True Tales From Childhood: The Price Of Air

When we were much younger than we are now, my brother Philip and I went to a childminder after school every weekend until mum and dad got out of work. She had two older boys, Adrian and Noel, and together the four of us would play Action Man (they had an Eagle Eyes figure and a pull string talking one!), dinky cars (which, for us, referred to all small metal cars), and, of course, LEGO.

We could spend hours on the floor building incredible constructions before playing out some adventure with our creations. Adrian and Noel had a big pile of LEGO that would get dumped in the middle of the living room floor and then it would be race to grab the choice bricks and figure out something wonderful to fabricate. We made a good team, and there was never any fighting over parts. As I recall, it was pretty collaborative, with everyone looking for their own pieces, while simultaneously keeping an eye out for a "red 3 by 2 flat bit" for Noel, the elusive "grey thick corner piece" for Adrian, a "long white one" for Philip and a "flat blue light" for me.

One afternoon Adrian had spent all his time building a garage and petrol station (gas station, for all you US readers). I had done my usual bang-up job of spreading the remaining pieces from the pile into a circle with a few free standing windows and calling it a "house", while focusing my attention on more important things, like a space ship or a rocket car.

Some time into our game Adrian exclaimed "Why isn't anyone using my garage? I spent ages building this. Come to my garage." As the youngest one in the group, Philip drove his car over to the front of the garage, parked by the pumps and requested, in a most matter-of-fact voice "£10* of air, please."

Noel, Adrian and myself exploded with laughter. Wiping tears from our cheeks, we informed Philip that you didn't pay for air for your car. People can pump their tires for free. It's air. It's everywhere. You can't charge for it.

I was reminded of this wonderfully happy moment from my childhood by a tweet posted recently from someone I follow. It read:

The compressed air at the local gas station just went up to $1.00 for 3 minutes. I should really get these tire rims fixed.

I was stunned. Garages are now charging for air for your tires! And at a dollar for three minutes! After the best part of almost 25 years, Adrian's garage can now charge for air!

What a strange and funny world we live in.

*- This was long before Europe thought the Euro was a clever idea, so Ireland was still using the Irish pound, or punt.

Post Script: This story remains very clear in my memory to this day, but just writing it now, I've begun to realise just how long ago it took place. I have no recollection of my other brother Stephen being around, so it probably took place before he was born, putting it at around 1987! I would have been 7, Philip 4, and Adrian and Noel 10 and 13 respectively! I wonder if any of them remember this story?

Never Break The Law In Vancouver

Got to see a funny thing happen today on the way home from work.

I took my usual bus back towards home along Granville, but got off for a pitstop early at West Broadway. I dropped into a few stores I like to browse and then hit Chapters bookstore for the newest paperback release in the Dresden Files series, Changes (no linky as even the blurb on the back of the book is pretty darn spoilery if you haven't read that far yet. Trust me. I know...). I'm flying through Turn Coat at a much faster pace than I have been reading some of the middle run of the series so far. I think starting work and having time to read on the bus has gotten me back into the flow. That, and I loved Small Favor, though possibly only because of Ivy and Kincaid.

The Number 10 bus picks up right outside Chapters, so I wandered out and waited, and had front row view in the hilarity that resulted just moments after I arrived.

Some Flashy Car pulled up right in the bus lane, directly in front of the No. 10. The bus beeped twice, but the car remained until the passenger got out and walked away. Flashy Car drove off, pulling close enough past me for me to clearly see Smug Driver inside.

The No. 10 then pulled up to the stop and all us waiting passengers politely stepped to one side as the passengers who needed to disembark via the front door due to the number of people on board did so. One of their number was dressed in a bright yellow and black rainproof jacket and matching pants, a radio mic clipped to her breast pocket, and holding an electronic pad of some sort. I didn't recognize what she was, but clearly some of the other would-be passengers had. One commented, jokingly, "Did you get his license plate number?"

The Vancouver Metropolitan Traffic Police Officer didn't even smile, but tapped something into her pad, glanced up and responded "Sure did".

A Comment On Twitter

With thanks to Wil Wheaton (@wilw) and friends.

Eduard Khil

Most of you may not recognize the name, but I'd take a fair guess that if you spend a resonable amount of time surfing the information super highway, you've heard his voice by now. Eduard is the man responsible for this music video, from way back in 1976!

I learned about this through following the exploits of geek superstar Wil Wheaton, who enjoyed performing a reenactment of the video onstage in front of PAX East with fellow geeks Paul and Storm.The homage was funny, but the original was hilarious. I don't mean to suggest I'm laughing at Eduard. He has a stunning vocal range, but, after 34 years the video has an old-world quirkiness to it that seems to make everyone that sees it smile.

But the story continues. Eduard has now put forward a challenge to the Internet! He asks everyone watching to... well, just see:

Now before I get complaints, I know the subtitles claim the recording was from 1966, not '76, but Wikipedia says '76, and I've seen that in a few other places as well related to the video. Besides, it looks like something from the 70's anyway.

So will you be joining him? Will any of my readers take up the challenge and write lyrics to the tune? Even just a verse? I think it would be hilarious to be part of this. It's the newest internet meme, fast becoming as widespread as Rickrolling. Be a part of history.

I Have Found My New Favourite Video

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

My favourite bit is the leg kick at the 26 second mark! Cracks me up every time!

Yo Joe!

This is easily one of the best videos I've seen in a long time! Fantastic!

The Ballad of G.I. Joe from Olivia Wilde

Just look at that cast list!! Alan Tudyk, Julianne Moore, Billy Crudup and Vinnie Jones, to name just a few! Even WWF legend Sgt Slaughter makes an appearance! He had a GI Joe action figure back in the day, and got to voice his own character in the cartoon. Awesome!

Do Not Watch This At Work

Not that there is any nudity or anything in the video. You don't even need any sound for it, as the comedy is all in the actions. In fact, there isn't really anything said in the video anyway. But I think you'll be hard pressed not to laugh out loud. I had tears running down my face!

What Is Worse Than One Of Me?

Six of me! In one room!! Crazy!


Lots of Photoshopping here, obviously! Not very well done, just took lots of photos of me in various places around the room using the tripod, then used the lasso tool to carefully cut each of the clones out and paste them into a single image. It shouldn't be hard to work out which clone belongs to the full background. Things look great until you blow it up and start looking closer. But I'm just nit-picking! For a first attempt, self taught, with no masking or other neat PS trickery, it's not bad at all!

I Love Discovery Channel And xkcd

It Ain't An Easy Job

Hehehe...

Television At Top Gear

Recently, I've spent a lot of time complaining about the ills of the newest season of television, suggesting, perhaps, that there was very little worth watching these cold winter nights. That could not be further from the truth, and while I still have to say that I cannot in good conscience recommend Heroes right now, there are some other shows that you should at least try and see if they're your kind of flavour as well.

How I Met Your Mother is a rare treat when it comes to Stateside comedies. In a show that proclaims from the outset to be about relationships, love, life and above all, friendships, all the cliches are avoided. No secret loves (even if there is a season long mutually obvious, but mutually avoidant one), no best friends sleeping with best friends girlfriends, and no "We were on a break" moments. It's hard not to see parts of yourself and your friends in the characters. They are realistically thought out, and deal with situations in a realistic manner... well, almost. This is a comedy after all. Sometimes things just get wacky! Worth watching for Barney alone, an ingenious idea for a character that feels so real, yet I hope doesn't actually exist in reality anywhere in the world!

House. What can I say about some of the best writing on television. Every episode follows an identical format. Patient arrives with unexplainable illness, team look at combination of symptoms and come up with the answer, treat, treatment fails and patient gets worse, team reassess symptoms, come up with new answer, treat, patient gets better for a while, then- OH NOES!!- patient crashes, almost dies, team stabilise patient, Dr. House remembers some random, inane fact from Act One, such as patient doesn't like hospital food, and suddenly the answer is obvious! Team treats patient, patient recovers, everyone goes home happy. What makes the show spectacular is that, despite this, every episode is griping TV, and the few that break the pattern are some of the best 45 minutes of drama you'll ever see. The patient and the treatment are not the important reason for the show, and only rarely for the team. Instead, it is the relationships, interactions and friendships that the extended cast of characters go through. Season four has added a new excitement, as House picks a new team, starting with a class of over thirty and eliminating it down week by week. Wilson still ranks as my favourite supporting character in any series.

Balancing karma has never been funnier than in My Name Is Earl. Jason Lee is almost unrecognisable as the title character, Earl, who, after winning $100,000 on a scratchcard and then getting hit by a car, realises he has to make up for all the bad things he's done in life to everyone. He creates a list, and, in a random order, begins to do good deeds related to the bad in order to cross them off. Some are easier done than others, and as the show continues, the list gets slowly added to, either because Earl remembered something new, or his emotions got the better of him for a moment. My Name Is Earl is kind of like Quantum Leap without the time-travel element. Both have to right wrongs, and both are controlled by God, fate, karma or whatever. I'm gonna leave that analogy there, because some people don't see the genius in connecting those two shows.

Top Gear is the reason I originally started this post. Claire and I watched episode five of season ten last night and both of us almost died of laughter and excitement! What other show could follow up a mind-blowing trek across the spine of Africa with a trek across London in rush-hour Monday morning traffic and have the London episode come out tops on the "Edge-Of-Seat" scale of television viewing?!? If you have yet to see it, the episode involves a race between James May in a four-wheel drive people carrier, the Mercedes GL, Richard Hammond on a bicycle (skin tight shorts and t-shirt included!), Jeremy Clarkson in a Cougar sport racing boat on the Thames, and finally... well, some say, when he was born, his heart was replaced with a miniature Formula One engine, and that because all he knows is speed, he has no concept of money or mobile phones. All we know is, he's called The Stig, and he took public transport. The race was from the extreme west of London, Knightsbridge, to the extreme east, at London City airport. It was riveting viewing, side-splitting all the way, and totally unpredictable in it's craziness. Favourite moment: The Stig stares blankly at his mobile phone, seemingly with no idea what this funny little noisy thing is for. The ring tune is the Coronation Street theme. But who won?!? You'll have to watch for yourself. The results are just too good to give away here!

So there's a selection of viewing material to watch while it's dark and wet outside on these long nights. Have I missed anything? Is there something I should be watching? I know there are lots of other good shows out there, but I only have so much free time. I need to blog too, you know!

Laughter Makes The World Go 'Round

And even without us, there will be enough laughter to keep the world spining and spining! I really, really want one of these as a pet.

Overheard In

... Roches Stores:

Fellow employee talking to a friend of mine: "I hear Marvel are making a new movie about an undead biker guy called Knight Rider."

I'm sure he was actually referring to Ghost Rider. I hope.