One of the billion reasons I love my Teddy Bear: He quotes the theme song from FIREFLY on Facebook when he’s jumped out of a plane.
Teddy Bear Burn the land and boil the sea, you can’t take the sky from me.
Bear’s Cousin Did you get a jump in after all?
No Taste WORST OPENING THEME EVER
Teddy Bear Yeah I got a jump in, and it was a great theme
No Taste Are you freakin kidding me? The theme was so bad, I think it’s the real reason the show was canceled! I’m pretty sure the ratings were low because when people would turn the show on, they’d watch the first bit think, “hey this might be pretty good” and then that theme would play, and suddenly the next thought is “oh jesus that’s bad, maybe gilmore girls is on abc family, i’ll watch that instead”
No Taste god aweful man.
Teddy Bear You are the worst kind of person
This past weekend was one of adrenaline rushes (whitewater rafting and skydiving) and the introductory excursion of Team Constant Vigilance: An Adventure Club.
When I was in junior high, my 7th grade algebra teacher Mr. Friedman formed what he called The Adventure Club (for which I drew a lot of cartoons and flyers and posterboards). It basically meant taking a bunch of 12-and-13-year-old kids on trips that often involved us shooting things at each other. The first trip every year was paintballing, which was generally followed by other experiences like rock-climbing, surfing, mountain biking, and skiing. The last trip every year was camping on a beach for two nights. I appreciated Mr. Friedman for many things (not the least of which was because he was the last teacher to make me understand maths), but he was the first person to awaken the adrenaline junkie within me.
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The weather gods relented just before sunset, so I was at least able to get my recurrency and a fun jump in before the last load. It was really lovely flying with my instructors again and it felt really good to get back in the air after a long break, especially once I got over my nerves.
Five more jumps before I get my A license! I’m going again on Friday (and probably Saturday); anyone want to join me?
P.S. Bex, Laticia and Nathan got married in October last year. o.O
After a 10 month hiatus and a June so soggy it made it impossible to jump, I am back at the dropzone. The skies are blue, the sun is shining, there is nary a cloud in the sky…
…and the winds are gusting over 18mph. Which means I cannot skydive.
I must have angered the weather gods in a past life. There is no other explanation for this. They hate me.
Grrrr.
Charles Dickens, Awesome Writer
If there’s something Charles Dickens got right, it was capitalising on the popularity of serially published fiction. Dickens, unlike many of my other favourite authors, had something writers would love to achieve: commercial and critical success within his lifetime.
Now, I like Dickens—he has a real gift for creating iconic characters—but I think the secret to his success was audience participation. In some ways, Dickens operated like modern-day fanfiction writer: writing novels one installment at a time rather than all at once, perhaps even modifying stories according to popular opinion, and ending each installment with a small cliffhanger/teaser to entice the reader to find out happens next. On the day the last installment of The Old Curiosity Shoppe was to arrive in America, mobs swarmed the piers of New York asking the sailors aboard ships, “Is Little Nell alive????” The more obvious comparison to make is comparing Dickens to a TV show, but I want to focus on the writing aspect.
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RIP Michael Jackson. Not to belittle Farrah Fawcett, but I actually remember when Michael Jackson was on the pop landscape. Granted, it was when he was in Captain EO at Disneyland, but still. I remember it quite clearly despite the fact I was three years old when I saw the attraction for the first time. I was also convinced he was a woman.
TINY JJ: Mum, that was a woman, right?
MUM: (slightly strangled look) No, honey, Captain EO is played by a man. Michael Jackson. He is the King of Pop. (I have all his records on vinyl).
TINY JJ: (confused) But Captain EO has got to be a woman. He looks like one. And no man can sing that high.
MUM: (facepalms)
In memoriam: have a clip of Captain Eo singing “Here We Are To Change The World”.
