Mar

9

invasion of the filk

Filed under work, travel, California, unusual, humor at 11:19 pm | 4 Comments

I’m in San Jose on a work trip this week (a few camera phone pics for your enjoyment). On Thursday evening I was in the hotel lobby waiting to go out to dinner with some friends when I couldn’t help but notice an influx of people.

We suspected this group of people was here for a convention of some sort, and that theory was soon confirmed. But seeing a sign about “Open Filking” didn’t exactly answer all our questions. After a weekend of research and observation, I think we’ve learned the basics.

The convention in question is the Consonance 2008 Convention. As the site describes, it is “the San Francisco Bay Area filk convention.” Filk is generally considered folk music, usually with a science fiction or fantasy theme … or about computers or cats. Filkers, then, are the people participating in this musical movement. Furthermore, if our hotel parking lot is any indication, bumper stickers appear to be an important trademark of filker vehicles. Here are some additional resources, if needed.  After seeing some names and pictures in my research, I realize I rode the elevator with some famous and influential filkers this weekend.

Now that I’ve laid the foundation, I trust you’ll enjoy some example filking.

Jan

27

No soy Columbia

Filed under mundane, unusual, humor at 4:38 pm | 1 Comment

Ever since receiving a work cell phone last year, I occasionally get calls from numbers I don’t recognize. But the bigger problem is I don’t recognize what the callers are saying. They all are speaking Spanish.

At first I assumed this must have something to do with the person who had the number before me. But this weekend one of the callers offered a very helpful explanation. After calling for the third time, he said (in English) that he was trying to call Columbia. I looked up the international dialing code for Columbia, and sure enough, the first 2 numbers of my area code are the international dialing code for Columbia.

If only I knew Spanish, surely there’s some fun to be had here …

Aug

8

Which one is the patient?

Filed under unusual at 5:17 pm | 1 Comment

While at the chiropractor the other day, another patient was holding a baby mini-potbelly pig on her shoulder. That’s my story.