Cuz we aren't meeting on Saturday!! Darn it!!

Toaster sent me this link with a comment saying I would probably like it. There's no probably - it's as beautiful as the first one if not more. Four of my favorite "faces of science" in one video! Sagan's still the cutest, athough Feynman would be a hoot to hang out with.




Meanwhile I'm having an awesome night! My aunt and uncle are visiting from NY, and we had them up for dinner. I made chili and John made tamale-stuffed peppers. I also did a big ole cheese tray for snacking and heated up a store-bought cherry pie for desert. Then we made them watch the IT Crowd (which they loved - cuz they are crazy cool) and now we're watching Criminal Minds and CSI:NY, which I had better get back to before I miss something important. :)

When I was eight or nine I wanted to marry Carl Sagan. Sigh.

Or Norway! Forget Norway! It's Somalia!!

This is for the Saturday Night Gang :) :) :)
Narwhals, ya'll!

Source: www.vimeo.com

Another repost from Toaster's Facebook page. This is truly stunning.

"Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes (no Photoshop edit). I knew it wasn't the most original idea in the universe. ..."

Toaster posted this over on Facebook. (I think she got it from Stephanie?) Like everyone else, I love the expressions on the VA Tech fans as the parade of crazy goes by. I will not miss the parade next year! It gets better and better!

We went to a Terry Gilliam panel where he showed clips from and discussed his upcoming movie The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. The movie looks like it will be truly fantastic - visually stunning with a glorious story. (See video clip at the very bottom.) Anyway, at the panel he talked a lot about what went into making the movie - I taped most of that part, pausing during the airing of the clips. Then he took questions. One of the questions was asked by zarathud, who won something. I am working on getting videos up and out. Anyway Gilliam was incredibly friendly and enthusiastic, and we enjoyed the panel very much. I do remember a lot of his stories and can share...

The next day we went to a Monty Python panel by Gilliam and Innes, which I found fascinating. It was a a not-so-Tragical History Tour of Innes and Gilliam's induction into Python and what they did there. I kind of knew some of the history from books/shows I'd seen on Python, but it was interesting hearing them describe their friends' personalities, some of their exploits, how they got together, how they got popular, how the got to America, and especially how laid back the BBC was about what they put on the air. Apparently they worked for a kids show at one point, and one of the show's "bits" was "And here's a naked man in a chair!" Unfortunately, what I remember most is an Orson Wells clip. Thankfully I taped as much of the panel as I could. OH-the panel was late starting so audience members got pulled up on stage to entertain us. One had a squeaking breast and the second did yo-yo tricks to rival Tommy Smothers. And at the end of the panel Terry gave the complete Python to the first person who could tell how many syllables were in the title of his new movie. Inspired by syllables, Innes recited a funny haiku then gave another Complete MP to the first person who could name the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's first album.

FInally, we went to see Neil Innes play songs from his new album. At the end of that he came back for an encore and played Brave Brave Sir Robin and another song from Holy Grail that never made it into the movie. Then he made my night by doing a medley of songs from The Rutles!!!! Squeeeeeeeeee!! Afterwards he was selling CDs. We bought one, which he autographed along with my Rutles DVD. He even posed with me for a picture. I believe I told him I loved him and babbled a bit, which he graciously accepted. Then, when I wished him a safe flight home he thanked me and KISSED ME ON THE TOP OF MY HEAD!!!!!!!!!!! (On our way out we also passed Adam Savage from Mythbusters, the cast of MST3K's Cinematic Titanic, and Jackson Publick - who called Monkeys over to talk to him since he remembered Monkeys from previous cons. They were just hanging out for the show cuz they are cool like that.)

Neil Innes plays ukulele, too. Waiting in line for the Neil Innes/Terry Gilliam Monty Python panel. John played ukulele while Lori played Gravulous. Monkeys was working on "I'm a Lumberjack" :)

Am I In Love? I must be in love! Ever seen the Rutles?!?! Dirk Nasty was played by Neil Innes. He also did the music for it. Oh - and he was the guy singing Brave Brave Sir Robin in MP & the Holy Grail. Sooooooooooo cute in the Rutles movie. Seriously - check out some pictures of him from the 60's. *sigh* Anyway, not only was he super sweet to sign my Rutles DVD, he kissed me on the top of my head. Squeeeeeeeeee!

There is an awesome band called ArcAttack that plays music using two giant tesla coils. They let me lick one of the coils while I was in my red shirt for one of my many deaths. When I asked, I promised not to really lick it, but he said go ahead if I wanted to - it was coated with something protective so I wouldn't damage it and as Monkeys pointed out it had to be pretty clean.

Anyway, they played at the Mad Scientist Ball again this year and IT WAS A BLAST. This year they set up some cage thing between the coils and in-between songs the would pull people out of the audience (usually attractive and scantily clad females, but not always) and lock them up to dance in the box. I wish someone had posted a picture of them getting Dr. Satan (from some horror movie) in the box. I haven't House of a 1000 Corpses to know who he was dressing as, but he had big metal shoulder things AND HE WANTED IN THE CAGE BETWEEN THE TESLA COILS. Wha??!?!? But the audience chanted "Dr. Satan!" and ArcAttack relented and let him in the cage so long as he promised not to stick anything out of the cage and not to move. The host was sooooo funny. He said things like "Dr. Satan looks very conductive!" and "This is a good test of the Darwin Awards." and "Only at Dragoncon can something like this happen." He also got the audience to chant "Do not move! Do not move!" But after they shut Dr. Satan up in the cage people started chanting "Move! Move! Move!" so the host laughed and pointed out that the friends who chanted FOR him to get into the change were same people now chanting "move!" Anyway, here's the best video I found so far to give an idea of what they look/sound like, but they are a million times better.




Here's another very short video. Look very carefully and you can see there is a person in that box! I like how people are swaying along with the song in this video; you can kind of get an idea of how fun the host can be. He actually speaks for some time between songs sometimes and can rile the audience into a bit of a frenzy... FOR SCIENCE!




This was their set up for last year. I like the new set up better and would LOVE to be inside that box. But you have to hear their version of the Doctor Who theme or, as Peter David (?) said, "you haven't lived."

Watching Terry Jones' Medieval Lives - he interviews these guys in the "Minstrel" episode. How awesome are they?!?

This was hysterical. I saw it on Deb G's page.

I don't know what they mean by "clean version" but it's still amazing. The crosslegged back flip, the spinning on his forearms, the tutting OMG! How can they DO these things?!?!


And that is Hok from SYTYCD :)

I love Mythbusters. :) Possibly not the best video to publish in honor of the first moon landing, but certainly an entertaining one. And, they are showing the landing seems legit. ;) Plus, I expect loads of videos of the actual landing will be being shown.



Anyway, tomorrow be sure to look up at the man in the moon and wave. One small step...

The Retromodern's husband posted this to his Facebook. United really did break his guitar, and as they did nothing to help him in regards to their damages he decided to write songs as revenge. The video is hysterical. I love props on sticks more than anything else on the planet. (Slight exaggeration, but I love props on sticks.)

Monday two of our IT crew worked very hard to set up my computer and our phone guy had to actually get on the floor and left my desk with his back so that I could pull the wires out from underneath the furniture. He said the movers always seem to put things on the wires. The ladies setting up my computer/printer equally struggled with the issues brought out by the furniture. Lots of printer pinging was involved. Throughout the process they were upbeat, cheerful, and fun to talk with. At some point I promised them an Ode in their honor.

I sent them this: I looked up Odes to see their form, and they are very long. Not that you wouldn’t deserve the effort, of course; I just don’t have the talent to write one! So this my promised Ode from when you were setting up my printer/computer/phone, except that it’s not an Ode to the Fabulous Ladies and Gents of IT… It’s an Owed to the Fabulous Ladies and Gents of IT.

Owed to the Fabulous Ladies and Gents of IT

My computer’s dead! It doesn’t work!! Oh wait, I accidently unplugged it.
My printer’s jammed; it ate my receipt. I guess I shouldn’t have tugged it.
I opened a file! My email’s out. What virus? Can you debug it?

So patiently you take our calls – confused, garbled, and frantic.
And walk us through a maze of clicks without being pedantic
Or breaking down from our ineptness and tossing us in the Atlantic…

I owe you cookies, I owe you cake, I owe you whipped cream and cherry
(Although possibly you’d prefer Margaritas or a Bloody Mary)
So Thank you once, thank you twice, thank you 11110100001001000000 (<--binary!)

One of them wrote back that I made her day! :) :) :)

TheRetroModern's husband posted this to his FACEBOOK and it really made me giggle. :) I had a huge crush on Burt Ward as a small child, and I believe Raven has a crush on Adam West....

I'm actually not sure if this is Burt Ward, however. It must be, but for some reason something seems off.

Today I am sad for no good reason.

I think I'm afraid of going back to work tomorrow. I'm not sure what my office will look like - they were moving my desk and computer while I was gone. I don't have a key to it yet, so I couldn't go in early this weekend to work on unboxing and setting everything up. I am usually among the first to get to work, but w/o a key there's no point; I'll need to wait on whoever has the new keys. I know there will be four days worth of work built up while I was gone, but I cannot get started on that until I've unpacked and set up my office. Today I bought loads of cleaning supplies because it is DUSTY and grimy in there - I cannot start unpacking until I've done some scrubbing, which is a further delay. I'm not sure how long that will take, so I don't know how big a dent I can make in my "real" job tomorrow. I always feel really uneasy when I have unfinished work. so the delay in getting started on paperwork is already bothering me. Plus, I don't even know if my furniture has been moved; if not that's an even bigger delay.

I also feel a little sick. I didn't eat right today, and I drank too much coffee. I did make a better approximation of that Caramel Turtle drink - but I drank waaaaaaaaay too much of it and feel sick to my stomach. Or maybe it's nerves.

I wish I had something happy to post. I did impress Monkeys with a Maurice Moss impression today. That was cool. :)

I'm having trouble picking which one I like best.





Also, my husband looks a lot like Cardinal Fang. Plus, he has fangs. I swear. So I wanted an icon to use for him.

McAmason!! ditiswritten posted this over in the BBT community. Have you seen it yet!?!? IT'S SO CUTE!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!