Apostrophe Catastrophe

New Website!

2011-05-01T18:22:00.001-07:00

Hey everybody!

I've finally created my own personal website, which can be found at TankHughes.com!

There will be no more posts on this blog, unless I forget about the new website. :) Thanks for following me, if you'd like to continue, there's a subscribe button in the top corner of the new site.

Onwards and Upwards!

Short List: Wizard of Oz Songs

2011-04-28T18:03:00.000-07:00

1. What You Wish For - Guster

2. Dorothy - Soshy

3. Come Downstairs and Say Hello - Guster

4. Emerald City - The Seekers

5. The Soundtrack from The Wiz

#17 2011

2011-04-25T09:04:00.000-07:00

#16 2011

2011-04-18T23:27:00.001-07:00

Short List: Kidney Songs

2011-04-17T00:16:00.000-07:00

1. Meanwhile Rick James - Cake

2. Daddy Wasn't There - Ming Tea ft. Austin Powers

3. He Needs a Kidney - Kidney Now!

Short List: Scandahoovian Songs

2011-04-13T18:15:00.001-07:00

1. Oslo in the Summertime - Of Montreal

2. Iceland - Ozma

3. Finland - Monty Python

4. Sverige (Sweden) - Kent

5. Tropical Iceland - Fiery Furnaces

6. Norwegian Wood - The Beatles

7. Ikea - Jonathan Coulton

8. Stockholm Syndrome - Muse

9. Denmark Street - The Kinks

Honorable Mention:
10. Heart it Races (Trizzy's Rusty Tin Can Mix) - Architecture in Helsinki

PDX Concerts I Have Been To

2011-04-12T11:58:00.000-07:00

Loveland:
Louis XIV / Hot Hot Heat
Spill Canvas / Plain White T's / OK Go / Motion City Soundtrack
Vedera / The New Amsterdams / Mae

Crystal Ballroom:
Cute is What We Aim For / Hellogoodbye
Hellogoodbye / Say Anything
The Boy Least Likely To / James Blunt
Beirut
The Decemberists
Ratatat

Wonder Ballroom:
Of Montreal
Squirrel Nut Zippers
Camera Obscura
State Radio

Hawthorne Theatre:
Ozma
The Hush Sound / The Spill Canvas
Fun. / Hellogoodbye
Jukebox the Ghost / Hellogoodbye

Doug Fir:
The Bird and the Bee
Laura Marling / Patrick Watson
Ezra Furman and the Harpoons
The Submarines

Park Blocks:
Amanda Fucking Palmer

Aladdin:
Yoshimi Brothers
Jonathan Coulton
W00tstock

Berbati's:
Nada Surf
Weezer cover band

Holocene:
Thao Nguyen and the Get Down Stay Down

Dante's:
The Red Elvises

Oregon Zoo:
Jewel
Caravan Palace

Mississippi Studios:
Jukebox the Ghost

Spelling Bee: The Last PDX Spelling Bee

2011-04-12T01:18:00.001-07:00

1. antique
2. assailant
3. daiquiri
4. whortleberry (I spelled it wrong)

The End.

#15 2011

2011-04-12T01:16:00.000-07:00

Short List: President Songs

2011-04-07T15:25:00.001-07:00

1. The Presidents - The Animaniacs
2. The Presidents - Jonathan Coulton
3. President - Wyclef Jean
4. Kick out the Jams - Presidents of the United States of America
5. James K Polk - They Might Be Giants
6. Ike for President - 1952 Eisenhower Campaign
7. Loves Me Like a Rock - Paul Simon

Someday Bee: Somebody Won!

2011-04-06T00:42:00.001-07:00

ME! I'm the one who won! I rock! Go me! It was pretty cool, A 3-time winner, myself, Robert, and a supersmart pregnant lady all going for the $50 bucks but inexpicably ME WON. YAYYYYYY I GOT TO HOLD THE BIG CHECK!

1. kiln
2. gherkin
3. sepulchre/ sepulcher (apparently I naturally prefer the British spelling)
4. monocoque
5. acrocyanosis (I spelled it wrong but so did everyone else)
6. interregnum
7. diaphanous

PICTURE GALLERY!!

#14 2011

2011-04-04T21:41:00.001-07:00

Spelling Bee: Acceptable Exit

2011-04-04T21:28:00.000-07:00

1. immature
2. spaghetti
3. insouciance (I spelled it wrong)

My favorite old boss Jesse came and watched the bee with his wife, it was lovely. I left the house with a temperature, but I beat it into submission and it was not a foggy brain that got me out of the bee. Insouciance is a generally terrible word.

Spelling Bee: Goddammit

2011-03-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

1. burglar
2. cultivator (I spelled it wrong)

Short List: Pink Songs

2011-03-28T17:35:00.000-07:00

1. Pretty Pink Ribbon - Cake

2. Pink Moon - Nick Drake

3. Hot Pink Hot Sex ft. Gonzales - Peaches

4. Pink Panther Theme - Henry Mancini

5. Geek in the Pink - Jason Mraz

6. Pink Triangle - Weezer

7. Pretty in Pink - The Psychaedelic Furs

8. Pink Sabbath - Dananananakroyd

#13 2011

2011-03-28T17:32:00.000-07:00

Rumble Bee Returns: New Norton

2011-03-24T22:47:00.000-07:00

There was a charity spelling bee tonight at Comedy Sportz for SOSSA. It was FUN. I wish I could have been in for longer, they had cool inventive rounds after I got out... :(

1. advantage
2. accommodate
3. brisage (I spelled it wrong)

Brisage has to do with explosives. It is a very technical word not used outside of the firearm and explosives nerd world. F it.

Short List: OK Songs

2011-03-23T00:49:00.001-07:00

Today is being declared as OK Day by the author of a new book about the word OK. The word OK was first published on March 23, 1839. It is a fanciful acronym for the intentionally misspelled 'oll korrect.' Really. You can learn about OK Day suggested activities at the Facebook page.

1. Oh Well, Okay - Elliot Smith
2. Is This Sound Okay? - Coconut Records
3. Is It Okay if I Call You Mine? - Sondre Lerche
4. Pony (It's OK) - Erin McCarley
5. It's Ok - Dead Moon
6. Luna Lovegood is OK - Harry and the Potters
7. Oklahoma - Oklahoma!
8. Everything's Okay - Hank Williams
9. It's OK - Cee-Lo Green
10. Ok/No Way - Mission of Burma
11. (OK Go)

Spelling Bee Report: Oh the Huge Manatee

2011-03-22T12:27:00.000-07:00

1. auburn
2. decanter (I spelled it wrong)

Shameful. Unacceptable. Thankfully, the gods sent a trivia quiz about Portland, and backlit with a halo, Joe the Portland Tour Guide smashed that shit up. I ended up $6 richer, and that's pretty good for a terrible night, spelling-wise. Thanks, Joe.

The History of Spanish in 10 Words

2011-03-21T10:59:00.000-07:00

I have written or presented about this topic at least 3 times in school, and it still amuses the hell out of me. I have distilled it down to 5 words, but I just found a paper that lists the whole 10, and I think it's worth recording these down while the information still bubbles and frolicks around for me when I talk about it.

1. Fabular

-Spanish is one of the Romance languages which means it comes from Latin. Other Romance languages include French, Italian, Romanian, Catalan, and Portuguese, unfortunately.
-Fabular means to tell a tale which has morphed over the years to become the verb hablar, to speak. There are many words which begin with 'f' in Latin that changed to 'h' in modern Spanish. Exceptions are words with a diphthong after the 'f' like fuente (fountain), fuerza (force), and fuego (fire).

2. Sistema

-Greek preceded Latin, which means the terms are older, but most likely filtered through Latin to become part of Spanish. Besides being used in technical and scientific words, many words from Greek are related to Church like católico, bautizar (baptize), cátedra, diablo, himno (hymn), and iglesia, meaning church.
-Sistema is a specific type of Spanish word which is from Greek, is a cognate with the English word, and appears to be female (ends in -a) but is actually masculine and uses 'el' in front of the word. Other words include mapa, dia, tema (theme), and clima (weather).

3. Guerra

-After the Romans, Goths came to Spain and ruled for a while. They conquered by battle, and once they were in charge, they settled into the Roman lifestyle, and did not add many words to the language. The words they did contribute were mostly about war, like guardian, tambór (drum), guante (glove), armadura (armor), arma (weapon) and the word for war itself, guerra.

4. Rodriguez

-The Goths also left behind their names, so pervasive in modern Latino names that it's breath-taking. In Scandanavian languages, "Olofson" means son of Olof, and in Scottish, MacDonald means 'son of Donald.' Since the names are in reference to their family or father, they are called patronyms. In Germanic Goth tradition, this is denoted by adding -ez or -oz to the end of the name, so 'son of Rodrigo' turns into Rodriguez. Other names include: Marquez, Gutierrez, Estevez, Lopez, Ramirez, Vasquez, Alvarez, Sanchez, Velasquez, and Ruiz (also meaning son of Rodrigo).

5. Alcohol

-From 711 to 1492, the Moors ruled Spain. They advanced all fields including science, math, architecture, and gardening. Arabic vocabulary came into every aspect of Spanish, but since the Spaniards had no context for Arabic language, many of the words were learned incorrectly. In Arabic 'al' is a definite article meaning 'the.' When a word like 'ah-kuhul' was spoken, Spanish speakers assumed the 'al' part was integral, and so Spanish has many words beginning with 'al.' Alcatraz (pelican) alameda, almendra (almond), ajedrez (chess), the Alambra (the red, referring to the color of the building).
-Algodon means cotton. If you take off the 'al,' you can see that godon and cotton are the same, but godon is voiced and cotton is voiceless.

6. Guadalfeo

-Another Arabic addition to Spanish was the word guadal (wadi in Arabic), meaning river. For some reason, many rivers have 'guadal' in the front, and then a Spanish word describing the river. Rivers with this pattern include Guadalcanal (channel river), Guadalajara (river of stones) and Guadalupe (wolf river.) Feo means ugly so Guadalfeo means Ugly River. I actually saw a sign for this river driving with my housemadre in Andalucia.

7. Doña

-In 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella finally finished their Reconquista (reconquering) of Spain back from the Moors, which freed up their money to fund an expedition to the new world. Cervantes had not published Don Quixote, and Shakespeare had not published his plays, but imagine that sailors leaving Spain spoke in that style with 'thou' and 'mighteth' called Early Modern Spanish. Whatever 'natural' path the evolution of Spanish may have taken after they left Spain, Spanish in the New World stopped moving forward in many ways because it had to blend with the native languages it was encountering.
-In Spain, the informal second person (tú, you) is used all the time with friends or strangers. In Mexico, my host parents were Don Amando and Doña Epifanía, which is the equivalent of calling modern day people Lord and Lady. The formal third person (usted, he, she) is used to conjugate with everyone except for very small children, where tú is acceptable. When I mentioned this, the people in Spain said the old-timey formality sounds very silly to them.

8. Popocateptl

-When the ships arrived in the Americas, the sailors were assaulted with new smells, animals and foods. Although they became the ruling class, Spaniards adopted many words for unfamiliar objects adopted from the native languages. The umbrella term Nahuatl is used to describe Aztecan languages found in Mexico, and many terms are recognizable from this family of languages. Tomate, aguacate (avocado), cacahuete (peanut), chicle, coyote, chile, and chocolate are all from Nahuatl.
-Many place names in Mexico are also fiercely Nahuatl, like Teotihuacan, Michoacan, Oaxaca, Tlaquepaque, Mazatlan, and Tenochtitlan. My favorites are Popocateptl and Ixtaccihuatl, which are volcanoes.

9. Espíderman

-English has become the global language. With technological advancements being created and popularized in English-speaking places, this phenomenon has exploded, but many modern terms have been borrowed by other languages rather than using equivalents from their own lexicons for a long time. Shoppers can buy 'los bluejeans' and stores advertize 'el look.'
-All languages have rules which are called phonological constraints. In English, tpeek and sbar are not acceptable, but many consonant sounds can be smooshed together, as in the word strengths (/streŋθs/). In Spanish, one of the constraints does not allow words to begin with 2 consonant sounds, like 'sp.' Spain itself is called España for this very reason. Living in Mexico, I saw ads on TV for toys based on Espíderman 2. A friend of mine once did a presentation on Esnówboarding.

10. 62 (Sesenta)

As previously mentioned, Nahuatl is an umbrella term for the native languages of Mexico. In reality, Mexico has sixty-two official languages including Zapotec and Mixtec. When rebel groups like the EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation) sit down at talks with the government, trying to represent the concerns of all the small indigenous groups, language is a huge obstacle.

*Bonus Words* Zurda & Izquierda

-Basque is a weird language. It existed before Latin, it is not related to the Romance languages. It is a pre-Indo-European language, which is OLD.
-Like a neighbor borrowing sugar from the north, Spanish has borrowed words from Basque twice, both for the same reason. Sometimes in a language, a word gets too many connotations, or a previously neutral word gets mixed up with slang insults, and sullies the normal use of the word. In English, everybody giggles at old songs with the word 'gay' in them, for example. Spanish had this problem with its basic words for left and right. In Latin, dexter means right, and sinister means left. Over time, dexter developed the sense of righteousness and good, while sinister, in contrast, became untrustworthy and evil. To avoid giving ominous directions, Spanish borrowed the Basque word 'izquierda' to mean the left direction, which is why it looks all crazy pants compared to derecha, which is derived from the Latin dexter.
-The second borrowing from Basque comes from the dubious delegation of distinguishing the right hand from the left. On Earth, 11% of population is consistently left-handed. In order to avoid implying that left-handers are evil (but you know they think it anyway), the word zurda was added to Spanish to describe southpaws. I love that word. It makes me want to lead a revolution with that as my nom de guerre. ¡VIVA ZURDA! Like that.

There you have it, a lovely little conquest, reconquest, boat trip and movie-going experience of the Spanish language.

#12 2011

2011-03-21T10:49:00.000-07:00

Elsewhere on the Internet: Wordnik.com Secret Word Game!

2011-03-16T15:10:00.000-07:00

Hey!

Every Wednesday morning starting around 9:30am, @Wordnik gives out clues for a secret word on wordnik.com that has a pronounciation by "hap_e_wordnik" (see screen shot below). They give out 3 or 4 clues, each of which describes a different definition that the uncommon or obsolete word has. As soon as someone gets the right word, the game ends. If no one gets it by the end of the clues, they give a *BONUS CLUE* which usually has quotations around letters, meaning the word is an anagram of those letters.

Today's bonus clue included the quoted letters "new lid" which I anagrammed into the correct answer! I've been able to do the final sudden-death anagram part before, but always sent my response after one or more people had already figured it out. This week, I was the first! I won! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

They will be mailing a prize to me which was previously secret and unknown to me, but now I will reveal it! (I hope that's okay)

It's a notebook with wordnik.com and other words on the cover! It's so cute. It's going to be so cute I won't feel worthy to put my little lists in it, but I will do it anyway.

Thanks, Wordnik! I feel so nifty now. <3

#11 2011

2011-03-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

Spelling Bee: Cupcakes on Pi Day

2011-03-14T20:46:00.000-07:00

1. marzipan
2. quorum
3. hierarchy
4. farrago (I spelled it wrong)

My Favorite Video Games to Play

2011-03-14T01:01:00.000-07:00

Fennel's Figure Math (CD-ROM)
The Neverhood (CD-ROM)
The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain (CD-ROM)
The Time Warp of Dr. Brain (CD-ROM)
Secret of Monkey Island series (CD-ROM)
You Don't Know Jack series (CD-ROM)
MarioKart (N64)
Super Smash Bros (N64)
Pokemon Snap (N64)
Pokemon Stadium Kids Games (N64)
Twisted Metal series (PlayStation)
Tony Hawk Pro Skater (PlayStation)
Maelstrom (OS)
Roll'em (OS)
Barrack (OS)
Peggle (OSX)
Snood (OSX)
Super Smash Bros Melee (Gamecube)
Mario Party 5 (Gamecube)
Portal (Steam)
Sam and Max episodes (Steam)
Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent (Steam)
Katamari Damacy series (PS2)
Elebits (Wii)
Raving Rabbids series (Wii)
SuperMario Galaxy series (Wii)
LittleBig Planet (PS3)
Lego Harry Potter (XBox 360)
Pinball FX 2 (XBox360)
Words with Friends (iToca)
Flood It 2 (iToca)
Cut the Rope (iToca)
JetBall (iToca)
QRANK (iToca)
Fruit Ninja (iToca)
Touch Detective series (DS)
Professor Layton series (DS)
Phoenix Wright series (DS)

Short List: Favorite Public Art

2011-03-14T00:27:00.000-07:00

1. Cupid's Span by Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen. San Francisco, CA.

2. Stravinsky Fountain by Jean Tingueley & Niki de Saint Phalle. Paris, France.

3. "Defenestration" by Brian Goggin. San Francisco, CA.

4. Book Burning Monument by Micha Ullman. Berlin, Germany.

Short List: Coughing Songs

2011-03-09T17:47:00.000-08:00

1. Punches - World Leader Pretend

2. Cough Drops - Terry Scott Taylor (Neverhood soundtrack)

3. Skat Radio - Terry Scott Taylor (Neverhood soundtrack)

4. Let Me Clear My Throat - DJ Kool

5. We Trying To Stay Alive - Wyclef Jean

#10 2011

2011-03-07T11:21:00.000-08:00

Someday Bee: March

2011-03-02T00:45:00.000-08:00

1. surreal
2. boomslang
3. pibroch

I had a lot of banter with excellent host Adam about my name. They give you a free beer, which I didn't take. Host: "But Bri is an anagram of Beer!" Me: "Not the way I spell it, it's just B-R-I." Host: "Bri is an anagram of... IRB!" Someone else "Rib."

Spelling Bee: Best Table Ever

2011-03-01T14:31:00.000-08:00

1. Haiti
2. repertoire
3. edelweiss
4. endophthalmitis
5. xebec

Robert, Leila, Andy and I sat eating pizza before the bee, and Andy, Leila and I tied for 3rd, knowlingly leaving the stage at the same time when the other two spellers got their words right. Ah well, it was a good exit.

#9 2011

2011-02-28T00:09:00.000-08:00

Alphabet Souperhero: Revision

2011-02-23T01:35:00.000-08:00

A Captain America from Marvel comic
A Aquaman from DC comic
A Avalanche from Marvel comic
A Apocalypse from Marvel comic
A Ace from Ace and Gary on SNL cartoon
A Alvin from Alvin and the Chipmunks cartoon

B Batfink from Batfink cartoon
B Bessie from The Mighty B! cartoon

C Captain Crunch from cereal
C Charlie-27 from Marvel comic
C Teddiursa from Pokemon

D Demolition Man from Marvel comic
D Danny Witwicky from Transformers cartoon
D Doronjo from Yatterman anime
D Donatello from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon

E Captain Excellent from 'Paper Man' movie
E Eminem from 'Without Me' music video

F Freakazoid! from Freakazoid cartoon
F Fidget from 3-2-1 Penguins! cartoon

G Gleek the Monkey from Wonder Twins DC comic
G Gary from Ace and Gary on SNL cartoon
G Super Grover from Sesame Street show
G Governator from Governator cartoon
G The Gang from Marvel comic
G Greenzo from 30 Rock show
G Blockhead Twin from Gumby cartoon
G Ken the Eagle from Yatterman anime
G Jun the Swan from Yatterman anime

H Hawkeye from Marvel comic
H Hercules from Marvel comic
H Rimmer from Red Dwarf show
H Homer from The Simpsons cartoon
H Hercules from The Mighty Hercules cartoon

I Professor Impossible from Venture Bros. show
I Mr. Incredible from The Incredibles movie
I Elastigirl from The Incredibles movie
I Violet from The Incredibles movie
I Dash from The Incredibles movie

J Blockhead Twin from Gumby cartoon
J Jayna from Wonder Twins DC comic

K Kevin from 3-2-1 Penguins! cartoon
K Kaliman from Kaliman comic

L Lex Luthor from DC comic
L Luigi from Nintendo video game
L Laverne from Laverne and Shirley show
L Leonardo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon
L Lead from Metal Men DC comic

M Midgel from 3-2-1 Penguins! cartoon
M Strong Mad from Homestar Runner cartoon
M Speed Racer from Speed Racer cartoon
M Metallus from Space Ghost cartoon
M Ronald McDonald from McDonald's company
M Metamorpho from DC comic
M Mario from Nintendo video game
M Marvin White from Super Friends DC comic
M Michaelangelo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon

N Samuel Dullard from Rocket Power cartoon
N Nuclear Man from Superman IV movie
N The Noid from Dominos company

O Orko from He-Man cartoon
O Gold from Metal Men DC comic
O Ursaring from Pokemon
O Sentret from Pokemon
O Umbreon from Pokemon

P Puck from Marvel comic
P Phantom Girl from DC comic
P Peckle from Hello Kitty company
P Phillip from South Park cartoon
P Peter Pepper from BurgerTime game

Q Quakemaster from DC comic
Q Quail Man from Doug cartoon
Q Quail Dog from Doug cartoon

R Raphael from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon
R Robin from DC comic
R Team Rocket from Pokemon
R Ron Weasley from Harry Potter books

S Superman from DC comic
S Supergirl from DC comic
S Sentry from Marvel comic
S Syndrome from The Incredibles movie

T Terrax from Marvel comic
T Terrence from South Park cartoon
T Token Black from South Park cartoon
T Taskmaster from Marvel comic

U U Man from Marvel comic
U Underdog from Underdog cartoon

V Brother Voodoo from Marvel comic
V Vigilante from DC comic
V Viewtiful Joe from Viewtiful Joe video game

W Wonder Man from Marvel comic
W Whizzer from Marvel comic
W Wonder Woman from DC comic
W Whiscash from Pokemon
W Wario from Nintendo video game
W Waluigi from Nintendo video game

X X the Eliminator from Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law
X Captain Britain from Marvel comic
X Racer X from Speed Racer cartoon
X Drifblim from Pokemon
X Sharpedo from Pokemon
X All X-Men from Marvel comic

Y Yatterman from Yatterman anime
Y Y-Women from The Authority comic
Y Yukk! from the Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure show

Z Zidgel from 3-2-1 Penguins! cartoon
Z Zurg from Toy Story 2 movie
Z Zan from Wonder Twins DC comic
Z Ziggy from Lazy Town show
Z Bizarro from DC comic

DOUBLE LETTER
CO Captain Obvious from Threadless shirt
DD Daredevil from Marvel comic
DK Donkey Kong from Nintendo video game
DM Danger Mouse from Danger Mouse cartoon
LB Larry-Boy from Veggie Tales cartoon
PP Pink Pummeler from Dr. Horrible Sing-A-Long Blog
SG Super Goofy from Disney cartoon
SR Schoolhouse Rocky from Schoolhouse Rock cartoon

#8 2011

2011-02-21T15:19:00.000-08:00

Short List: Fictional TV Swear Words

2011-02-14T22:13:00.000-08:00

1. Whomp!

2. Frak!

3. Smeg!

4. Shazbot!

6. Frell!

Short List: Hate Day Songs

2011-02-14T13:30:00.001-08:00

Apparently people are unhappy today.

1. I Hate Myself for Loving You - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

2. Hate on Me - Glee Cast version

3. Hate (I Really Don't Like You) - Plain White T's

4. We Hate You Please Die - Crash and the Boys

5. She Hates Me - Puddle of Mudd

6. I Hate Everything about You - Three Days Grace

#7 2011

2011-02-14T12:29:00.000-08:00

Short Lists: Body Part Color Songs

2011-02-11T12:14:00.000-08:00

1. Red Eye - Ben Kweller

2. Green Eyes - Coldplay

3. Brown Eyed Handsome Man - Nina Simone

4. Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison

5. White Knuckles - OK Go

6. Blue in the Face - Alkaline Trio

7. I Have Red Hair - Ginny and the Heartbreakers

8. Red Right Hand - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

9. Red Right Ankle - The Decemberists

10. My Coloring Book - Kitty Kallen

Short List: What Are You To Me?

2011-02-08T01:56:00.000-08:00

1. You Are My Destiny - Paul Anka

2. You Are My Sunshine - The Soggy Bottom Boys

3. You Are My Face - Wilco

4. You're My Best Friend - Queen

5. You're My Type - Kanye West

6. You're My Thrill - Ella Fitzgerald

7. You're My First, My Last, My Everything - Barry White

Spelling Bee: 3 Way Tie For Second!

2011-02-08T00:06:00.001-08:00

1. symbolic
2. memorandum
3. patronymic
4. geophagy
5. sebec (I spelled it wrong)
6. aegis (I spelled it wrong)
7. strongylosis (I spelled it wrong)
8. patroon

They ran out of sufficiently difficult words so I tied for 2nd with 2 other ladies. Sort of unsatisfying, but if I can keep it for 2 weeks in my wallet, I'll have a drink ticket the next time I go to spelling.

#6 2011

2011-02-07T01:09:00.000-08:00

Spelling Bee: February Someday

2011-02-01T23:36:00.001-08:00

1. thoroughly
2. dexterous
3. calyptrate

bullshit.

All-around lovely person and superb speller Leila won, though, which is legit and fo real, and new-to-me Sarah was good too.

Spelling Bee: Noble Exit

2011-01-31T21:01:00.001-08:00

1. splendid
2. appendages
3. dyscalculia
4. senescence (I spelled it wrong)

Norton won, Robert got 2nd. I got a drink ticket and spent some of my last week winnings on a pretty good piece a pizza.

#5 2011

2011-01-31T00:14:00.000-08:00

Short List: My Favorite Seasonal Candies

2011-01-27T11:56:00.000-08:00

1.Valentine's Day: Necco Sweethearts

2.Christmas: Peppermint Bark

3.Halloween: Palmer Peanut Butter Creepy Peepers / Monster Coins

4.Easter: Cadbury Creme Eggs

5. Feb/March: Girl Scout Thin Mint Ice Cream

6.Thanksgiving: Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

7. Easter: Peeps Bunnies

Short List: Podcasts that Inspire Me

2011-01-27T08:51:00.000-08:00

1. Cool Hunting
Best Episodes: Ian Hundley, BAP Lap Part 1, Okamato Studio, Social Suicide, Troika, Jill Greenberg, Jose Parla, To Catch a Web Part 1, Gelitin, Y.A.C.H.T.

2. The Nerdist
Best Episodes: Tom Lennon (#1), Billy West (#49) I think it depends on if you're interested in the interviewee for the most part.

3. Kevin Pollak's Chat Show
Best Episodes: Craig Ferguson (#53), Bryan Cranston(#64), Paul Provenza (#69), , Billy Bob Thornton(#94) Each show is about 2 hours so it helps to be interested or at least open-minded about the possible intrigue level of the guest.

I considered summarizing each podcast individually, but they really all hit home on the same point. They all feature people who are doing something that they are passionate about, who know what they are talking about, or who have hobbies that are just as interesting, but not necessarily related to their well-established careers. Cool Hunting often focuses on someone who handcrafts something unique, and how they have carved out a niche for their business. In one episode, they talk to Ian Hundley, who sews quilts based on aerial view maps. People being recognized for their strange side projects, and turning those side projects into profitable pursuits, encourages me to explore any crazy idea that comes into my head.

Kevin Pollak often says "if you're not creating, you're waiting." There are always obstacles to being creative, but they aren't really that big, and it's mostly a person's initiative or lack thereof that delays their career from advancing. Many guests of the chat show will begin a story with a small role they had in a TV show that someone saw and that lead to their breakout role. Small projects can still be introductions to people who can help you out later in life, and can be that extra foot in the door that leads to the next project. Often actors who began in improv will say they are no longer comfortable doing it, because they are out of practice. It's not just something you can let lay around, you have to work on parts of yourself that you think are valuable.

In the Nerdist, Chris Hardwick often asks his comedian guests what their writing process is, how they became comfortable with themselves on stage, and how they got a grip on what their perspective as a comic is. When people come up to him and ask how to be a comic, he says "Start doing it! If you lose interest or you can't take the life, you probably shouldn't be a comic." They are casual, often going totally off-topic of biographical information, but seeing them in action is also rewarding. His two co-hosts add more perspective from working comics.

It's about taking ACTION. It's about finding out who you are, using your strengths and developing skills to find a job, or invent one, and move confidently from there.

#4 2011

2011-01-24T22:27:00.000-08:00

Spelling Bee: Two Thousand EleVENGEANCE!

2011-01-24T22:04:00.000-08:00

1. Boycott
2. Tempura
3. Muumuu
4. Cynophilist
5. Lekach
6. Psittachosis (I spelled it wrong)
7. Homoousianism

VICTORY VICTORY!!

Also had a lovely formal introduction and conversation with mister joe and miss leila, fellow spellers. Howdoyoudo.

Short List: Famous Hedgehogs

2011-01-18T15:51:00.001-08:00

1. Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle

2. Sonic, Amy Rose, Shadow, Silver etc

3. Mr Pricklepants

4. croquet ball from Alice in Wonderland

Short List: Connection Songs

2011-01-18T13:52:00.001-08:00

1. Connection - Elastica

2. Rainbow Connection - The Muppets

3. Connect the Dots - The Spill Canvas

4. Disconnect the Dots - Of Montreal

Spelling Bee: Yay I'm Back!

2011-01-17T22:11:00.000-08:00

1. lily
2. potassium
3. asterisk
4. poimenics (I spelled it wrong)

26 people playing tonight! Andy got 3rd, Robert got the most French word in the universe, embonpoint (pronounced AUH-BAU-POIA)

#3 2011

2011-01-17T15:27:00.001-08:00

#2 2011

2011-01-10T17:05:00.001-08:00

Short List: Songs about Change

2011-01-05T05:16:00.000-08:00

1. Pennies from Heaven - Louis Prima

2. Dime - Cake

3. Two Coins - Dispatch

4. Penny Lane - The Beatles

5. Queen of the Silver Dollar - Emmylou Harris

6. Betcha Nickel - Ella FItzgerald

7. Coin-Operated Boy - The Dresden Dolls

New Year's Resolutions: Portland Edition

2011-01-02T18:29:00.001-08:00

Sometime this spring, I'm leaving Portland and moving back home. Before I go, there are some things I want to make sure I do.

1. go up and down on the PSU Tram
2. eat saint cupcake, eat voodoo donut
3. get the shirts I want (voodoo, saint cupcake, republic of portland)
4. place well at spelling bee (I WON JANUARY 24)
5. find and go to the cemetery where my French relatives are
6. visit McAuley in Salem
7. visit Shelley in Eugene
8. do karaoke from hell
9. do puzzled pint in february, march
10. go to the rose garden
11. buy 'castro' hat often seen in portland
12. go to ground kontrol several times
13. dye my hair purple
14. go to someday lounge spelling bee on 1st tuesday of the month february,CHECK, march
15. go see futbol matches at 4-4-2 on hawthorne at least once (I WENT FEBRUARY 9)
16. go to a roller derby match
17. go to ice cream renaissance in vancouver, wa

i COULD visit the zoo but I don't have to.

#1 2011

2011-01-02T17:50:00.000-08:00

#52

2010-12-27T07:41:00.000-08:00

#51

2010-12-20T09:53:00.000-08:00

It can also be found elsewhere here.

#50

2010-12-13T11:54:00.000-08:00

Spelling Bee: New and Different Bee!

2010-12-08T12:48:00.000-08:00

1. tabloid
2. criticism
3. meritocracy
4. oneiromancy (I spelled it wrong)

This is the *NEW* spelling bee that happens at the Someday Lounge once a month on the 1st Tuesday. Every time you spell a word right, you get a can of Tecate. There were 10 spellers. I was in the top 5 when I got out. Robert got 2nd place. The guy who won spelled bildungsroman without blinking.

#49

2010-12-06T23:16:00.001-08:00

Inspired by this image 6 years ago.

Spelling Bee: EPIC Journey!

2010-12-06T22:57:00.000-08:00

1. hamster
2. affliction
3. interchangeable
4. pleonasm
5. vaalhaai (I spelled it wrong)
6. acquiesce
7. dirdum (I spelled it wrong)
8. pharisaical (I spelled it wrong)
9. leporine (I spelled it wrong)
10. plagiarism (I spelled it wrong)

My brain got tired at the end. I tied with Norton. Norton is nice.

Portland Shirts I Will Eventually Buy

2010-11-30T19:50:00.000-08:00

1. Saint Cupcake

2. Voodoo Donuts

3. The People's Republic of Portland

Spelling Bee: Poor Showing, Good Night

2010-11-29T21:32:00.000-08:00

1. beginner
2. grandular
3. ramekin

Norton won! Norton is great. I could have chosen pomfret, which sounded like pommes frites, but it's a fish not a fry.

#48

2010-11-29T21:27:00.000-08:00

Sketch by Matugi on DeviantArt

#47

2010-11-22T22:57:00.000-08:00

(2nd panel found on my Flickr stream.)

Spelling Bee: SNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!

2010-11-22T22:06:00.000-08:00

1. beau
2. pomade
3. flummox (I spelled it wrong)

Lovely evening with the Robert. Hot cider in the lounge. I taught a guy that Seatac is a portmanteau of Seattle and Tacoma, which he had never realized. Someone had to spell OHMAGODITS cabotage. When I spelled flummox, I had a picture of the 'm' taking up a lot of space, but I couldn't figure out if that was because it was an important part of the word, or because there were 2 m's. I chose poorly.

Short List: People Superman Could Date

2010-11-18T17:54:00.001-08:00

1. Laura Linney
2. Liz Lemon
3. Lily Langtry
4. Loretta Lynn
5. Lindsey Lohan
6. Leona Lewis
7. LL Cool J
8. Lex Luthor

#46

2010-11-15T18:02:00.000-08:00

Short List: Halle Berry Songs

2010-11-13T18:12:00.000-08:00

1. Liquid Dreams - O-Town

2. New Workout Plan - Kanye West

3. Work It - Missy Elliott

Legitimate Playlist: My Favorite Music Videos

2010-11-12T20:45:00.000-08:00

1. RiKiDong - 45RPM
2. Nobody Dances Anymore - Brandston
3. Everyday - Dave Matthews
4. Say My Name -Destiny’s Child
5. Survivor - Destiny’s Child
6. What’s Up Fatlip? - Fatlip
7. Not About Love - Fiona Apple
8. Bust Your Windows - Glee (Amber Riley)
9. Girls and Boys - Good Charlotte
10. New Friend Request - Gym Class Heroes
11. Cry Me a River- Justin Timberlake
12. Four Kicks - Kings of Leon
13. Nice Weather for Ducks - Lemon Jelly
14. Salty Eyes - The Matches
15. What’s It Gonna Be? - Mike O’Donnell
16. A Million Ways - OK Go
17. This Too Shall Pass - OK Go
18. Big Brat - hantom Planet
19. Drop - The Pharcyde
20. Hot Ride - Prodigy
21. Hard - Rihanna
22. Soon We’ll Be Found - Sia
23. When It’s Over - Sugar Ray
24. All of My Loving - Valley Lodge
25. Nobody - Wonder Girls

Short List: Actor-Driven Passion Project Websites

2010-11-10T00:18:00.001-08:00

1. It's A Sickness - Alan Cumming

2. Hit RECord - Joseph Gordon-Levitt

3. Soul Pancake - Rainn Wilson

huh.

Elsewhere on the Internet: Geek the Library

2010-11-09T23:34:00.000-08:00

Geek the Library is a site meant to promote libraries, to emphasize that they need our support, and continued funding. I liked the concept instantly, so I decided my thing is "I geek word origins." I wrote up a little explanation and submitted it, but then I read other entries... and then all talk about their geekery and then how the libraries are vital for supporting their continued geekery. What a foolish panda. Anyway, it seems like a good site, and I haven't done anything for the site or libraries recently, but I think it's a good angle to try to attack the problem.

I don't know how I heard about this site, but it initially reminded me of "It's a Sickness" which has lovely Alan Cumming as its MC, which makes it extra wonderful.

Spelling Bee: Queen of Third Place

2010-11-08T21:18:00.000-08:00

1. marginal
2. flack / flak
3. nightingale
4. dynamitard
5. deasil (i spelled it wrong)
6. bagatelle (i spelled it wrong)
7. apparatchik
8. iambelegus (i spelled it wrong)
9. kobold (i spelled it wrong)

I got 3rd again. I am so good at almost getting prizes. Also, Mike visited the bee. Hi, Mike!

Short List: Books I Should Have Read

2010-11-08T16:51:00.000-08:00

1. Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

2. Candide by Voltaire

3. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

4. Dune by Frank Herbert

5. Animal Farm by George Orwell

6. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

7. Ulysses, Finnegan's Wake, or Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

#45

2010-11-08T11:10:00.000-08:00

I Bought a Jacket!

2010-11-07T20:23:00.000-08:00

On Friday I went to Animal Traffic on Mississippi with Robert and Shelley to find some long-sleeved Pendletons for great Robert. What I found instead was a World War II American 4 Pocket Jacket with an Army Air Force patch on the shoulder and an Armament Specialist patch on the lower right sleeve. It looks lovely.

I've looked around a lot, here here and here, and it's possible I should be calling it a tunic.

Short List: My Favorite TV Theme Songs

2010-11-07T17:21:00.001-08:00

1. X-Men

2. Batman: The Animated Series

3. Cowboy Bebop (Tank! - The Seatbelts)

4. Community (At Least It Was Here - the 88's)

5. The Good Guys (Slink - Locksley)

Short List: My Favorite Autobiographies

2010-11-05T08:34:00.001-07:00

1. Boy by Roald Dahl

2. Moab is my Washpot by Stephen Fry

3. Indecent by Sarah Katherine Lewis

Short List: Submarine Songs

2010-11-04T15:41:00.001-07:00

1. Yellow Submarine - The Beatles

2. Submarine #3 - The Starlight Mints

3. Pearls (Submarine #2) - The Starlight Mints

*The band The Submarines does not have any songs about submarines. so they are just a footnote.

Short List: Typewriter Songs

2010-11-04T10:53:00.000-07:00

1. The Typewriter - Leroy Anderson

2. Barrel of a Gun - Guster

3. 9 to 5 - Dolly Parton

4. Pas si simple - Yann Tiersen

Related: I want to see the Boston Typewriter Orchestra perform someday.

Related: Wikipedia has a bigger list on their Typewriter page, but I don't know any of those songs.

Spelling Bee: At Least I Got to Spell A Lot

2010-11-01T21:23:00.000-07:00

1. pension
2. abundance
3. ebullience
4. epiphytic
5. gangue (I spelled it wrong)
6. deshabillle (I spelled it wrong)
7. ziggurat
8. dizen (I spelled it wrong)

Robert won. Good job Robert.

#44

2010-11-01T01:29:00.000-07:00

This can also be found elsewhere on I Can Has Cheezburger

Short List: Pirate Songs

2010-10-31T22:41:00.000-07:00

1. The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything - Veggie Tales

2. Rock the Plank- Mad Caddies

3. Professional Pirate - Tim Curry (Muppet Treasure Island)

4. Yo Ho, A Pirates Life for Me - Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean

5. Wishful Thinking - Rupa and the April Fishes

6. Pirate Song - Mary Martin's Peter Pan

7. Hook's Tango - Mary Martin's Peter Pan

8. Tarantella - Mary Martin's Peter Pan

9. Captain Hook's Waltz - Mary Martin's Peter Pan

10. The Captain's Wife's Lament - Paul and Storm

Short List: Bullwhip Crack Sound Effect Songs

2010-10-30T15:25:00.000-07:00

1. Minimum Wage - They Might Be Giants

2. Deliver Us - Ofra Haza (Prince of Egypt)

3. Rawhide - Frankie Laine

4. Hem of Your Garment - Cake

5. Ghost Riders in the Sky - The Ramrods

6. Blazing Saddles - Mel Brooks

Spelling Bee: Late and Little Impact

2010-10-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

1. column
2. stratum
3. fluorescent / gestalt (I was the last to spell in the round, I could have had either)
4. breccia (I spelled it wrong)

#43

2010-10-25T11:29:00.000-07:00

Short List: Baseball-Themed Band Names

2010-10-24T00:03:00.000-07:00

1. Fastball

2. The Outfield

3. Damn Yankees

4. Yo La Tengo

Short List: Coldplay Songs Where Chris Martin Says "Singing" And Then He Sings

2010-10-19T21:34:00.000-07:00

1. Sparks

2. Clocks

3. Trouble

4. Everything's Not Lost

5. In My Place

6. X&Y

#42

2010-10-18T21:19:00.000-07:00

Spelling Bee: Goddamned French Food Words

2010-10-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

1. pressure
2. proportional
3. heifer
4. bouillabaisse

#41

2010-10-11T23:03:00.000-07:00

Spelling Bee: Give up Before Battle

2010-10-11T21:03:00.001-07:00

1. grieve
2. retch
3. poussin

I gave up before the bee started, so I laid on the grenade for the newcomers.

Short List: Robot Sex Songs

2010-10-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

1. Automatic Lover - Teddybear Sthlm

2. Coin Operated Boy - The Dresden Dolls

3. Robots - TV on the Radio

Short List: Mustard Songs

2010-10-07T17:11:00.000-07:00

1. Showtime - Electric Six

2. We Gotta Be Clean - Guster

3. Mean Mr. Mustard - The Beatles

4. They Got the Mustard Out! - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Once More With Feeling)

Spelling Bee: Good Enough

2010-10-05T16:17:00.000-07:00

1. vicious
2. independence
3. echidna
4. kittel (spelled it wrong)

#40

2010-10-05T05:08:00.000-07:00

Short List: My Life Is Good Right Now Songs

2010-10-01T10:07:00.000-07:00

1. My Life is Good - Randy Newman

2. Life's Been Good - Joe Walsh

3. The Good Life - Kanye West

Legitimate Playlist: Songs Over 7 Minutes Long That I Love

2010-09-28T19:46:00.001-07:00

1. 18:37 Alice's Restaurant - Arlo Guthrie
2. 14:23 Peter and the Wolf - Sergei Prokofiev / Sterling Holloway
3. 12:15 Dance of the Hours - Amilcare Ponchielli
4. 9:16 The Dream Life of Rand McNally - Jason Mraz
5. 8:45 Battlescars - Ozma
6. 8:41 A Quick One While He's Away - The Who
7. 8:27 One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer - George Thorogood & The Destroyers
8. 7:53 Take Your Time (Coming Home) - Fun.
9. 7:51 I'll Stay - Roy Hargrove
10. 7:42 Talking Loud and Saying Nothing - James Brown
11. 7:34 Let's Go Get Stoned - Joe Cocker
12. 7:30 You Can't Always Get What You Want - The Rolling Stones
13. 7:28 Clubbed to Death - Rob D
14. 7:27 Night On Bald Mountain - Modest Mussorgsky
15. 7:27 Mother's Eyes - Jump, Little Children
16. 7:17 Biggest Star - The Elected
17. 7:15 Deliver Us- Ofra Haza and Eden Reigel (Prince of Egypt)
18. 7:14 Since the Last Time - Lyle Lovett
19. 7:09 Light My Fire -The Doors

Short List: Lovey Dovey Songs

2010-09-28T19:33:00.001-07:00

1. Lovey Dovey - World Leader Pretend

2. One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer- George Thorogood & The Destroyers

Confusing List: Famous People I've Met

2010-09-27T23:08:00.000-07:00

1. Robert Munsch
Context: I went to a reading at Barnes and Noble.
Proof: He signed my book.

2. Ozma
Context: I went to their concert, man I was drunk.
Proof: They signed my shirt.

3. Ok Go
Context: I went to their concert, man it was great.
Proof: They signed my shirt.

4. Kurtwood Smith
Context: He was part of the Lifeboat Theater, which my mom was in, and we hosted the reunion party in our backyard.
Proof: There are pictures from the event and we are clearly in the same location. He said nice things about my mom.

5. Dulé Hill
Context: I went to a house party for Obama in NoPo at a very gay house, he spoke, seemed unbelievably good at being cool in person, then we left to go to a different party.
Proof: No media proof.

6. Forrest Kline from Hellogoodbye
Context: I went to their concert. He was kind of sick, but I hugged him. VICTORY.
Proof: He signed my shirt.

7. Adam Lisagor
Context: I went to Monsters of Podcasting at the Bagdad to see You Look Nice Today Live!
Proof: We took a picture together!

8. Amanda Fucking Palmer
Context: I went to a ninja ukelele concert in the park blocks. It was like a French movie dream. I hugged her. VICTORY!
Proof: She signed a playing card, and we took a picture together!

9. Ezra Furman
Context: I went to his concert at the Doug Fir. I hugged him. VICTORY!
Proof: He signed my CD.