blog.circusgeek

a personal blog with nerdy bits thrown in

Category: Humor

  • Bruce Campbell Book Signing

    Boy, what a day! A few days back, Ghost Dog's better half discovered that on Saturday, September 30th, actor, writer, and all-around wise guy Bruce Campbell would be in town, at the McMenamin's Bagdad Theater doing a book signing for Make Love! (The Bruce Campbell Way). Naturally, Ghost Dog and I were eager to attend.

    The three of us arrived just after the doors opened at 4pm, narrowly missing a very long line (and seeing Miranda on the way, who works just across the street). Once inside, we waited patiently for the 5pm arrival of the man. I'd never been in the theater before, but I'd love to go back to see a movie, have some beers, and eat some pizza.

    When Mr. Campbell arrived, there was thunderous applause from the full theater. After taking the stage, he spoke for a short time, and then said that since he didn't have anything planned, he opened things up to a Q&A session, which was hilarious (see Ghost Dog's write-up for more details). As you would expect, he's as snarky and witty in person as the characters he plays.

    After the Q&A session, Bruce left the stage and went back to the lobby to start signing, and the waiting began. It took about an hour and a half to get our numbers called to get into line, and another 30 minutes in the line, before finally, I got to meet the man. As I walked up to the table he was sitting at, he said "Hello Sir!" While I handed him my books he asked what I did for a living. I told him "A web designer and developer" to which he responded "That sounds like a very sensible job in this modern age." Perhaps. 🙂  After I thanked him, I stood back and took a couple photos of Mr. & Mrs. Ghost Dog getting their book signed, and then we left. How totally cool!

    After we left we went to the Horse Brass for dinner and beers, and then to Moon & Sixpence for more beers. What a kiler evening! To the right is one of the two books I got autographed. For the other, I'd chosen to use just my last name, which for any of you who know it, know is rather long. Bruce looked at it and went "[slowly reads last name] eh? That's one heck-of-a name." and proceeded to write it out seperately, one line for each syllable. Sweet! 🙂 

    (Post-dated, originally written on October 3rd, because I'm a slacker. :))

  • Star Trek Inspirational Posters

    My friend Martin sent me a link to a page of Star Trek-themed ‘inspirational posters‘. Some of these are just hilarious. You can download larger versions too! I suggest you print them up and hang them around your workplace. Especially the first one… and Nomad. 🙂

  • Verbified

    I forgot to post this earlier, but my place of employment blogged about me earlier this week. Pretty funny really, this phrase was coined by one of my coworkers, Derek, my first week at SuperSweetCo (I'll continue using this pseudonym even though the link on this page links the two together). I thought it was funny when he said "Vanderzand that shit!" when referring to a page that needed some attention. However, I didn't expect it to spread like it did, and rapidly others in the company started saying the same thing. Very odd having my last name 'verbified'.

  • Star Trek Cribs

    My friend Michael sent me a link to Star Trek Cribs (YouTube.com), a short video that pokes fun at the MTV show Cribs, where celebrities show off their expensive homes. This bit (a stop-motion animation of a Spock doll showing off his ‘crib’) was used as an ad for Star Trek 2.0, the G4TV show. There’s another 3 or 4 other videos from the show on YouTube to watch as well. Funny stuff.

  • Stephen Colbert, special report

    This past Saturday night C-Span aired the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, a fancy gala that included the President himself. The final speaker for the night was Steven Colbert, of the Comedy Central show The Colbert Report.

    Mr. Colbert roasts the President, the media, and everyone between. It is quite entertaining to see Colbert standing face to face with Bush, using his ‘right wing’ pundit persona to slam Bush and his approval ratings, the war in Iraq, etc. You can see it in three parts on YouTube (link is to the first part, the other two are listed on the right of the YouTube page). Enjoy!

  • I won a million dollars!

    Yeah yeah, ok, I know, lame April Fool’s joke, but I can dream can’t I? I don’t typically care about April Fool’s day at all, but I was so annoyed that my favorite nerd news outlet Slashdot was filled with nothing BUT lame April Fool’s stories that I had to rant just a little. Normally Slashdot will have a normal day of legitimate stories and sprinkle in a few legit-sounding joke stories amongst them so they seem remotely plausible. Today however they were all really dumb and obvious, with hardly a real story in the mix. I was disappointed. 🙂

    I then, out of curiosity, looked up the history of April Fool’s Day. It seems to have originated with the conversion from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. The Julian calendar had the new year starting on or near April 1st, and the new Gregorian calendar (well, new in 1582) moved it to January 1st. Those who refused or resisted the calendar change were dubbed as foolish, and tricks were played upon them. This is apparently only conjecture however, as no historical evidence exists to support it. There are other potential sources for April Fool’s Day (or All Fool’s Day). Regardless, it’s all very silly.

  • Alternately horrible and hilarious

    While browsing my new favorite internet time waster (Google Video) I browsed ‘popular’ just to see what them young hip kids are watching, and came across THIS. Beware: the following video may increase your desire to buy tickets to the local monster truck rally, drink Coors Light, buy a rusty pickup truck, and wear a stained white tank top. And lose some teeth. And grow a mullet. And move to the sticks.

  • 25 Things for REAL Portlanders

    While reading through a blog that Kelly sent me to (good Portland blog, Metroblogging Portland) there was mention of the March issue of the magazine Portland Monthly had a list of 50 Things Every Portlander Must Do and that another Portlander blogged a response with a more realistic list which was hilarious (and sadly true). Take a look! My favorite entry: "5. Ignore the Rose Festival." 🙂

  • Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

    noodledoodlewall.jpgCame across a funny site via a Wired News article that is a stab at those folks who push for teaching intelligent design in public school science classes. It’s about a new ‘scientific theory’ known as the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and the author of this ‘theory’ sent an open letter to the same public schools that implemented intelligent design into their classes, demanding that the FSM theory was just as valid and should be included in their curriculum. The whole thing is great satire, and people all over are getting into it (check out the photos of people ‘spreading the word’)

    The funny part here, is that the kinds of logic the Church of the FSM use is the same that the pro-intelligent design folks use. Odd, un-connected pseudo-scientific claims that they use as proof of their theory.

    One of the amusing ‘facts’ on the Church of the FSM website is the graph labeled ‘Global Average Temperature Vs. Number of Pirates’. It shows an inverse relationship between the number of pirates and global temperature, specifically, that while the number of pirates has decreased, the global temperature has increased. So, in order to stop global warming, we need more pirates! Yarrrr!

    In the Wired News interview with Bobby Henderson, the creator of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Mr. Henderson writes "Our theory is as much science — in fact much more so — than what the ID (intelligent design) guys are proposing. And, if you are going to redefine science to include supernatural explanations, you have to allow them all. To include intelligent design in a science classroom you have to first expand the definition of science to include supernatural explanations, rather than only natural ones, as it is now."

    Amen brother! Praise be His Noodly Appendage!

    Mr. Henderson is in the process of writing a FSM ‘bible’, and all proceeds from the sales of this and of the t-shirts, mugs, and other items on his website will go to building a PIRATE SHIP! With it, he will travel and ‘evangelize’ about the Flying Spaghetti Monster. 🙂 Funny stuff.

  • Addicted to the Net?

    It seems that in Finland people who are placed in the compulsory military service can get sent home for a few years if diagnosed to have ‘internet addiction’. The diagnosis seems to fall on those young men who before being conscripted (drafted) didn’t have much real world social lives, but were quiet types who would stay up all night playing online games and chatting with ‘virtual friends’, and then were suddenly yanked away from that life and forced into a real world they weren’t prepared for (hmm, sounds like me, hehe).

    They get a few years to go home and ‘grow up’ but have to come back and finish their service.

    Man, if only I could use that excuse to get me out of things, like, oh I dunno, being an adult and having a job. “I’m sorry, I just can’t take all this, I’m addicted to the internet… can I go home now?” 🙂

    Read it for yourself here.

    -r-