walk into any mens room...

We're considering buying a car for my parents at some point. Both their current vehicles are costing them a fortune in maintenance, and that's not very good. Does anyone know the implications of us doing this? How will the taxes work? How do we transfer the money? Any ideas?

(My parents live in .za)