May
6
Capitol quake
Filed under Washington D.C., work, weather at 9:54 pm | 4 Comments
For the second time in four months, I have survived another earthquake. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to respond to all of your concerned phone calls and email, but let me once again assure you we’re fine.
Unlike the first one in CA, I was at work in Northern VA for this one, a location where earthquakes don’t exactly happen every day. And even though it registered a whopping 1.8 on the Richter scale (Rachel wasn’t impressed), I definitely heard this one and felt a little something. I’m assuming that’s mostly due to the fact I was only 10 miles or so from the epicenter. It was loud enough that most people at work stood up, looked over the cube walls, and decided to keep doing email.
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.
Nov
18
Remember back in elementary school on Valentine’s Day when everyone passed out those playing card sized valentines? There would be a certain time on that day when we’d all walk around the classroom and distribute the valentines to our classmates. Invariably I would get valentines addressed to “Brain.” Looking back, that’s kind of cute and understandable.
Never did I imagine the same thing would be happening once I was in my thirties. No,
we don’t pass out valentines at work. However, at least once per week I receive email addressed to Brain. If it didn’t happen consistently, I’d chalk it up to typos. But my email address contains the proper spelling of my name, so it really wouldn’t be too hard to verify if you’re unsure.
On a recent work trip, one of my teammates saw Brian the Brain in the SkyMall magazine. Seems only appropriate that I get one for my cube.