Monthly Archive for September, 2005

Ah, the wonderful world of weddings. We’re going to Ty and Heather’s big day this Saturday. I don’t expect anything different from the usual white, the flowers, the overwhelmed families, the perma-smiles, the eating, the drinking, the toasting and the crying.

You just know someone is going to give advice to the happy couple in a speech. Someone else is going to get drunk. And someone else’s someone is going to give an embarrassing memory of either bride or groom.

Couples all over the world must have a collective memory of their wedding days. How different do they get? Not really. People go to great lengths to plan and individualize the event, but although the venue, menu, dress and speeches may vary, the schedule of events hardly change.

No one eats before the ceremony. No one kisses the bride while dancing down the aisle. Tradition is tradition is tradition.

So who planned humankind’s very first wedding? THAT must have been quite a headache. How did they know what to do? And in what order? It seems that everyone now is following the original playbook of “How to Plan a Wedding”.

I hope to be surprised this weekend. Frankly, I don’t know how the 100 T-shirts we printed of this design is going to go down.

My poor Beetle had a headlight procedure the other day. She’d been one-eyed for a long time and I finally got her a replacement bulb. May she shine again.

So here’s an update because you asked. And here’s an update, even if you didn’t. It’s been quite a journey since we bought this house in January.

We’re finally living in the house. But as you can see, the insides aren’t exactly ready. Our current “big” project is the kitchen. (I use “big” loosely. There are millions of “littler” projects to complete at the house, mostly all ranked by importance according to “How Long Dot Can Live Without It”.)

So except for the countertop in the kitchen, we have almost everything ready to go, we just need to fit them all together.

But of course life isn’t so simple. And of course, people who invented appliances all happened not to have taken a class in “Instruction Booklet Writing”. They should put journalists in charge of that. At least we’ll make a nice story out of it, even if we didn’t understand it.

And in other news, siding is going up! We actually have something that looks like the outside of our house. If anyone remembers, the bottom of the house used to look like it was wrapped in construction paper. Although I can name many other things still wrapped in construction paper, it feels good to tick this one off.

I cannot wait to see the light at the end of -this- tunnel.

So I always said I wouldn’t pay to read online. I have.

I subscribe to The Straits Times, no doubt the SECOND paper in the world to charge, after the Wall Street Journal. And they know schmucks like me cannot do without “news from home”, a.k.a. the latest political “missives from home”.

It was not an easy decision. A few weeks back, I signed up for the Straits Times kicking and screaming. It was definitely not for the editorials.

Now I’m faced with a different kind of decision. It’s the New York Times. This is the beginning of the end, folks. I am ashamed to say I cannot do without the ramblings of the self-important, but absolutely fabulous, essayists from the TimesSelect editorial team.

This new TimesSelect service allows readers who sign up now (For a discounted fee of US$39.95!) a chance to read what the Times is thinking. You get exclusive online access to their mostly highly-paid, liberal brains. Hallelujah.

And for the record, the Times is the only newspaper I will ever willingly pay for, and whose site is so comprehensive and engaging that it, with the Wall Street Journal, should be the only two newspapers allowed to charge for content. Straits Times, can you take a hint? (Also, can the Straits Times fix that damn overlapping glitch with the headlines on the right side of the screen that always happens when you first load up a story?)

As print newspapers all over the world struggle to remain relevant and viable in an increasingly electronic world, it is saddening to know that few people subscribe to actual newspapers anymore. Fewer, especially among the younger generation (I hate to malign an entire generation, but it’s 99% true), even know what it feels like to get stained fingers from reading a black-and-white newspaper.

I’m beating a dead horse here, I know. People want mini “news-lets”, not news. Who has the time, right? When you can read all the headlines while you sign on to your Yahoo mail; when you can listen to TV talking heads tell you how to think. I lament our visualized world.

But if the Times goes the way of “Credit Card, Please,” what does this mean for the rest of the smaller newspapers out there?

Say it ain’t so, Joe.

Another man’s polite giggle. There is no accounting for taste in comedy. I could be clapping and splitting my sides laughing while the people beside me are stone faced. You can’t please everyone.

Admittedly, the first group was ho-hum okay – Someone behind me blurted, “I want my money back” – but the second group had the audience laughing loudly. Although, still, with the exception of the couple beside me. I think they forgot they were attending a sketch comedy festival.

Can you do a show about 70′s blue-collar renaissance? Apparently you can. Or, if you’re Seattle’s Flaming Box Of Stuff, you throw in references to weed, sex, hallucinations, Pink Floyd, disability, murder, and pull off a funny show.

I really really liked Flaming Box Of Stuff tonight.