Subliminal Chaos

re:Why are Mustang drivers out to get me?

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:04:13 GMT

I actually never ride on the sidewalk. The only time I don't ride on the road is when there is a designated bicycle pathway. I also use proper hand signals when I ride. At no time during any of these incidents did I give any indication that I intended to slow down or turn. I was blatantly cut off.The problem as I see it is the driver was either not paying attention, or was unclear on the rules of the road where bicycles are concerned.

Why are Mustang drivers out to get me?

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 04:34:02 GMT

I am posting this for one simple reason- it hella pisses me off!!!!!

I have recently got back onto my bike, and I've been taking Patrick out with me. He totally loves the ride. The problem I have run into comes with motorists making right turns whether at a traffic light into a parking lot or an intersection to an adjoining street and cutting me off. This has happened three times now at three different places. Each time the car was a late 80's Mustang, tricked out in an attempt to not look like an overpowered breadbox but more or less failing in that attempt.

Now I'm sure that the fact I've been cut off by three different mustangs on three separate occasions is coincidence. I would have hoped that at least an attempt at some form of apology would have resulted from these instances. I got solid indifference on two occasions. One driver actually had the gall to shout out to me if I knew what sidewalks were for. I will admit that I replied very rudely, but the jist was that I knew that sidewalks were intended for pedestrians, and he should learn the rules of the road.

Now just for the sake of information to anyone that thinks they know better, part 5, section 144 of the Alberta Traffic Act clearly states that a cycle ( being a bicycle, motorcycle, scooter, or moped) has all the rights to and is subject to the same duties as a driver of a motor vehicle ( as in a car). Yes, cutting of a cyclist is the same as cutting off a motorist. It is equally wrong, and equally frustrating, but at least a motorist is surrounded by their own car, cyclists not so much.

So I'll make you a deal. Please treat me with the same courtesy as you would another motorist, and I will promise to signal properly, just as always. Yes that's right all you cyclists out there- we've got hand signals that let motorist know what we are planning to do. Do you use them?

Ink on bare skin...

Wed, 16 May 2007 03:59:44 GMT

I've just booked an appointment for my first tattoo. I went in today to go over the design with the artist, he seemed to like my ideas. What will it be you ask? wait and see once it's done!

update.....

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 21:51:34 GMT

It is now official that our house is finally sold!!!!! I'll be cracking open the champagne a little later on. -hic-

I finally got out info before "Not the Dog" too, though I freely admit it's far more cute when lil' PL posts.

Latest in our real estate saga

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 02:29:52 GMT

We've just signed off on a conditional sale on our Didsbury house. If all goes according to plan (and it will) It will be linallized as a firm sale by March 9th.

It would seem that our efforts have finally paid off.

Idea lovingly but blatantly stolen from others....

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 03:34:01 GMT

Well, the idea came about to use ones mp3 player set on random to answer certain questions. Here's some of the more interesting highlights from this excersize:

Will I get far in life?
- Whimsical/ Days of the New

How do my friends see me?
- Surfin' bird/ The Trashmen

What is today going to be like?
- Firing Up/ Dick Dale

What is in store this weekend?
- Just a Gigolo/ I ain't got nobody/ David Lee Roth
No, really, the machine chose it, not me.....

What song will they play at my funeral?
- We're a happy family/ The Ramones
and why not?

How does the world see me?
- Renegade/ The Styx
Ohhhh, the rarely seen male cammeltoe......(shudder)

Do people secretly lust after me?
- Magic Johnson/ Red Hot Chili Peppers
OK, What the hell is wrong with this thing?

What was High School like?
- Counterfeit blues/ Corb Lund
OK, it's fixed now......

First full day solo at home.....

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 16:31:04 GMT

Well, Bert's gone to work, I've drank five cups of coffee already, I've decided to put the vibrations in my hands to good use by cleaning the kitchen. It actually doesn't work too bad.

This week will be a busy one. Continue to work on this house and have it ready to sell, get a hold of the bank and make some much needed arrangements, hound the Ontario government for my birth certificate, go into town Wednesday morning for the house inspection on our new place in Airdrie, figure out how to get a piano here from Toronto, Get our paperwork sorted out to get our passports and stand in line for hours on end, and try to remember to actually eat something while I'm at home.

Patrick woke up this morning bright and early at 6:30, which probably is the reason why he actually fell asleep in his jumparoo! I should have taken a picture of that.

I think it might be time for another pot of coffee, WEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On moving up.....

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 22:22:54 GMT

Aw pooo, I wanted to tell the news!!!!!!!!!

Discovery.....revisited

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 15:56:34 GMT

Hi all,

Well, here I am. I am now on paternal leave, coffee in hand, planning my day, and mostly recovered from the holiday. Though I am not at work I will still be busy.

Anyway, it would seem that everything got done that needed doing save some touch up work in the paint dept. I believe I gave 25% odds on that one. We still haven't got the new stove in the back room yet. I don't count that since I actually will not be doing that myself which is probably for the best.

Next thing on the deck to do- renovate the bathroom. I am sure I have te sympathy of friends that have ventured down that rocky road before me.

Later,

Merry Christmas

Mon, 25 Dec 2006 19:31:41 GMT

Hey all,

Just thought I would send out the usual pleasantries while I am still able to think coherently. So to all my family and friends I wish you Merry Christmas, and if I don't see you on new years eve, all my best for the new year.

Shawn

discovery.....

Sat, 16 Dec 2006 23:04:09 GMT

Hi all,

For those that have attended parties at our place, you might have noticed in our back room a fairly large piece of fabric covering a portion of the wall behind the bookshelves. We are having that room carpeted so those shelves are now gone. In their place stands a forgotten door- with a large window in it. We now add to the list of things to be done, painting, weatherstripping, and installing new doorknob and deadbolt to the previously unknown door.

Why I didn't check that out eight years ago, I'll never understand.

Meanwhile the battle to prepare for painting, carpet, a new stove in the back room, and have it all done before Christmas rages on. The odds are thus:

Everything gets done- 20%
Everything but final cleanup done- 20%
Everything but touch-up painting done- 25%
Everything but touch-up painting and cleanup, have family that shows up for holidays help finnish- 35%
We find a bunch of other things that also need doing in the process of getting everything done- 248.5%

If you are thinking the math doesn't wash, remember who's blog you're reading

absence makes the LJ grow fun,Gus.....

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 04:57:11 GMT

Hey gang,

It's been what, five months since my last post? I guess having a life CAN have a drawback! More accurately, working a job without computer time can have a drawback.

I certainly have missed a lot in the absence though. Who would ever have thought typing on a keyboard would have replaced the telephone for communicating with others? Hey parents, your teenagers have finally got off the phone, YOU get to call someone for a change! too bad all the interesting stuff is out in cyberspace. Poor Mr. Graham Bell.

As I type this I am looking forward to becoming a stay at home dad. As I type this I have 52 hours of work left before I leave for good. Between feeding, laundry, handling catastrophic diaper failure and bouncing wee Patrick on my knee, I hope to make more frequent entries. Honest, Gus! I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to being S.A.H.D. Now that's either an unfortunate acronym, a sinister world terrorist organization, a social disease, or a bad joke (Yeah Gus, seems the doctor thinks I've got the SAHDs' again).

By the way, if your name happens to be Gus, to previous comments were not directed at you personally, they were made only for reasons of cheap humor. If you know someone named Gus, good for you. If you are like me and don't really know a Gus, well, just pretend.

My new family.....

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 03:53:01 GMT

My son, Patrick Llewellyn Alford was born on 6:44 am, July 24, weighing in at 7Lbs. 6oz. Both mother and son are well and at home.

I am so unbelievably happy....

I heard his first cries in the delivery room and I nearly fell off the stool I was on.

The only thing I can say now is forget about Buster Keaton or the Three Stooges. Changing that first baby diaper is clearly hands down the funniest physical comedy out there.

Shawn

Company hiring practices.....

Thu, 25 May 2006 04:03:37 GMT

Hi all,

Okay, time for me to really go off on a sore spot of mine here. First some background. I work as a furniture maker for a small upholstery company in Calgary. I've been there for nearly eight years, so some history there. Lately we've been really busy, so needless to say we've been looking for help. Unfortunately our shop has had a high turn around rate lately. I've seen some winners walk through the door but these past two guys take the cake.

Employee#1. Good points: could actually do the job. Worked well enough to be appointed shop foreman ( ahead of the guy with nearly eight years experience in the shop I might add). Was fairy accurate in his work, fairly quick, and also stuck up for the guys in the shop when needed.

Bad points: Spent most of his time chatting to the workers around him about things we could have cared less about if it didn't require effort to do so. I'm sure he would have been twice as fast if he just worked ALL the time. Second, quite possibly the most accident prone person I ever met! In a year and a half he broke two fingers, a toe, had a pressurized lacquer can blow up in his face and temporarily blind him, embedded a stick of wood five inches into his hip, and removed half an inch of his thumb ( and yes, all of it at the shop). Finally left of his own will (what's left of it, anyway) and left behind all his woodwork tools, automotive tools, a bike, a washer and dryer, a trailer tent (minus the trailer) and a two hundred dollar I.O.U. to another employee.

Employee#2.Good points: touted by our then foreman as the next best thing to furniture since Chippendale. Could build anything.

Bad points: He told this to our foreman after meeting him for the first time ever in the bar after a few rounds of drinks! This was the extent of the job interview process!!!!! Sure he could do the job though, I found he knew everything about sweeping the floor of the shop. He had to be shown how to glue two pieces of wood together. For the love of God that's something every first year cabinet student learns!!!!!! Finally left due to external influences- he thought the police were after him and were going to arrest him at the shop some time soon. On a side note, I do not think I ever want to work with anybody that paranoid, whether justified or not.

Lessons to be learned from this? To the employer: only hire the right person for the job. This isn't just about qualifications, but compatibility. If they can't work with the team you already have, they will only work against it. To the employee: If you can't do the job, and they cannot train you, don't apply. If you aren't willing to adapt into the new environment, don't apply. You only waste everybody's time and force them to write nasty blog entries much like this one.

Right now I only hope the new guy lasts. So long as he doesn't get a sliver in his finger and needs to take half a day off to recover he'll work out fine.... I guess.

Cheers!

Food for thought.....

Thu, 11 May 2006 04:33:47 GMT

Miss me? Well, I sure haven't been missing the round of warm weather we've been getting these past few weekends! Barbecue season is finally here!!!!!

Here's something odd to think about. Next time you go to a barbecue check out what people eat, and how they prepare it. You will always get the guy saying " I eat meat!! It's the only thing worth eating!!" I have to wonder something, if people love meat so much, why do they spoil it be drowning their prize two inch thick steak in a sauce to the point that you can't even taste meat?

Now please believe me, nothing beats a well butchered, well prepared steak, but cover it in half a bottle of Bullseye and its ruined. You could be served two pounds of tofu covered in that amount of sauce, eat it, and be none the wiser. The point is if you eat meat, taste meat- all meat- nothing but meat!

Try this out, ye mavens of the great scorching pits of juicy beef bliss....Get a steak, grilled to medium rare perfection- without the sauce!!!!! If you must add, then add to enhance what's there. I usually use a marinade of a good light tasting beer (no finer tenderizer exists), add a little fresh garlic, maybe fresh ground pepper and kosher salt. Then you will taste true barbecue delight. If you cannot agree that is fine eating, then you must ask yourself, why do I eat something I do not enjoy?

Many flavors of barbecue sauce sport the titles "Mesquite" or "Hickory". These are flavors you can achieve far more effectively by doing it yourself. Try using wood chips, that where that flavor comes from in the first place. Again, enhance flavor, don't destroy it.

Go ahead, go nuts. Experiment! Sooner or later you're bound to find what you really will like. At that point, my friend, you will truly be barbecuing!!!!!

fun and irresponibility........

Wed, 12 Apr 2006 00:40:07 GMT

Haven't been around too much since, well, quite some time. I've been busy with work, renovating the house ( living room is so nearly finished), and SCA stuff. I've had hardly any time to just be lazy.

I'm hoping to schedule in at least a full day of doing things I really shouldn't, and ignoring that which I really should do.

All hail the new Dromin!!!!!

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 03:16:07 GMT

Your Star Wars Name and Title

Your Star Wars Name: Shaal Cator

Your Star Wars Title: Dromin of Efiw

Your Star Wars Name and Title

Memories turned up way too loud.....

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 03:10:59 GMT

It's late, its snowing, its unpleasant. Time for an addition.

Ya ever get that thing when you fully intend to do something constructive, you decide to check your mail first, you here from an old buddy, and before you know your cruisin' through your old cassette collection (what's a cassette?) and checkin' out your old faves? Most of it's pretty hokey, some fits into the "what drugs was I on when I bought this?" category, then you find that tape you borrowed from said buddy fifteen years ago. You throw it on, lean back in a chair, someone screams at you to turn it down because they can't hear the bomb blasts on TV, and you remember the good times, whatever they are.

The tape was "Stand tall" by Killer Dwarfs. I still vividly remember a much music interview when the band members were, by the magic of studio editing, were shrunk down to appear about a foot and a half tall. They all sat in the same small office chair for the interview. That was one of those bands that actually wrote some good tunes for the era, decent musicianship, but you simply could not pay them enough to take themselves seriously. That fact definitely came out in their videos, especially when they carried around Russ Graham (vocals) in a small wood crate marked "Warning:contains one Killer dwarf". Ya had to laugh. I also somewhat less than vividly remember sitting in my buddy's back yard with a stereo, a case of beer, that tape, and little else to do. Back then really good times. Even now, probably would pass as a not bad afternoon-minus the snowstorm.

One of these days I might return that tape..... not likely.....

Hyperspace travel and popcorn in the sofa.....

Sun, 05 Mar 2006 18:02:43 GMT

Ever notice that no matter how much pain you take in being tidy or how thoroughly you may clean, there always, ALWAYS, is popcorn in the far off deep recesses of your sofa? It doesn't even matter if you never eat on the sofa, or for that matter, sit on it. It always turns up.

I have developed a theory for this. It works as such: all the sofas that have ever been created are all interconnected by an intricate web-like network of sub-cosmic wormholes. These wormholes are capable of allowing matter to pass through from point to point virtually instantaneously. The drawback is that this web-like network of wormholes is that as it stands, one may only gain access to these wormholes at the very far back corner underneath the cushions, in where the inside of the back, the inside of the arm, and the deck of the sofa come together. It is more often that not virtually impossible to stuff anything much larger than your hand inside this void. And yet when you remove your hand you invariably pull out several stale bits of popcorn with it.

It seems quite obvious that bits of popcorn use this network of sofa-corner wormholes to navigate their way, hyperspacially, around the globe to visit other, more tidy sofas. Why they would do this,you ask? It is far better to risk the uncertainty of traveling from sofa to sofa, than remaining in a large bowl full of other bits of popcorn. the fate usually goes is they only may lie and wait for the coming of a large, pudgy hand belonging to some large, basement dwelling slob to scoop out a handful of popcorn and eat the popcorn.

In time science may discover a means to harness sofa wormholes for our benefit. For now all we may do is take a large shotgun, stuff the barrel into the corner of the sofa, and shoot the basement dwelling slob with the popcorn.

Sun, 05 Mar 2006 07:14:59 GMT

<td align="center"> speed-ball-boy --
[adjective]:

Like in nature to a banana peel

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com</td>

Everything is better with a beer.....

Sun, 05 Mar 2006 07:07:33 GMT

I really should be asleep now......
You know how it is, You just cracked one a few minutes ago, and it's a deadly sin to not finnish a good beer. So you drink......
Of course now your drinking and bored, so you decide to make a blog entry........
Naturally, the several beer you've already had aren't letting you think too well, are they.........
Hmmmmmm........
Who really cares? I know right now I feel pretty good about the present situation about being tired, bored and not having much to write that's worthwhile.........
Clinching proof that everything is better with a beer......

Cheers!

Blog's humble beginnings and the history of graffiti.....or why I'm up past bed time.

Sun, 05 Mar 2006 06:44:38 GMT

Well I've just started this damn thing up. Now I'm quite certain that stuff like this has been around for, well, ever. Everyone likes to be important, even if it's just self important. It's kinda cool to think someone is interested in what's going on with our own lives.

Ever since some guy who's name is unpronounceable because it's the pre-history and they probably didn't invent names yet, or at least names you wouldn't want to call anybody in a civilized world, decided to get some nice colored mud, plants, animal fat, etc. mix it up, and smear it all over the cave wall in a neat pattern to show others in the cave what he managed to hunt down for dinner that day. He didn't, I'm sure, realize that he'd just invented public commentary, editorials, and an entire new and exciting industry of public works in the form of graffiti management. He was just sharing a piece of his life. Who cared if the guy from the cave next door looked at it and thought" Big deal, I nailed one of those four days ago".

The graffiti management never came. Traveling around in any major caty will prove this. As a result we still have public commentary, and editorials. Now thanks to the wonderful notions of progress and stuff, I've just smeared my batch of electronic nice colored mud, plants, and animal fat all around computer screens everywhere.

And somewhere in the infinite, a caveman with an unpronounceable name grins......