20020130   

Michael considered fate at 16:59   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

Billy Blathin of Boghill Road

Blarney Bagpipes blew and bubbled
That black day that Bombs a'rubbled
Billy Blathin from Boghill road
bit the big one, and bit it cold
Boozed it up in big band manner
And bought the big one in the slammer

Blarney Bagpipes blew and bubbled
That black day that Bombs a'rubbled
Like Bogmen blopping in the shire
The bagpipes burst threw mud and mire
They bobbled threw brambles at their best
Burst out old Billy Blathin's last request

Back on Boghill road in late December,
Billy had begged some booze from'a'lender
Got blasted, baked, and banged around
Barking and baulking with quite a sound
And he was bothered by morning light
Boarded in the brig "for a fortnight!"

And when the bombs came a bursting,
Broiling, blasting, baking, and burning
And burping balls of boorish flames
They sent big bands of people to the lanes
Running from the blatant danger,
They left poor Billy in the manger.

Blarney Bagpipes blew and bubbled
That black day that Bombs a'rubbled
The city board blubbered and began
"Boldly we'll bath his body if we can:
The Bold and Brightest Billy Blathin
The greatest Man we've ever gazen"

Blarney Bagpipes blew and bubbled
That black day that Bombs a'rubbled
Billy Blathin was but a bother,
Until he blew up in a frother
And then the town bid farewell and martyred
The "Blessed and beautiful and big hearted"

        20020129   

Michael considered fate at 12:49   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

When we wandered, weathered and wary,
What we knew, we wizened must carry
Is what the world may always wonder:
Why we warriors tear asunder
The very wares we work to share
Through water, fire, and earth we bare
Why once we find what isn't ours
We wrestle away like worthless cowards
And when we went from whence we came
Where we were we knew the same:
We worldly wondrous worthwhile humans
Are wraiths of worrisome and warped illusions;
Wrought with wrongs and little right
we wander, but into the stormy night.

        20020128   

Michael considered fate at 14:33   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

Being violently ill is a worthwhile pastime. It's usually a much quicker alternative to the 24 hour flu or the seasonal cold. And it sure as heck beats the HIV. Some things that one can do to make things a little more pleasant:

1. Drink fun and spunky colored sports drinks. The electrolytes will help you recover, and the colors will make your spew into a natural work of art.

2. Make sure you are on an elevator, public transportation, at school, or in the office. Watching someone else be violently sick makes one feel so much better about their mediocre lives. Your co-workers will love you for it.

3. Wash your mouth out with beer. True recovery is recovery that is acceptance: Acceptance that it will happen again, so you might as well be drunk when it happens.

4. Roll with the punches. No one likes a whiner.

        20020122   

Michael considered fate at 14:32   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

They say Hotmail is the best. They say it is easier to use and nicer to look at, and gee isn't the new .NET look just grand?

I say gee it's slow, and not very intuitive. I say Yahoo does a much nicer job. I also say that the new addtions to yahoo mail are pretty peachy; like the "replied" arrow and the "flag this message" option.



Okay, what? Stop looking at me that way.

Fun is that one can shorten glutton to glut to get a verb. To glut oneself. Funny that the freely distributable toolkit for OpenGL has an acronym GLUT, not intending to be confused with the word glut. It probably means graphic library utility kit or something. bah.

F U N is the pogo.com game Poppit, a sort of snoodish/puzzling game that is kind of addictive.

I've stopped looking at burntsienna as an entertainment site and therefore may look more kindly upon it now. Bridget Jones', it is not. If there was more photographic updates it I might travel there more often.

No longer bluish orange, but sort of greenish, Alison nonetheless maintains a decent, topical, and well paced site. As interesting as the inner thoughts of a gen-x-&-a-halfer are likely to be. The reader comments aren't nearly as insightful.

Heard of Dvorak? Interesting in an off-beat sort of way. Good luck finding anyone to play, but I thought the Jabberwocky deck was a blast.

Oh, the wonders of usenet archiving. Thank you to the Web God's at Google for saving the very important, oft under appreciated and most forgotten marvel of modern classification science.

        20020114   

Michael considered fate at 16:37   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

Spits and starts, stutters, sniffles and snorts. That's how my posts go and, seemingly, how my life goes as well.

This'll be a long one cause, well, cause it's been awhile.

So alison has some damn bitchin' layouts, I must say. Right now she is offering a soft soothing flavor over a bed of leafy, minty-green, with a side of spunk and the slightest hint of airs.

sp1nk isn't doing quite as well these days, being a bit busy with school and such. The site remains a very simple and eye-catching design but the content has been failing lately.

Ernie is a different little light at the end of the tunnel. Man, what a great site. Fun layout, fun pictures, fun content.. and it's not the sort of "I went for coffee today" sort of drivel we're used to. I am sometimes unimpressed with the general lack of wit expressed by the audience (as evidenced by the comment-system), but what can you do? It ain't your fault, Ern.

go here and search for a 1994 Honda Prelude VTEC in the Boston area.. (the one with leather).. and buy it, so I don't have to. This thing is a year newer with 50,000 miles less than mine.. and the whole leather bit is nice too. Plus heated seats and rear mirrors.

Man, this is funny.

Okay. Having said all that, a little update. Xmas was alright despite the heavy work schedule (only xmas eve and new year's day off). The loot was less than expected but probably due to the fact that I didn't ask for anything. The new year is crankin' along just fine with little to no speed bumps along the way. Managed to get a day of skiing in at Sunday River, first time in two years - glad to know I still have it in me. Six-month review fast approaching at work and I'm just finishing up 'Rev 1' of the medical product which should look just swell in my evaluation. Trips to Montreal, Boston, and Vermont are all in the making.

So.. today is the day. A one Michael Plourd (aka Mickey) and another Christopher Sparacio have started the race for Arizona. This feat is being attempted in a 1989 Toyota Tercel EZ with little to no exhaust system and lots of bondo. The E.T.A. is one week from today and Mexico is planned for the second leg of the trip. Updates to follow.

Michael considered fate at 16:12   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

Well, isn't this strange?

I always find the writing I do to be a hell of a lot more interesting (and more bearable as well) when it's been forever since I've read it. Reading my stuff a year later is like opening a good book and reading the prologue and getting really excited by it.. then realizing there isn't any book; it's just a prologue. Bummer.


Course, reading my writing just after I've written it makes me feel like a pile of garbage. Specifically a stinky pile of garbage with nothing good to say. This is most likely the reaction most people share and I will keep that in mind in the future.