Hey hey! I thought I should also mention that there will be NO TV Night at my house this Sunday night (Nov 5) as I will not be back from Toronto yet. It’s unfortunate, because it’s all new episodes of the shows, but I’m sure the Rob’s will have something going on.

Check their new MSN Live Space: http://alpha-house.spaces.live.com

Just to clear things up, there is NOT a Halloween Party at my house tonight. I know I talked about planning one, but I didn’t, and I have plans to take some small children out to beg for candy. If there were a party, I would have made a very scary flyer to post up here by now. I’m sorry to anyone who was looking forward to it. I’m sure you’ll still have fun!

EDIT: Robert has informed me that there IS a Halloween Themed movie night going on at his house tonight. Check their weblog for details: http://alpha-house.spaces.live.com

Here’s the latest information from Andrew Simon on The Seed. (I’ve added a category (see sidebar) for all posts relating to this project.

Dear Creatures,

We are happy to announce the dawn of Owen Sound’s youth activism movement. Through the support of our collective, we have nurtured our plans to establish an independant media organization and artistic co-op, and have finally decided to take root in the Owen Sound community. This pilot project will determine whether or not Owen Sound will embrace the youth’s intention to take a stance as engaged citizens, and to raise our voices through the format of a community newsletter, known lovingly as the ‘Seed’. Many of the fundraising campaigns carried out by our organization will provide the funds necessary to cover our publication costs.
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I’ve been looking, but unable to find, a plugin for WordPress that will allow me to click a button or something while browsing the web, and would then automatically add that pages URL to a page on my weblog of “interesting websites I’ve been reading” for all to see. I read a lot, and it’s too time consuming to constantly add links in a new post manually every time I read something I think others would be interested in. If you happen to know of any plugin like this, please let me know!

EDIT: Nevermind. After another hour of looking, I found one. Hooray! Links coming soon…

A lot of people were complaining about drinking and drugs at Pie Day on the Middle Of Nowhere Forum, so I posted up these thoughts about it.

I’m all for having no substances at Pie Day if that is the general concensus, so please don’t misinterpret what I’m trying to say here. I just have to ask though, given the reasons people were listing for disliking those activities. What’s the difference between someone who’s acting like an idiot because they are drunk/stoned, and someone who’s just acting like an idiot while sober? Because I’ve noticed a lot of each, and to me the sober idiots often seem to have a higher potential for ‘ruining’ pieday. Should we widen the rule against substances to include a ban on being an idiot in general? How about a ban on couples groping and making out? It’s a bit hard to have a conversation with people when their mouths are stuck together. And couples (or ex-couples) fighting can also be quite a downer at these social events. Myself, I left piedays a while ago because a lot of the newer crowd seemed to be suffering from some severe cliqueiness. That seemes to have gotten better now, but it’s something to watch out for. Nothing will ruin anyone’s mood more than feeling left out of things.
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I was just watching the News, and saw a story about some guy who climbed to the top of a very tall Jesus statue, in order to pray for his epilepsy to be healed. After a bit he decided to come back down, at which point he lost his grip and fell 15 metres(?). I’m not sure what the extent of the damage was, but I bet it didn’t help his epilepsy. They actually showed footage of him falling, though they cut it off just before he hit the ground. Am I disturbed for enjoying the irony in this situation? Unfortunately I can’t find this story on the Internet, but I’m going to keep looking. Jesus saves, just so long as you don’t try to climb on top of him.

EDIT: dys4ik sent me a link to the video.

~ The Ultimate Halloween Party @ The Robs’ ~

* by “might regret it” we mean, if we can find some funny hats or something, we may try to persuade you to wear them, possibly making you feel very silly.

Type Kandi Kids into Google Image search and check out the first image! (I’ve hyperlinked the image seperately because the first result will probably change in the future.)

In case you don’t know, that’s our good friend Snuggle Bunny covered in plastic. Yay rave?

I read today that the Supreme Court of Canada decided that the post 9/11 terrorism laws were a bit silly, and struck down parts of it, specifically bits dealing with motivation. Under the terrorism law, a criminal act could be considered “terrorism” if it was motivated by religious or political ideologies. The courts said this is bizarre. A crime is a crime in the court of law, regardless of motivation. Minutes after reading this article, who should walk into the same eating establishment but the pastor from Shallow Lake Community Church. He’s a neat guy and all, but he had some pro-Bush, anti-Islamic views that got me upset frequently. And it got me to thinking:
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Say what you like about Nirvana, but Kurt Cobain has just unseated Elvis Presley as the #1 money earner amongst dead celebrities. Makes me wonder about the world, where there’s people who are still alive are having trouble getting by. (article in The Toronto Star)

I’ve been working with a teriffic fellow named Andrew Simon recently, along with a group of fantastically motivated souls, on a project to launch a media publication in the area. Rather than trying to explain it myself, I’ll repost the Concept Map for the magazine I was e-mailed:
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Hey nation, Steven Colbert needs your help smack talking Owen Sound! Watch the video here. We’re right at the end. A few of us were going to try to produce something on video to send in, but it looks like the deadline is too soon…? The game’s on Saturday. We may still do something when the good camera comes back from the shop, just for fun. Some sort of mockumentary on the joys of living in the OS.

Read the Sun Times article here.

And the Sun Times followup to that article.

You’re invited to
~ Rob & Rob’s Coffee House ~
Thursday October 19, 2006 - 8pm
443 Alpha St.
coffee, expresso, tea, & hot chocolate @ $0.25/cup

I’m just posting this info for the Robs. I don’t know anything else about it, nor am I likely going. But have fun if you do!

Apparently I’ve been talked into providing some musical entertainment. I can’t promise anything spectacular, but it may be entertaining.

I woke up this morning with severe pain in my neck. Also, when I try to move much I realize it extends down the length of my spine. I can’t really determine what the cause is, though the leading suspects are either having slept on it weirdly, or having drunk too much liquor and not enough water the evening before. It’s not gone away all day, despite the noble efforts of a good friend. I’m just hoping it dissapears miraculously overnight. I have also been completely tired and lethargic all day. It’s odd. Maybe the weather? Anyhow, I’m looking forward to bed. This day feels like a total write-off as far as accomplishing anything useful goes. Oh well. There will be more days.

Alright folk. After four exciting hours of sleep I’m leaving for the city. Don’t call my phone unless it’s an emergency. It might still be local for you, but I get charged Long Distance, which ends up costing me a lot. (This doesn’t apply if you live in the Toronto area, in which case you can phone me as much as you like this weekend!) I’m not sure about TV Night, but it will probably be small or non-existant, depending on when I get back. Look here Sunday afternoon to find out. Have a good weekend all!

Tonight’s Theme: guys with recently departed or deceased girlfriends. We’ve already started, but if you fit that description, give me a call and we’ll invite you over. It’s going to be good manly fun!

Rob, the only one with a professional cooking degree, just lit my kitchen on fire. Owen says “It smells like burning in here. OMG! LOL. What the fuck caught fire!!” Rob says “I don’t know… I got burnt. Ha ha ha!” Guys night is fun. Don’t you wish you were here? LOL…..? Oh noes… I hope there’s insurance…

EDITS: Quotes of the night:

Jon: It doesn’t seem like the spaghetti was on long enough!
Owen: It was on fire! It’s definilty done!

Owen: I like how you started a fire with nothing on the stove.

Rob: and then I got the nickname “Master Felatio!”
Owen: That’s for giving head to guys, you know?
Rob: Oh shit!

Jon: We’re manly men! Now let’s drink more to prove it!

I haven’t been updating very frequently lately. This is why.

I don’t normally like re-posting things from other people’s blogs, but this one seemed particularily good. It’s from Scott Adam’s weblog (the writer of the Dilbert comic). Do try to keep in mind that it’s satirical! His weblog is a good read. He updates it daily, and I would reccomend it to mostly everyone. I’ll have some of my own content soon. For now I’m editing a wedding video. Hooray!

Tragedy Ranking System - by Scott Adams

Every time there’s a military conflict, someone points out that many of the victims were NOT adult men. The theory is that a tragedy is way more tragic if anyone other than adult men get killed. If you throw a woman or a minor or a puppy into the mix then we all have a reason to be sadder and madder.

I totally agree with the view that some tragedies are more tragic than others, depending on who is involved. But I do demand efficiency. That’s why I propose ranking the value of all types of people so I can more easily judge how sad I should feel when they get killed.

For example, if 400 villagers are buried in a mudslide, I’d like to know how many of them were drunks, assholes, nags, dickheads, crooks, or males, just to pick a few examples. I wouldn’t feel as much pressure to feel bad about that portion of the village. In the best case scenario, the victims would all be adult men with no special talents. That’s barely even a tragedy. We adult males have our uses to be sure, but society agrees that it’s not such a big deal when someone kills us.

I think that the main reason there are so many wars is that most of the soldiers are adult males. If all wars had to be fought exclusively by second graders or contestants from the Special Olympics, no one would ever start a war because the results would be too tragic.

Jackass 2 - The Movie
Meet @ Galaxy Cinemas - Owen Sound
Tuesday Oct 3 - 7:00pm
BYOB (try to be inconspicuous, you idiots!)
Followed by an After Party @ Rob’z (optional)

Last night Little Jon had to go home to write an essay about his dead grandmother. So to prevent him from having to leave, I wrote the essay for him. He told me to post it up here.

My dear grandma
By Jon Frost

My grandma is squishy and smelly. She’s been dead for a long long time. She’s not very much fun to hang out with now.

Also, there were far too many emergency meetings in the kitchen apparently.

An Inconvinient Truth, a documentary featuring Al Gore about the dangers of environmental changes, is screening today at Galaxy Cinemas at 1:30, 4:15 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $12. Is anyone planning on going?

I had strange and disturbing dreams last night. I can’t remember what they were, but I recognize the weird feeling in my brain. It’s still there hours after getting up. I went to sleep shortly after 11pm, woke up again at 1am, then tossed and turned for hours. I must have fallen asleep again at some point, because then at 5am I woke up and threw up my supper. More tossing and turning, now with a sore stomach, and then some more sleep sometime after 7am, filled with those odd dreams. What now? If anyone’s up and bored and near downtown, give me a shout. I think getting out of the house might help a bit.