Here it is.
I’ll have more substantive things to say soon.
I have seen this image where it is used to indicate a NSFW post. To tie into that, just imagine the eloquence of the typical Canucks fan after watching Game 6 earlier this evening. I expect the language used would be very much NSFW. (The Canucks lost the series 4-2 and game six by a score of 5-1.)
Duran Duran is one of those bands that I always made fun of but secretly liked. Sure, they were very pretty and had ultimate 80s hair, but their music was catchy and the videos were fun, even if they eventually turned into bloated spectacles (hello, Wild Boys).
Today I spent $7.99 to pick up the one album of theirs that I owned again, so I now have a digital copy of Seven and the Ragged Tiger. Listening to it, I finally realize those pops I thought were a bad copy of the cassette version I bought in the olden days of 1983 are actually in the recordings themselves, preserved with remarkable clarity in Apple’s shiny AAC format. I don’t find it annoying, though. It’s actually kind of quaint.
The album doesn’t sound as dated as I had expected, which is probably just another sign of getting old. I promise the next music I buy will be from this century.
A few weeks ago I read a news story about Environment Canada’s “spring forecast”. They predicted that the entire country — yes, the whole dang thing — would experience warmer, drier conditions this spring. What they didn’t mention was the rain and wind, the endless high wind. From The Weather Network website earlier today:
Wind Warning : Greater Vancouver
Issued at 3:51 PM PDT Sunday 2 May 2010
Summary
West to northwest winds up to 80 km/h will develop overnight. This is a warning that potentially damaging winds are expected or occurring in these regions. Monitor weather conditions..Listen for updated statements.
Details
An unseasonably strong cold front will move southward across the British Columbia south coast tonight. High pressure building rapidly behind the front will cause strong westerly winds up to 80 km/h to develop over much of Vancouver Island and the inner coast overnight and early Monday morning. Winds will gradually ease beginning late Monday morning or Monday afternoon.
***
Nothing says spring like potentially damaging winds! So yeah, patiently waiting for real spring to arrive and this silly faux wintry stuff to take a hike.
May 1st, to be precise.
Continuing with the theme of “embarrassing pictures from my youth” here is a blurry photo of me taken from one of our summer trips to Lake Osoyoos back in the late 60s/early 70s. I’m probably about 5 here, so that would place this shot around 1969. I really can’t recall why I was aiming water at my crotch but it’s one of those things that’s perfectly logical to the mind of a five year old. I’m going to at least state that the sizable puddle at my feet was already there before I arrived. Yep.
As I mentioned in the previous post, as a teenager I became concerned that my ears were big. Too big. So big, in fact, that they must be hidden from the world, lest their bigness lead to certain catastrophe. This is evidence of my ear paranoia.
The photo below is undated but I believe I was 14 at the time, which would place it around 1978 or ’79. Note the glasses aren’t even close to being on straight but who cares? I had tinted aviators and was stylin’ big time. But really, your eye is drawn to the Hair, which appears to be reluctantly avoiding swallowing up my entire head. That is serious girlie hair. I mean, it’s almost pretty and really, it shouldn’t be. There’s also an admirable synergy between the crooked glasses and that immense mess of golden locks in the way the hair grows down to the top of the glasses and then seemingly along them in order that I may still have an unobstructed view of things.
I sometimes harbor a fantasy of growing my hair long again. Pictures like this tend to cure that.
(click to enlarge — if you dare!)
I have nearly all of my class photos, which in a way is kind of amazing. I’m scanning them in over time and the one below will eventually get added to the proper photo gallery with the rest. For now, here’s a look at my grade 2 class photo or “What I looked like 39 years ago”. Yikes! I am the last one on the right in the middle row, wearing a fashionably striped shirt. Our teacher was Mrs. Buckingham and we sometimes (out on the playground, never in class) called her Buckingham cigarettes because it was a popular brand at the time. How did a bunch of seven year old kids know about brands of cigarettes? Advertising! It amazes me how many of my elementary school teachers look exactly like the classic school marm stereotype. She was a pretty good lady, though. The kid with the ears two over from my right was not only the only kid in class who could always color inside the lines, he was freakishly good at drawing in general. It was because of him that I learned early on in life that there’s always someone who can do something better than you. I wonder if he kept pursuing art.
(click to see full-size)
Here’s a close-up:
Stylin’ spectacles and a blank stare that suggests no current brain activity. I later became famously concerned that my ears stuck out too much. This becomes evident based on the hair “styles” I adopted in my senior school years. You’ll also understand why I put that word in quotes, too.
Do you ever get the urge to go back and finish some project you started years ago? I do from time to time but the reality is even if I decide to, I rarely complete a once-abandoned project, probably because I had a good reason for abandoning it.
A few years ago I began making a model of my cartoon character Angry Carrot out of plasticine. I only had green and orange plasticine, so I couldn’t do the black bits (face, arms, legs). Instead of going to a store to get the missing black, I just put what I had started in a cupboard and let it sit there for a couple of years.
Today I suddenly got it into my head to check the art supply store DeSerres while I was out. I figure if any place would have black plasticine, it would be an art store.
And lo, they did!
It was a brand they are not carrying anymore, so it was on clearance for, as you can see, $1.95. The clerk told me there would be no refunds or exchanges because of this. I’m thinking, “Dude, it’s modeling clay and it’s less than two dollars. Who would bring it back for a refund? Someone who thought it was licorice?” I then realized this is exactly what would happen, so I simply smiled politely at the clerk.
For reference, here is a panel from an Angry Carrot comic:
I realized a couple of things as I slapped on Angry Carrot’s limbs:
Still, for a ‘proof of concept’ it’s not too bad. It is recognizably Angry Carrot.
Close-up:
Scary perspective shot from below!
And one more from above:
It was fun exercising my fingers without using a keyboard for a change. I’ll probably start another model of Angry Carrot from scratch with some sculpting tools and a better workspace and see how that goes. My ultimate plan would be to use actual modeling clay, probably the self-drying kind as I don’t have a kiln handy.
With the prescription for my glasses recently updated I have started perusing various optical shops, casting about for a new look for the eventuality of getting new frames. Today I visited the optical department of Sears as I was passing through Pacific Centre. These are about the boldest pair I tried on and apart from being too big for my narrow face, I rather like the way they look. They’re a fair bit different than what I have now and I’m kind of in the mood for different.
After figuring out how to delete status updates, I reactivated my Facebook account and purged all of the “Hey, I’m bored, I’ll post something kind of stupid” ones (this amounted to about four or so updates). I am now content enough with my profile to leave it up.
For now.
Again.
An acquaintance recently suggested a book to me that I am reading now called Refuse to Choose, written by Barbara Sher, a career counselor. As the Amazon description says, “Sher identifies someone she calls The Scanner who frequently has a multiplicity of interests, but finds it hard to create a successful life he or she loves because their passions and abilities are taking them in so many different directions.”
As I read the introductory chapters I admit to feeling a bit of recognition in the descriptions of these so-called “scanners”. If I tried to pursue everything I took an interest in I’d end up barely touching on most of them. In the past year or so I’ve taken swimming lessons, started teaching myself C#, begun learning to touch-type (again), written a novel, gone on about a million dates, bought a new sketchbook with a bunch of pens and pencils, and a new graphics tablet for drawing and probably a bunch of other things I’m forgetting. All of this on top of a job search since being laid off, and even that has taken a twist or two as I re-evaluate what truly interests me as far as work goes.
I’m definitely interested in seeing what the book offers beyond “you’re not a freak for having so many interests”. I feel I’m at a bit of a crossroads right now, so the timing is especially appropriate.
(This is reposted from a thread I created on Quarter to Three’s forum)
Shortly after wrapping up my job at Expo 86, which is what brought me to Vancouver, I began my second job, this time at McDonald’s. It was about as exciting and enriching as you might think. I didn’t actually cook much, I was mainly the lobby guy — the person who goes around cleaning all the tables, mopping up spills and taking out the trash. As part of my duties I had to check the washrooms and occasionally people would leave literature on the counter offering the promise of a better life, a low mortgage or why are you a stinking drunk, anyway?
One of the pamphlets I found was called The Truth About the HOMOSEXUALS. The copyright date on its inside cover is from 1978, so this was written in the era of Harvey Milk and before AIDS was known. For a long time I could not find the pamphlet and had resigned myself to having lost it and the treasured wisdom contained therein. But lo, I re-discovered it while looking for something else.
Here’s the cover. 20th Century Sodomites!
The opening pages:
I’ve scanned in the first few pages:
The Truth About the HOMOSEXUALS
“And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord. .he took away the sodomites out of the land.”-I Kings 15:11,12.
“The same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”-Luke 17: 29,30.
Hairy-chested males in frilly dresses and blonde wigs, their faces adorned with make-up, as they ride tricycles in public and dance with other perverts in San Francisco discos. Can you imagine that in a civilized society? Or the picture in the same magazine of young boys on leashes like dogs, soliciting as male prostitutes? They are called “gay slaves”! It is happening today!
Asa was obeying God when he took away the Sodomites out of the land. The people today who stand up for the (so-called “gay”) Sodomites have missed the whole point.
The homosexual battle is not with the “bigoted fundamentalists” as they call us, but with the Great God of the universe and His holy Word.
Critics say, “They quote from First Corinthians and Leviticus,” as if that were all there was to it. Other “gay” adherents say that anti-Sodomite Scripture is to be found only in the Old Testament and that it means nothing today.
The liberal media, as usual, has grabbed on to a news-maker. They are always anxious to get a juicy tidbit that is scandalous and sensational. And they smack their lips with even keener delight when it lends itself to the opportunity to scorn the hated “fundamentalist.” It has become great fun to ignore or misquote God’s Word while vilifying those who dare to stand for what decent, God-fearing Americans have always believed in.
The very fact that we suddenly have a flood tide of abnormality sweeping in upon us in an open movement of homosexuals clamoring for attention and approval, proves the accuracy of the very Bible they seek to refute.
Decent, Civilized People Have
Always Been Against This
Monstrous PerversionWhy have we had Sodomy laws on the books of our states for so many years? Why have homosexual marriages been taboo? Why have normal people of all faiths (or of no faith) always felt revul¬sion by such activity? Why have people of culture and modesty not even wanted to discuss such a subject? Because homosexuality is totally unnatural and abnormal, and our nation was founded upon Christian decency and a high regard for God and His Word.
A Gallup poll states that a great majority of Americans are convinced that homosexuality is more prevalent today than twenty-five years ago. Letters quoted in popular and liberal news magazines are almost all pro-homo¬sexual, which means that either decent Americans are too disgusted with the whole filthy business to want to discuss it, or the magazines are purposely picking the twisted paragraphs from the pro¬-gays to further their cause.
The phenomenum is not entirely new, of course. There have always been some perverted people around. Otherwise, there would have been no need for God to warn us about it in His Word, and no need to list it with other sins from which God can save a man (I Cor. 6:9).
Charles Goetz, a freelance writer and actor, writing in the Cincinnati Enquirer magazine, while reminding us that Henry VIII’s England decreed homosexuality a capital crime, states that if they think they have trouble with Anita Bryant today, they don’t know what trouble is. They’re lucky they’re not living in ancient Persia. Under Zoroastrian law anyone working with an ax and coming upon a couple engaged in an “unnatural art” was obliged either to behead the riders or to rip them open.
Hindus and Mohammedans also took a dim view of homosexuality, although their punishments were not as severe as the Persians. Many classical Greeks were somewhat notorious for their homosexual life styles, believing that the unnatural act was something of a prelude to a natural sex life later on.
Goetz quotes doctors who say that homosexuality is usually more prevalent among males than females, and that “gay” pairs “most frequently consist of a young male and a somewhat older partner.”
Our Permissive Society Lets
Crime Go Unpunished, So
It Becomes More BoldTerrifying telecasts on the evening news recently revealed that hordes of young boys are working as boy prostitutes in California cities. One San Francisco man was jailed after being charged with sexual involvement with boys as young as seven years of age in male prostitution and pornography. The charges included pimping, pandering, contributing to the delinquency of minors and molesting young boys.
A Farmington, Michigan Catholic priest was arrested on charges of second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a fourteen-year-old boy. At the same time Oakland, California, police were investigating the kidnap murders of four young Oakland County boys who had been sexually molested.
After the defeat of the Gay-Rights ordinance in Miami, Sodomites danced in the streets and declared that they will come back stronger than ever, even singing the Civil Rights hymn, “We Shall Overcome.” My brother, Pastor Norman Pyle, in declaring that they have almost destroyed a good word, “gay,” suggests that we go back to calling them “queers.” When I was a boy, any men who were “effeminate” or who engaged in unnatural sexual activities were labeled either “queers,” “fairies” or “pansies.”
One of them smashed a cream pie in the face of Anita Bryant in a midwestern city. She continues to be threatened and harrassed, and had to cancel a news conference in New York as thousands of perverts (or “gay” sympathizers) picketed the NBC Today Show.
Johnny Carson and other entertainers take delight in ridiculing Anita Bryant and others who stand for normal deceny. After a pointed effort to embarrass and defeat Anita on the Phil Donahue show, she won the battle by boldly reading Romans 1:21-28 from the Bible as millions watched and cheered her on. Donahue couldn’t wait to conclude the program!
The booklet appears to still be available in its unaltered 1978 form, serving as a kind of historical text documenting what might be described as a colorful point of view.
This has always provided me with excellent entertainment value, the kind of thing that is nearly impossible to parody. According to Amazon there is a revised August 2000 edition. Perhaps it has a bonus section on the joy of conversion therapy.
It’s been a year since my last (and only) post on dating, so I figured it was time for a follow-up. Here it is:
I have stopped dating.
Over the past year I’ve met a lot of interesting people, had some fun, had some not-so-much-fun and learned a lot about social interaction, myself, others, and how likely someone is to show up with bad breath. I may write a book on my experiences.
But for now, I am taking a break from the dating game to recharge and take stock.
Admittedly, this is not much of an update, so I now present pig eating cake:
