Category Archives: Random Neuron Firings

So shines a good deed…

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…in a weary world.

No, I’m not quoting Willy Wonka quoting Shakespeare. Rather, I’m salaaming to the Thriller for his brainy gift idea for after I’m done with exams this afternoon.

Heh.

He can steal Fizzy Lifting Drinks anytime he wants to. Just remind him for me, if you would, that 25 August is my birthday and I really really really want THIS. (No, PK, it’s not what you think — although I’ll never get that, either, unless I buy it myself, which takes all the fun out of it. Nuts. Just call me Ralphie.)

So yesterday was pretty much hideous. I wrote for four hours…I hope I gave them some of what they wanted. I’m off to do it again; if I get the African Ngoma drumming musicology question, I am…well…rotated on a threaded axis.

Happy Wednesday – and to all my students and colleagues who are so kind as to read RtB, have a relaxing (albeit too short) holiday weekend. Schoooooooool’s out. For. Easta. Yay!

Fink out (to Akron one final time, at least until August)

PS – Lars called me last night, and #1 Son messaged me on BlackBerry IM to ask how my exams went. They are good sons. I am lucky.

Finkservations

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I do like to observe, I’ll grant you. Then I like to comment. Behold…a morning glance at Yahoo’s “Most Emailed Photos” gives pause for Finkservations:

Seems to me the wife of the PM of Great Britain would have access to a full-length mirror.

Er....

Taken at a California fruit market. All righty...

Dude. You're the president, fuh cripesake. Granted, the president of *France*, but still...

Nope. No steroids here.

Redneck was cited for DUI on this thing. Only in Ohio.

All right. Time to hit the books (like it’ll do any good at this point).

Fink out.

IRC – what a hoot

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My friend and Finkville citizen Suzanne lives in the Netherlands with her handsome Dutch husband, Harold. She wrote a comment on yesterday’s blog that really brought back some memories. All ye who are geeky and all about this here internet thing, read on. (Those who aren’t can read on as well, what the heck.)

I have met some wonderful friends through a protocol developed in the late 80s/early 90s called Internet Relay Chat – or IRC. Users downloaded mIRC and pIRCch software and used it exclusively to communicate real-time on a daily basis with people from all over the planet. It was instant messaging’s granddaddy. How can I explain it…it was a cult of sorts; a brotherhood, to wit:

  • We didn’t call them “chat rooms.” That was for silly AOL users who didn’t want to know the guts of anything. Our hangouts were called “channels.” Many of us were Usenet junkies, and we made the transition pretty easily.
  • We had channel operators (chanops or just “ops”) who controlled the mayhem. We (including the Thriller, Suzanne and myself) worked our way up through the ranks and were made channel operators by the IRC gods. At one point, Thriller and I were “499” level ops, with the highest designation being 500 (or channel owner). Think of a jail setting…we were trustees of the highest order. HA
  • These weren’t just cute little “chat rooms.” At the time, we operated the channel called #newbies, where everyone who was new to IRC came to get help and learn the ropes of the software and the environment. Hundreds and hundreds of people cycled through that place every day. There were also a lot of IRC veterans who just came to hang. Many relationships, involving lifelong friendship, romance, and even animosity, developed in there. (I’m thinking of some certain Canadians…)
  • There were lots of people from Europe, Asia, Canada and the US, all coming together in one place to talk, laugh, and generally be silly. It was great, and at the time, extremely novel. It wasn’t the norm back in 1993-94 like it is now.
  • Suzanne is a wonderful friend I made through IRC, and I’ll be forever grateful for that.

Suzanne: So I just blew the dust off my copy of mIRC, and connected to Undernet. Went into our old stomping grounds and found Mahatma & Clotho…whaddya know?? Cool that they’re still together, just like us.

:-)

Have a dandy day, everyone.

Fink, dinosaur

No, seriously

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Today, the best record in the NBA belongs to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Heh. I remember when we couldn’t buy a win from Detroit. I even remember a couple of years ago, thinking that it was going to be yet another disappointment for Cleveland sports fans — even with LeBron. But..dare I ask it..could there be a pro sports championship for Cleveland on the horizon? Shhh. Don’t jinx it.

BlackBerry App World just launched. That makes me happy.

If you have absolutely nothing to do, you can read about some theories on how April Fools Day began. It’s actually interesting (or at least I think so).

I think that next spring, when I take my choir on tour to New York, I’ll slip out of Phantom (which I’ve seen — and loved unapologetically — eight times) and go here.

And that’s enough fooling around for one morning. Time for you to get busy.

Fink out.

So, sports fans…

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…are you ready for the week from Hades? Ready, steady…..kA-BLaM

Happens every year. Production week, I mean. For those not of the theater persuasion, it’s basically the week where everything comes together (and falls apart) in anticipation of opening on the weekend.

After auditions back in December, rehearsals beginning on MLK Day, my bizarre illness, snow days galore, mono and a horrible flu strain making their way through the cast, countless setbacks and other wonderful issues that honk me off so I won’t explain them out in fronta God and everyone…we’re opening in 5 days. So it begins.

I’ve been asked why I put myself (and my students) through this. Like many passions, only those who know, know. I’ve had people tell me — hundreds of times, actually — that they would die of heart failure if they had to get up in front of a crowd and perform. I can’t relate to that, I guess. There are those of us who absolutely live for that thrill. I know I always did. And now I get the chance to live it again, albeit vicariously.

I’m looking forward to seeing my students get the payoff for the work they’ve done. I know that I am not always pleasant to work with. Sometimes I’ve thought, “I wouldn’t blame them if they walked out.” I’m just glad they haven’t.

But hey…the week is young.

Fink out.