Today I went with my dad to see a live HD broadcast of the NY Metropolitan Opera Company doing Götterdämmerung (the final installment of Wagner's Ring Cycle) in a movie theatre - that is, it was being performed live in NYC and simultaneously broadcast into various theatres in other cities, so it was kind of like seeing it live at one remove ( Read more... )

Deeply annoyed with bike repair shops today. Or two of them, at least.

After having to leave my bike locked up downtown last night due to a flat (and all the shops being closed), I retrieved it today and wheeled it about eight blocks to the nearest bike repair place (in the freezing cold, with my hands gradually going numb) - only to find that ( Read more... )

I originally posted this as a comment to the webcomic otherpeoplesbiz, but it seems like it deserves to be a post on its own. With a few typos etc. cleaned up, even.

Part of the commentary for the comic was: Danny, never read the comments on newspaper articles. Ever. And I replied ( Read more... )

1. Some dogs handle being tied up outside while you go into a store (or, in this case, the farmer's market) better than others.
   
   
2. In particular, if it is a fairly nippy day, a long-haired dog of a northern breed (huskies and variants thereof, etc.) will probably be fine as long as they're not out there for too long, but a short-haired dog may be really ( Read more... )

1. To the cyclist riding directly ahead of me on Bay street:
   
   ( You are the reason everyone hates us )

1. ( Sling scaremongering - warning, major rantiness ahead )

Note to self: when exhausted and massively short on sleep due to a brutal work crunch may not be the best of all possible times to keep compulsively reading news coverage about the situation in Haiti. One's usual emotional shock-absorbers are not functioning at full capacity in that state, and everything hits even harder than it ordinarily would, ( Read more... )

OK, still no promised catch-up post, but multiple posts in one day nonetheless. Because I just have to rant about this:

An otherwise relatively sane and reasonable (to my knowledge, anyway) acquaintance just sent me an e-mail forward, the least annoying aspect of which was that it was completely untrue and had already been debunked on Snopes.com ( Read more... )

( Side streets. SideWALK. Not the same thing. )

The latest chapter in the ongoing saga of the Incredible Shrinking Woman. Also, further evidence that the fashion/clothing industry is insane:

Amongst the latest batch of stuff of mine that I picked up from chez kettunainen and optimystik was a tape measure. This morning, catching sight of it, it occurred to me that it had been a while since I last took my ( Read more... )