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Friday, August 04, 2006

Friday fumbling

Note to self: putting soap on your toothbrush causes excessive lather and a lingering taste of cleanser every time you brush your teeth henceforth.

Why do I always have to discover the obvious in such a personal way?





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Categories: asides, photographs, daily life

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Monday, July 31, 2006

A Day in the Life of Oliver Basset
On any day I'm working from home

06.30 Rudely awakened and shoved outside into the cold

06.35 Feeding time. Chew each bite 100 times to drag out the process as long as possible.

07.00 Find Nugget on bed, hump him mercilessly until he moves.

07.02 Nap.

07.46 Move to couch.

07.49 Nap.

09.22 Turn over.

10.16 Lift head to watch She Who Must Be Obeyed head into kitchen.

10.18 Sniff air excitedly in case there's food being prepared.

10.20 Decide it's only coffee being made, fall back asleep.

11.51 Stand up on couch, turn around several times, dig a little bit to make cushion more comfortable, get yelled at for digging, flop down and go back to sleep.

12.45 Follow She Who Must Be Obeyed into the kitchen to see what's on for lunch.

12.50 Try desperately to trip She Who Must Be Obeyed while she's carrying food.

12.52 Sit at She Who Must Be Obeyed's feet whining and dribbling drool between her toes.

13.06 Give up on food, lay down on rug. Nap.

14.18 Jump up on couch, push Nugget off couch. Sleep.

15.23 Sit in front of She Who Must Be Obeyed waggling in the hopes of getting a scritch on the head.

15.26 Roll over for belly rub.

15.31 Lose interest when She Who Must Be Obeyed gets back to work. Go to get drink of water. Head outside to relieve self, check out what's going on with the neighbours.

15.40 Crawl onto bed. Afternoon snooze.

16.51 Grumble at Nugget who has decided to start barking non-stop at absolutely nothing.

16.52 Decide Nugget's barking can be slept through. Go back to sleep.

18.10 Wake up when He Who Doesn't Have To Be Obeyed comes home. Sniff him to see if any food was brought in.

18.35 Dinner time. Drive He Who Doesn't Have To Be Obeyed insane until he puts out dinner.

19.00 Walkies! While out: practice drool-flinging at the neighbours. Desperately pull on leash in order to piddle on nearest person's shoes.

20.00 Jump up on couch onto He Who Doesn't Have To Be Obeyed's lap. Snooze contentedly.

-- no recollection of anything between 20.00 and 23.00 --

23.00 Bed time. Refuse to get off couch until offered a doggie-oreo or a liver treat.

23.05 Head in to bed. Sleep. Dream of chasing bunnies.

Categories: silliness, photoshops, pets, photographs

.:1 comment | baked by pie at 11.00 AM | permalink:.

Saturday, July 29, 2006

I. Am. Fookin'. Tired.
Warning: boring post ahead

Rob and I decided to get last minute tickets to see Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young on Thursday night, although we end up missing the first half-hour of the show due to traffic (took us an hour and a half to drive approx. 19 miles) and had to leave a few minutes early to miss the post-concert traffic since I hadn't had any dinner yet, and I didn't want to get home at 1.30am. [Holy run-on sentence, Batman.] Sorry, no photos as they were really strict about not letting in any recording devices. I did get a really groovy CSNY shirt, though. You'll just have to imagine how utterly fantastic I look in it, since it's safer for everyone concerned for me to remain behind the camera.

So anyway, after being up until nearly 4am Thursday night, I dragged my carcass into work and single-handedly destroyed several trees in creating installation and help documents for the software-integrated website I built. Now I'm just hoping to actually get some sleep tonight - if I can turn my brain off for a few minutes. We're going to see the Buzzcocks Saturday night (woohoo!), and I was hoping to take a wander round downtown Seattle before the show and use my new camera to take some photos of something other than the hounds and various attractively-positioned household objects.

But because I'm boring like that, here are a few photos I took this week that I was quite pleased with. I'm taking the camera to the show tomorrow night, so if I manage to actually get the correct settings to work, hopefully I'll have some snazzy Buzzcocks photos on Sunday.











Click on images to view full-size in a new window

Categories: music, daily life, photographs

.:4 comments | baked by pie at 1.51 AM | permalink:.

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Pictures of You

Last weekend, I bought myself a present: a Canon EOS Rebel XT. Damn thing cost me about $900 all told, with extra memory and accessories, so I'm extremely pleased about how the photos are coming out. I'm still learning all the different functions and the best settings to use in different circumstances, but I've managed to shoot a few fairly decent photos that I thought I'd bore you with share here. And damn it, it's my blog so I'll do what I want.

And anyway, I'm currently being worked to into a near-death state by my job, so I don't have the energy to come up with anything amusing, and this stupid bright light coming from out of that weird tunnel is blinding me.













Click on images to view originals on Flickr

Categories: photographs, daily life

.:4 comments | baked by pie at 10.50 PM | permalink:.

Friday, May 19, 2006

London calling

While we were in London, I forced Rob to join me on a tour of the hangouts and doorways I used when I was homeless, so I could take some photos, most of which didn't turn out anyway. As I was taking a photo of my rain-sheltered doorway, I asked Rob if he thought it was weird that I was taking photos of these places, and his answer was, "yes". Of course. I personally don't think it's strange to revisit places that stir up less-than-pleasant memories. The photos are visual reminders of how I bottomed out, and how lucky I am to be here now.

No, don't worry, I'm not about to get all maudlin and tearful or anything. If nothing else, it was nice to see that the brothels in the area are still claiming that they're just housing 'models' instead of hookers. No matter how out-of-place Rob and I felt back in London this time (I can't believe how much has changed just in the last 7 years - Carnaby Street has turned into a yuppie hell-hole, for one thing), you can always count on some things to stay the same. Such as hookers calling themselves models.

Categories: the past, daily life, photographs

.:5 comments | baked by pie at 12.35 PM | permalink:.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

An Open Letter to Patrons of the London Underground

Dear Tube Patrons,

Please discover deodorant. When the weather gets up around 20C it's time to learn of its use. I do not appreciate having your sweaty, hairy underarms in my face while trying to innocently travel from Holland Park to Tottenham Court Road. I realise that it's hot, and that we're crammed into little metal containers like sardines, but it's just common courtesy to attempt some personal hygiene so that you don't cause nausea in your fellow passengers.

And speaking of nausea, when leaving the pub late at night after having had a few too many, please empty your stomach contents into the nearest trash receptacle before entering the Tube. I don't think I've ever seen so many people move from one side of the car to the other so quickly before - not even when I saw a well-dressed businessman yark in his own lap years ago.

In closing, I would like to say that London is my favourite city, and I would move back there in a heartbeat if I could afford it, but traveling on the Tube, while cheap and handy, is not as pleasant as it could be. Please work on this.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Pie

Please note that this open letter is not directed towards all Tube patrons, just the stinky, barfing ones.

Yes, we're back. I'll have some details tomorrow (hopefully). In the meantime, you can view a few of our holiday photos here: London photoset at Flickr. More to come.

Categories: letters, irritations, daily life, photographs

.:7 comments | baked by pie at 8.55 PM | permalink:.

Friday, April 14, 2006

What I love about America

Only in the US could a company package tiny little chocolate cookies in a box and call it cereal - and then have the audacity to label it as "healthy" because it's apparently made from whole grains.

People have brought refusal to take responsibility for their own actions to a whole new level. For instance, this guy, an FBI agent no less, is suing General Motors and a local Chevy dealership (for forcing him to purchase the truck, I'm sure - just like McDonalds forces all those obese people to scarf down 3 Big Macs, 6 orders of fries and every dessert on the menu) after being involved in a drunk-driving incident in which he jumped a curb and passed out. After he'd been sitting there awhile, the truck's engine caught on fire. My favourite part of this article is that he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.306 percent, nearly four times the current legal limit, and yet they're unclear on how he came to be passed out in his truck. He just "somehow lost consciousness". Yeah, that's a total mystery.

Free potatoes!

And now a photo, for no reason other than that I really liked it.

Click on image for full-size

Categories: photographs, current events

.:2 comments | baked by pie at 10.49 PM | permalink:.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Motivation


Click on image for full size. Made with fd's flickr toys

Categories: silliness, pets, photographs

.:4 comments | baked by pie at 10.53 PM | permalink:.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Space apes, detachable ears and the flu

So we're back. Rob and I had a great time doing some touristy Vegas stuff like visiting art galleries, loitering at the dolphin habitat, and shopping. Of course the main reason we went was the NIN show, which was fantastic even though Trent's voice was pretty rough. My biggest complaint was the crowd. It was obvious that most of the people sitting around us knew maybe three NIN songs total, and spent most of the show sitting down - except for the guy in front of me who seemed to have a fetish for arena seating and kept humping the chair in front of him. Didn't stop me from enjoying the hell out of the show, though. I think the problem is that people know a few songs and decide, 'Hey, we're in Vegas, they're in Vegas, let's get tickets'. Weiners.

The set list was pretty good: they played Even Deeper, which I've never seen live before, although I felt that they played a few too many off With Teeth, and only one song from The Fragile. There was apparently no sound check or meet & greet for 'Spiral' members (the paid fan club of which I'm a member... shut up, it's a damned good deal - we get webcasts, live band chats, band members interacting on the messageboards, exclusive photos, etc.), which was fine with me because I wasn't about to get up at 9am to be one of the first 50 people in the 'Spiral' line. Other highlights included an extremely moving rendition of Something I Can Never Have, Josh wearing black tape as eyebrows, goatee and moustache during part of the set (he's an incredible drummer), a drunken cat-fight in the audience during Hurt (okay, it wasn't exactly a highlight), Saul Williams throwing NIN cookies into the crowd, and Trent climbing up on a platform for Closer.

I didn't take many photos of the trip - hell, I didn't even bring my camera to the show, since I was concerned that they might not allow photography and would confiscate my camera, but I took a bunch of photos of the dolphin habitat at the Mirage which you can see here if you're so inclined. We also went to an exhibition of Impressionist art at the Bellagio (which left something to be desired), but their gift shop rocks: I got a Vincent Van Gogh doll with removable ear, a Dali magic cube and a metal rocket filled with magnetic space monkeys.

Coming back yesterday, I started feeling really rough, and today I'm feeling positively awful. So I'm going to bed now, just wanted to pop in to recap our trip. And I regret to inform you that I forgot to get you all a "Pie went to Vegas and all I got was this crappy shirt" t-shirt.

Categories: music, daily life, photographs

.:5 comments | baked by pie at 6.50 PM | permalink:.

Friday, March 17, 2006

Where to squat, and where to lean

I'm a bit late this week, but trust me, this squatter is worth the wait. Please say hello to Gary from But I Digress..., this week's denizen of my sidebar. Gary's blog is well-written, entertaining and hilarious; he's got a real flair for comedic writing. He tackles such subjects as whether Hurley is eating the missing survivors on Lost, and whether the First Amendment guarantees your right to own a pet. This was also one of the first blogs to rent space to me, and he gave me the best write-up ever. If I ever take my cult global, I want him doing my PR work.

So take your feet off my coffee table, and head on over to Gary's place to track mud all over his floors for a change. Go on. Get. Do I really have to say "or else the dog gets it"?

Categories: pets, photographs, blogging

.:1 comment | baked by pie at 9.34 PM | permalink:.