Post 1413 - In Honour of Hallowe'en

Got about 126 kids this evening.  Turned off the lights around 8pm.  Some of the kids actually enjoyed getting comics again this year, but not as many as used to.  Maybe next year, I'll have some Archies to give away!

I was gonna watch the first episode of The Walking Dead this evening, but it doesn't start until 11pm and runs until 12:30 am.  I get up for work a mere 5 hours later, and that's just not enough shut eye for little old me.  I'll record it and watch it on Monday night, I hope.

It's Hallowe'en, and I thought I'd share with you a website about arguably the most famous true crime story of all time, the Jack the Ripper murders.  This website is likely the best of all the Ripper websites, not that I'm an expert or anything like that.  It sure is thorough, covering every aspect of the murders in tremendous retail.  There is even a Ripper podcast, the most recent one produced in April of 2010.  I have downloaded them all, but haven't heard them all.  Aren't enough hours in the day, folks.

Here's the website.  Check it out.

Time for bed.  Don't spoil The Walking Dead for me!!

Bevboy

Post 1412 - Yes! It's True!

I took last year's Hallowe'en candy out of my freezer this morning. It all seems to be thawed out now. Some of the comics I'm giving out tomorrow night have been located; other remain to be excavated.

Nearly ready for the little bastards.

From Bevboy's BlackBerry to BevBoy's Blog!

Post 1411 - Quickly Noted

Been a long day, and I'm turning in shortly, but I wanted to tell you about something neat.  

I have been gradually making my way through as many of the online back issues of the old "4th Estate", a newspaper published in Halifax between 1969 and 1977.  It is a gas to read these old issues.  Of particular note are the columnists, some of whom are still writing.   A very young Stephen Kimber wrote at least column for the paper, back in the Fall of '69. Frank Cameron wrote a regular column for them.  I just read a sports column by Pat Connolly.  "Farmer Brown" wrote a gossip column, which featured lots of radio news.

Their original offices were at 5211 Blowers Street in downtown Halifax.  They moved to the corner of Hollis and Duke in November of '69.  That address on Blowers Street still exists.  It is right next door to the current Venus Pizza, just up from Barrington.  I think there are apartment in that spot now.  I wonder if the current occupants know that there was a pretty cool alternative newspaper office there 41 years ago?

I'm also taken with the very interesting ads for stores and businesses of that period.  Some of these industries no longer exist.   Do calling services exist any more?  Didn't clock radios kinda take away the need for them?

I will continue to work my way through this fascinating newspaper.  As I find interesting articles, I'll share the links with you here.  It's the least I can do for my readers. 

Enjoy your Friday, folks.

Bevboy

Post 1410 – The Journey, Part Eleven

The latest edition of Mark Dooley’s latest magnum opus.  Thanks, Mark.  Keep it up.

I’ve received some direct tweet messages from Frank Magazine, by the way.  They will note their error in the next issue and mention the blog in some capacity.  Assuming they’re nice about it, I will forgive them for using the pictures from the blog in their magazine without crediting me.  I have no reason to think they won’t be nice.

Have a good day, Bevboy readers!

Bevboy

Post 1409 - I Can't Believe It!

I got the new Frank Magazine today.  From time to time, they have radio news.  Occasionally, I learn something from that news.

Such was the case this evening.

Turns out my friend Gary Tredwell was let go from K-Rock 89.3 in the Annapolis Valley.  I can't believe it.   They're already advertising his job over on the Milkman site. 

Gary Tredwell, of course, is known as Greasy Gary to Q104 listeners.   Within the Q's listening range, there are construction workers who sit in their trucks, refusing to start work, until Greasy Gary's 10 minutes or so are finished each weekday morning.   It is understood by their bosses that they will not override this wish.

I was sick on Monday and didn't hear the Q.  Tuesday morning, Greasy was on, but only told a joke from an earlier broadcast and was gone.  They do that when Greasy is on vacation or unavailable for some reason.  Today, I had a migraine and missed the Q again.  I will be sure to tune in tomorrow.

I don't know the inner workings of K-Rock.  I can only say that Gary has been a good friend to Bevboy's Blog, helping me arrange interviews with Darrin Harvey (who should live forever!) and Colin and Kate, the station's fine morning team.  I will be contacting Mel Sampson soon for an interview. 

I don't know what happened that resulted in Gary's ouster, but I do know that someone of his talent can't be out of work for long.   I just hope that he ends up somewhere where I can listen to him on  a regular basis. 

And a comment to Frank: Guys, I don't mind that you use the pictures from my blog to accompany your articles about local radio people, but can you be nice about it and offer me some credit, please?  People will have the impression that you took that fine picture of Gary Tredwell, when in fact, it came from my camera and you just grabbed it from the interview.   You even cropped it to cut out the Bevboy's Blog watermark.  Real nice.   Come on, guys.   It's called journalistic integrity.   Get some.

Have a good night.

And, Gary, the best of luck.

Bevboy

POst 1408 - It Works!

If you are reading this, then this means that this 10 year old laptop running Puppy Linux is able to be used to produce blog posts.  Yay!

I returned to work today, and it's a good thing I did because i as pretty busy.   Spent time during my lunch hour working on estate stuff.  It's the usual stuff that, if I had had any idea  how much work would be involved before Dad died, I'm not sure I'd have become involved in the first place.

I didn't have a chance today to even crack open Rick Howe's book to begin to work on the blog post reviewing it.  I'm sorry.  I will get to it as soon as I can.

Still fighting my cold, and turning in early tonight.  All the ladies are enjoying my sexy new voice.   I have to admit, I like it too.  It is like a combination between, oh,  Barry White and that country star Trace Atkins.  If you're jealous, then I'm glad.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 1407 - Feeling Better

I took a sick day today, as I was feeling a mite poorly.  I felt like crap on Saturday when I returned to the city, and even worse on Sunday.  I began to feel human again late on Monday morning, and have been up ever since.

I'll return to work in the morning.

I will take with me Rick Howe's book about his years of being on the radio and hope to make Tuesday's blog post about my thoughts about the book. 

On Saturday I bought the 2 disc Grindhouse dvd.  It was a double feature film in 2007 with the first part directed by Robert Rodriguez, and the second by Quentin Tarantino.  The movie had fake trailers in between for schlocky horror films.  It was all supposed to be a big joke, but the joke was on the film makers as the movie was a big bomb that year.  It is too bad, because I enjoyed it for what it was; I went by myself to see it in theatres.  People expected it to be, well, a Tarantino film a la "Pulp Fiction" or "Jackie Brown", but it was anything but.  It's minor Tarantino at best.  The dvd's that came out a couple of years ago only had one film each.  This is the first time both films, and all of the intertitles and special supplements have been released in one package.  I'm looking forward to seeing it all, probably the week after next, when I hope to be at the cottage for a week, assuming I can get the time off.

That's it for tonight, gentle readers. 

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 1406 - Code

I habba code. I can't breed. Wanna die. Feel like ship.

Cough! Cough!

From Bevboy's BlackBerry to BevBoy's Blog!

Post 1405 - A Day Early (But Not A Dollar Short!)

I'm back in the city on a Saturday night, as work may beckon in the morning.  It's just as well, as I have developed a cold, and I'd rather be sick in my own bed rather than at my mother's. 

We installed the oil tank yesterday at my mother's yesterday.  It looks nice, if you gauge beauty by how oil tanks look, that is. 

Yesterday, I did what's called a "frugal install" of puppy linux on my ancient laptop, after partitioning the hard drive.  It is a little silly.  I remember in the 1980's, if you had a hard drive bigger than, I think, 10 megabytes(!), MS DOS 3.3 couldn't address all that space.  So, you'd partition the hard drive, creating a drive D, or E or F or whatever.  I had thought and hoped that I wouldn't have to deal with that crap any more, but that's not the case.  I had to partition the 10g hard drive on that old laptop so that I could install PL on it.  Doing that, I no longer have to boot from the cd drive; I can boot from the hard drive.  Adding the whopping 128MB of sd ram to the machine, it now boasts 340 mb or so of ram.  It actually runs fairly fast for a 10 year old laptop. 

Today, I took Mom shopping because that's what I do when I'm home.  The cold I was conceiving on Friday came full bore today, so staggering around with my mother was a particular challenge. 

We had lunch at the Zellers in New Minas.  Yeah, I know.  We had lunch at the Zellers in New Minas.  Shut up.  It was my mother's idea, not mine.  The food tasted the way you'd expect food at Zellers to taste. 

When we finally, at long last, returned to my mother's house, my sister and I cleaned out my dad's old truck, while my brother-in-law charged the battery.  It was nice to get that chore taken care of.

Oh, I bought an early  Christmas present today.  I bought Rick Howe's "Radio Talk" book.  I scanned it this evening, and I will report now that a future  Bevboy's Blog post will give my full review of the tome.  It is not a perfect book, but it is very nice to see someone who lived those years take pen to paper, or keys to keyboard, and produce a book about his experiences on the radio. 

Deb  Smith was challenging me to write a book about my own radio experiences, which are about as vicarious as one could possibly imagine.  I would still like to do a book of my radio interviews.  I don't know if anybody would buy such a book, but my mother would.

She loves me, you see. 

I take  her shopping.

Bevboy

Post 1404 - A Productive Day

Time was, a day off for me might entail some shopping, some pretty serious sleeping in, or going to a movie. Not no more!

Today, I took my car to the shop 3 times, upgraded the ram in this here laptop, met with the lawyer, had lunch with my sister and brother-in-law, and spent the afternoon with a couple of guys who installed a new oil tank at my mother's. Finally, I'm getting a break and am spending an hour or so at the Port Williams library.

In a little while, we will re-attach the railing the guys had to disassemble to get the old oil tank out and the new one in, put the furniture back in place that we move last evening, and put Mom's air conditioner away for another year.

Say, I'm pretty sure I'm coming down with a cold. Just what I need.

Think I'll browse the library for a spell.

From Bevboy's BlackBerry to BevBoy's Blog!

Post 1403 - Once More, With Feeling!

I'm at my mother's for a couple of days.

Taking my car in to have the signal light looked at.

Meeting with the lawyer's.

And spending an afternoon here helping an oil tank get installed.

A busy day awaits me.

G'Nite.

From Bevboy's BlackBerry to BevBoy's Blog!

Post 1402 – The Journey, Part Ten

It’s been a while since Mark treated us to his work, and I’ve missed it. 

Mark also includes some work he did of the most recent Dr. Who.  He’s a big Who fan.

Thanks, Mark.  Glad you’re feeling better.

Bevboy

Post 1401 - Hi, Vince!

Gee, I hope I don't upset Vince with this post.  :-)

Before I begin the post, I want to address Vince's comments to post 1400.  I have known Vince for more than 25 years.  We  have had many, many spirited discussions over the years, and I had missed them.  We recently got re-acquainted after far too long, thanks to the miracle of Facebook.  It's ok for good friends to be that honest with one another.  Perhaps I oughtn't have proposed to Patricia on the air in 2006, but I did, and I can't regret it.

I don't mind if people disagree with me on anything I write on this weblog.  I am disappointed by some of the things I have written that have elicited little feedback.  The post where I commented on the whole "Women and Children First" tradition should have made the evening news, but instead, only a few people wrote something.  Here's a link to that post, if you want to read it.

Please, write as much as you want.  As long as you're not a troll, I welcome divergent opinions, even if you think I'm a stinker.

See you later.

Bevboy

Post 1400 – A Love Story

Welcome to the 1400th post of Bevboy’s Blog.

I am going to discuss something this evening I have alluded to before, but am pretty sure hasn’t been mentioned in detail.

I had heard stories about guys proposing to their girlfriends over the years.  I had heard the highs.  I had heard the lows.  I wanted to beat them all.

Rick Howe was host of The Hotline on the late and very lamented 920 CJCH from 1998 until the day before that station was taken off the air, and replaced by the abomination that took its place, whose name will never be mentioned on this weblog. 

During the 2006-06 Hotline, Rick would, from time to time, invite listeners to be a co-host for an hour.  He had some 17.5 hours of air time to fill in the run of the week, no discernible budget, and just about zero promotion.  It was reasonable for him to come up with this idea of getting someone to come in and help him kill an hour.

He invited listeners to write him and explain why they would make a good co-host.  I applied, but was never accepted.  You can ask him why.  Patricia applied, and was accepted. 

Patricia would be a guest co-host on the Hotline on the Thursday before Good Friday, 2006.  She was a nervous wreck!  In the days before the appearance, she waffled and hesitated over doing the show at all.  She learned that the open hour would include some calls out to some people, including a professor at Acadia University, and they would talk about some lost books of the Bible. 

Patricia was freaking.  She wanted me to sit down at the radio station’s waiting room.  I told her that I had a meeting right after lunch, right after her appearance on the program.

That was a lie.

You see, I had contacted Rick earlier that week and asked him if it would be all right if I called in to the show and proposed to  Patricia, right on the air.  He wrote back, announcing it as a great idea, and gave me a special phone number so that I wouldn’t have to wait in the phone queue. 

Thursday came.  I made arrangements with my then-boss, Rod, to use his office to propose, saving me the burden of calling in from cubeville.   At the appointed time, 12:40, I called in, and the producer, Amber, picked up the phone.  I told her who I was.  Amber told me that I could do this, and put me on hold.

Rick and Patricia finished talking to their previous guest, a cabbie in Newfoundland who has an uncanny talent for guessing gas prices.  Rick opened up my line, and I identified myself. 

I had written out the proposal beforehand.   I read it, my voice breaking and cracking the whole time.  I struggled through every word.  Finally, I asked, “Patricia, will you please marry me?”

“You big goof!”, she said.

Then, Rick said something that surprised me to my very core.  He informed his listeners that Live at Five had been there the whole time to record the show.  Rick had told Patricia something to placate her.  Then, he wouldn’t let Patricia answer my proposal until after the commercial break.

It was a really long two minutes.

Turns out some folks at Patricia’s work were listening to her and heard the whole thing.  A meeting was just getting out at that very moment, and these women told the meeting attendants what had happened.  “Well, did she say yes?”, they asked.  “We don’t know.  They haven’t come back from commercial yet!!”

They all rushed to the room where the show was streaming on someone’s computer.  The commercials were over.  Rick recapitulated the fact that for the first time in his career, and probably in Halifax radio, someone had proposed to his girlfriend on the air.   He turned the microphone over to Patricia, and allowed her to answer.

She said “all right”.  Yay!

Rick talked to me, on the air, about how Patricia and I had met.  I told him, and Patricia chuckled.  We rang off.

They resumed their call outs, and the callers were congratulating Patricia.  They took that call from the Acadia professor.  Patricia asked some cool questions. 

The show finished at one pm.  There was some discussion at the station with the staff, as Patricia was congratulated by the women in the building. 

That evening, on Live at Five, they ran a 30 second highlight with me asking Patricia to marry me, and the result.

Rick got a lot of free publicity from us that day.  I got an acceptance to my marriage proposal.  And, we’re still not married.  There are many reasons why, and they would surprise you, maybe even sadden you.  I will save those reasons for another post, maybe #1500.

Rick published a book a month or so ago.  I have leafed through it, but haven’t bought it yet.  I don’t know if this story is in it or not, but when the Hotline was cancelled in 2008, Peter Duffy wrote a column about the demise of this program.  Peter was kind enough to mention this, and I had a chance to thank him when I interviewed him last year. 

I managed to combine two loves, Patricia and radio, in this post, and in the proposal.  Are you impressed yet?

Bevboy’s Blog began 1400 posts ago, and I didn’t know where I was going with it.  It began to take on a life of its own, and a shape that doesn’t resemble the very early posts.  I have learned what makes a BBB post, and what doesn’t.  I leave the political stuff to the other uninformed folks out there with blogs.  Johnny Carson is a Mark Evanier specialty, so I let him write about him. 

BBB is about Bevboy, and the things that have happened to him over his 46 years.  Some of those things have been funny.  Some of them have been heart breakingly sad.  Some have been interesting.   Some of these posts, more than a few, have been about radio, and Bevboy’s passion for it, and the medium that has made him well known in radio circles, to the point where radio jocks write him for interviews.

And some of the posts, like this one I hope, are just special enough that if it were published in a newspaper, you’d take your scissors and clip them out.

A fella can dream.

Have a good evening.

Bevboy

Post 1399 - Old Films

I meant to write about this before, but life got in the way, as it always does.

The Nova Scotia Archives have been online for some time now.  Lots of interesting photos up there.  But they have been working hard to digitize old films shot in and around Nova Scotia, or films shot abroad by Nova Scotians, and been putting 'em up on youtube.

These films cover the chronological range from around 1917 to around 1957. 

What can I say?  They're a fascinating glimpse into life back then.  But, I doubt if most of you would want to sit through most of the silent home movies from back then. 

As a case in point, here's a video of Peggy's Cove from the 1930's.  It's nice to see the lighthouse there, and the area where the Sou'Wester restaurant is now, and know that that crappy restaurant and structure weren't there back then.  Perhaps, one hopes, there will come a day when it won't be there again.  Circle of life and all that tommy rot.

Here's a video.  Remember the popcorn.




Here's a second video, with sound, of Halifax during the 1950's. Much more interesting. One can still see many of the buildings in the downtown.

I love the announcer. It's like he just was presented the script 5 seconds before they put him in the recording booth.



Tomorrow, post 1400.

Bevboy

Post 1398 - An Unusual Dessert

Here at the Port Pub in Port Williams.

About to dive into something called peanut butter pie. Here's a picture of it.

Will it stick to the roof of my mouth? Ask me later.

From Bevboy's BlackBerry to BevBoy's Blog!

Post 1397 - A Mistake

Hi.  I made a mistake.  There are 2 posts 1392.  The only way for this to be the actually 1397th post is to skip a post 1396, because the second post 1392 pushed everything up by one. 

Maybe I'll stop numbering these posts.  It's starting to become a pain in the ass.

Tomorrow morning, early, I'll drive down to my mother's place for the weekend.  She's already planned my Saturday.  I'll take the new-to-me laptop down there with me where it will live out the remainder of its days, a little like Black Beauty when that horse retired from its years of labour.  You did read Black Beauty when you were a kid, right? 

I guess I will acknowledge for the first, maybe only, time that there is a company in British Columbia that sells (wholesale, I think) beverages.  They deliver all over BC.  What are they called?  Yep!  Bevboy!  Their website is right here, and I'll thank you to be respectful.

If you go into google and type in "Bevboy", you'll see several of my posts.  Down the list a bit, you'll see these guys.  Then, more of my posts.  I can only imagine how they must feel, seeing some guy in Nova Scotia with nothing better to do than write a blog every damned day, appearing higher in a google list than their website is.  How many people have wandered into their store having found my blog instead of their website, and how many times have the proprietors rolled their eyes and cursed my name?  I'll probably never know.

I hope that, having found my blog instead of a website to order wholesale beverages, that they found a post or two that made them smile, and then found the website where they wanted to go.

Man, I could use a Lipton Ice Tea.

(The Other) Bevboy

Post 1395 - Getting Out There

It would appear that Bevboy's Blog is slowly getting out there to the general public.  It's only taken 3 years!

I told you that I got a call out of the blue from Paul last month, and that we exchanged some emails.  He even sent me some pictures of Halifax disk jockeys from the 1960's and gave me permission to run them here.  I haven't done that yet, but I will.

In the last day or so, I have been getting some comments about the Pat Connolly interview published in 2009.  The writer wants to contact Pat and ask him some questions about a 1960's-era boxer from the area.  Pat's forte is boxing, which you already knew from reading the actual interview last year.  Just click on the Pat Connolly label and you'll be taken to both parts of the interview.

I am aware, and have browsed through, the Rick Howe "Radio Talk" book.  I don't know if he talks about the time I called in to the Hotline and proposed to Patricia right on the air.  I don't think I've wrtten about it at length here on the blog, so I will do that in this space, soon.  

I have downloaded the latest ubuntu version 10.10.  But I haven't installed it yet.  The old laptop I picked up Tuesday night is too wussy to run ubuntu, so it will be running puppy linux.  The new ubuntu is supposed to run faster than previous editions.  That's good, as ubuntu was getting pretty bloated there for a while.   I'll let you know what I think of it when I do get around to installing it, which should be in the next few days.

Is it the weekend yet?  I could kinda use one.

Bevboy

Post 1394 - Score

Halifax and Rimouski tied 3-3.

From Bevboy's BlackBerry to BevBoy's Blog!

Post 1393 - Skybox Blogging A

Game's about to start.

From Bevboy's BlackBerry to BevBoy's Blog!

Post 1392 - Say Hello

Say hello to my "new" laptop computer.

I picked it up this evening, after reading about it on kijiji.  I bought it because I wanted a small and cheap computer to user down to my mother's when I'm down there, mostly for the purposes of transcribing blog posts.

It is a Toshiba 4300.  It is about 10 years old.  It looks it.  But, once again, as long as it does what I need it to do, I'll be happy.

Newbie is unimpressed.  He is always unimpressed.  He is a cat.

We still don't know what left that pile of shit by the door at the cottage over the last couple of days.  It could have been most anything, or maybe even our cottage neigbhour.   If we ever find out, I'll let you know, as many of you have been asking.  I'm thinking it was an ocelot.  I mean, nobody's ever told me that ocelots don't exist in Nova Scotia.  Remember Occam's Razor, everybody.

That's it for tonight.  See you tomorrow.  Going to another hockey game tomorrow night.  I will have to spend my lunch hour boning up on that sport so as not to appear stupid in front of my fellow chums.   I may live blog the whole thing.  Watch for it.


Bevboy

Post 1392 - Happy Thanksgiving

Another Thanksgiving weekend at the cottage.  We did nothing today.  I didn't get up until 9 this morning.  We plunked ourselves in front of the television by late morning and started watching some shows I'd taped this summer and hadn't got around to watching yet. 

Around 5:45, we left the cottage and returned here, but not before I noticed an enormous pile of turds at the bottom of the steps facing the ocean.  I am not sure what kind of animal craps that big.  I am not sure if I want to meet such an animal, particularly if I'm not armed and it's dark outside.  I urged Patricia to scoop up the poop and lob at the neigbhour's property.  He's the numb nuts who has the ATV and trespasses on our property when we're not around.  

He'd feel right at home.

Bevboy

Post 1391 - A Day Early

We had our Thanksgiving dinner today, a day early. Patricia prepared a huge turkey. I made the mashed potatoes. We had green and wax beans and cranberry sauce as well.

We caught up on Hawaii 5-O. Caught up on Supernatural, which is having a poor season so far this year. The first 2 episodes have been dull. There are a bunch of new characters this year, and 3 of them were killed off in episode 2. Keep it up, boys.

5-O continues to delight, with homage after homage to the original series. Scott Caan as "Danno" steals every scene he's in. I can't wait to see what they do with this show.

t's been a long weekend, with a lot of recorded tv and sleep under our belts, but time draws short. Unfortunately, I return to the city tomorrow and work, on Tuesday.

Yawn! Time for bed. A day doing nothin' is exhausting.

From Bevboy's BlackBerry to BevBoy's Blog!

Post 1390 - Brrr!

I drove to the cottage last evening, arriving around 9:45.  I turned in for the evening around 10:30.

Woke up to a frigid day this morning.  My netbook tells me it is 9 degrees Celsius in the city, and I can't imagine it's any warmer where we are. 

We drove to Caribou this morning for their tiny farmer's market and then drove into Tatamagouche for the much larger farmer's market there.   If you've never been to Tatamagouche, please  do something about that, will you?  It's a lovely town, eclectic and with a unique spirit all its own.  We go there all the time when we're at the cottage.

Whilst eating my perogies this morning, who should sit next to us but children's author Sheree Fitch.  They have a second home not far from there.  We chatted for a few minutes, and I gave her a couple of my patent-pending Bevboy's Blog business cards.  She has promised to read the blog, so I thought I'd return the favour via this shout out to her.

These humble words, and when it comes to me they're always humble, come once again from the River John Library c@p site.  Free internet.  i like me some free stuff.

We will go back to the cottage in a little while and relax some more.   We will catch up on some tv shows that we've missed.  Patricia will prepare salmon cakes for dinner.  And we will decide whether to attend the Dave Gunning concert at the DeCoste Centre in the town of Pictou this evening. 

With my father's death 5 months ago, I haven't been to the cottage nearly enough this year.  I have missed it, which makes me cherish the time I get to spend there all the more.  Monday evening will be sad for me as I have to return  to the city and to work on Tuesday.

Enjoy your day, gentle reader.

Bevboy

Post 1389 - Just A Few More Hours!

Please note that I like my job, quite a bit, actually.  But, I still like the weekends.  I do look forward to them.

The last few weekends I've been at my mother's cleaning out her basement and preparing for the Fall cleanup.  That was on Thursday, and my mother reported to me yesterday morning that everything had been carted away.  Frabjous joy!

I have been neglecting the cottage in recent weeks.  I haven't been there in a month, and I am looking forward very much to going back there for a long weekend.  I sleep better up there, and am away from such awful things as the internet (although I can still connnect to work if necessary).  I have worked hard, both at work, and at my mother's, and I have earned a break. 

My plan is to drive up there after work this evening, arrive relatively late, eat something, and go to bed, right after watching "Blue Bloods" on tv.  Let's hope that the spirit is still willing, and can energize the flesh.  It's a long drive up there. 

Pretty quiet day here at work.  Lunch hour is winding down.

Cottage, here I come!!

Bevboy

Post 1388 - Abe? Really?

A year or so ago, I began noticing some unusual books in some of the bookstores I haunt.  The most interesting one was called "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies".  I also saw "Sense and Sensibilities and Seamonsters".

These mashups of classical novels, or historical characters, is the latest trend in horror.  I'm not sure why.  They look silly, but then again, I haven't actually sat down and read any of these books. 

I heard about "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" about six months ago on a Civil War mailing list I'm on.  Apparently, the official book launch was at a place famous for Abe Lincoln.  His home.  Ford's Theater.  Something.  People on the list were not happy.

I saw the book in a store, and still see it.  I am not sure if I will ever read it, but there is something about the concept that is compelling and cheesy at the same time.  My feelings about the book are hard to put into words.  And, I learned this evening that this is to become a film. 

This evening, I found a couple of youtube videos about the book that I thought I'd share with you.  The first is the official trailer for the book (yes, they make video trailers for books these days!).  And the second is a mock documentary about Lincoln discussing this hitherto unknown part of his life.

You're welcome.  I do love you, you know.

Bevboy

Post 1387 - Hump Day

I'm really looking forward to the long weekend.  I will go to the cottage for three days.  I haven't been there for a month or more, and I miss the place.  The last several weekends, I have been at my mother's place, cleaning out the basement.  I need a break.

I started to write this post on my new laptop, but decided instead to write it on my netbook.  My friend Kirk brought his MSI Wind netbook to Toastmasters this evening, and I felt a twinge of jealousy.  His has a bigger screen, and an actual hard drive that's about 160gb big.  This one, has a whopping 8g.  His runs XP.  I'm running a variant of linux because this computer would struggle with any version of Windows.  I put a legal version of XP on it last year, and the computer nearly died.

I still like this computer for lots of things.  Taking it to an internet cafe like the Al Whittle Theatre is a pleasure.  I see people all around me with these big ass laptops that they have to lug around from place to place.  This one easily fits into a small laptop bag that I got for 10 bucks last December. 

The new version of Ubuntu comes out on Sunday.  It's version 10.10, and it's released on October 10, 2010.   It promises to rethink the netbook model quite a bit, and to load much faster.  I'm hoping this means that the netbook's webcam will actually be useful to me.  When I use "cheese" to record video for me, the computer gasps and wheezes like an old man climbing a steep hill on a Monday morning.  The results are poor.  The pictures it takes are all right, but not the video.  The video sucks.  I'll include a picture here just for fun, taken on this webcam.  The pics are fine for the web, but that's about  it, and it doesn't tax the computer beyond its meager limits. 

Two more days to go.  Two more days to... the cottage!

Bevboy

Post 1386 – Concerts on the Commons

I received word today that Harold MacKay at Power Promotional Events folded today.  It was his company that hosted concerts at the Halifax Common over the last few years.  Here: Read all about it.

Last year, I wrote a blog post, part of the Things in Halifax That Don’t Make Sense series, in which I discussed how much I dislike the idea of a private company using a public space and accepting public funding, for a private purpose.  Specifically, I hated how the Common is used for a private purpose.  Because of these concerts, sports teams have lost their playing fields for a time, unfettered use of the Common is compromised, and private companies get to charge admission to what is a public space.

The Common is only about one third the size it used to be, having been whittled away over the years by schools, hospitals, the CBC television building, and other things.  These are arguably for the public good, and there’s nothing we can do about the loss of this land; but any future or current attempts to reduce our access to what is left should be resisted.

There have been reports that the attendance at concerts has been grossly inflated.  Paul McCartney didn’t have 50000 attendees; they say he only had 25000.  Tickets for the Black-Eyed Peas were given away to get people to go.  Thousands others stood outside the concert venue, on the street, a short distance away on Citadel Hill, and heard the show for free, and even saw it on the massive screens that were helpfully put up.  Why pay $100+ to see something, and be unable to leave once you enter, when you can catch it at no cost and come and go as you please?  Why?

This whole thing is a mess.  The company is toast, and owes a ton of coin to various creditors, and how many of them will actually see what they’re owed? 

I’m all for concerts in the downtown.  I just want them to go to the Garrison Grounds, which has been a home to such shows since the 1940’s.  They can accommodate 25000 or so folks, which is plenty. 

If you want to discuss this further, go ahead.  I love a good argument.

Bevboy

Post 1385 - Quickly Noted

I keep meaning to take more pictures of this stuff, but I threw out a lot of stuff from my parents' basement over the weekend.  People were helping themselves to the metal stuff on Sunday, and perhaps even today.  Keep hoping that all of that crap is taken away on Thursday.

I will chip away at my dad's workshop over the Winter.  I swear, sawdust was a food group to him.

I like to think he's up there, looking down at me ruefully, and thanking me for cleaning up the stuff that he wasn't up to cleaning up the last few years of his life.  I am not done by any means.  I promise you, and him, that I will keep the things that I think he would have wanted kept, and will toss the things he would have wanted tossed.

It's the least I can do for my Dad.

Bevboy

Post 1384 - A Feeling of Accomplishment!

I'm back in the city after a 3 day weekend in the Valley.   My sister and I threw out many items for the fall clean up this week.  Getting the hot water tank out of the basement, through the house, and out to the front yard with the rest of the trash was lots of fun.

Already, some of the trash has been picked up.  Gayle's old bicycle was picked up sometime over night.  I'm told anything made of metal will disappear before the Thursday pick up.

During the Winter, I'll work on cleaning up Dad's old workshop and the family garage.  It will be a fun challenge that I feel I'm up to.

Returned to the house this afternoon.  Watched the first episode of season 5 of Dexter.  The new one is on tonight, but I'll catch it through On Demand.

Newbie has been quiet this evening.  I guess he's tired after a weekend of terrorizing me and forcing me to feed him at unGodly hours.  I'll fix his wagon some day.  Just you wait and see.

I have infinite patience.

Bevboy

Post 1383 - Tomato Pie

Saw this recipe on Facebook just now, courtesy of Wes Cowan, a co-host on "History Detectives". I had to post it here if for no other reason to convince myself that I didn't dream it.

Herewith: Tomato Pie!

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Tomato pie: make crust and bake first. Once pie shell is cool, Layer thick slices of tomatoes, chopped green onion, fresh chopped basil and fresh cracked pepper about three layers deep. Top with one cup of shredded Parmesan cheese, mixed with 2/3 C of light mayo. Bake at 350 for about 30 min or til top is nicely browned. Let stand about 5 mins before cutting.

Important: Drain tomato slices on paper towels to absorb some of moisture before layering into pie shell.

That's it! Enjoy!

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I can't wait to try this!

From Bevboy's BlackBerry to BevBoy's Blog!

Post 1382 - An Even Busier Day

Wolfville this morning. Basement cleanup this afternoon. Another Wolfville trip after supper.

Glenda dropped by the house this evening, and together we threw out bags and bags of trash (the fruits of 4 weekends of work downstairs), an old bicycle, an old end table, other stuff, and the old hot water tank that got retired this Summer. Without Glenda and the hand trunk we found in the garage yesterday, there's no way that the tank could have been negotiated outdoors. Thanks, Glenda. Thanks, hand truck.

Sold Dad's ox trailer yesterday, and today it was carted off by the new owner. It happened so suddenly, during my work in the basement, that I barely got a farewell picture as it was dragged off to its new home.

I'm sentimental like my Dad but also pragmatic. The ox trailer would never have been useful to me or anyone in the family. It was taking up space for the last number of years since Dad stopped having oxen. I'm glad it went to someone who's gonna find it useful. But I'll still miss it. One more reminder that my father is dead.

I'll publish that final picture of the ox trailer in a future blog post.

After all that manual work today, I just know I'll be sore in the morning!

From Bevboy's BlackBerry to BevBoy's Blog!

Post 1381 - A Busy Day

It was a crazy day. Got Mom's oil tank checked. Transferred Dad's trucks and trailers to the estate. Sold one truck. Sold one trailer. Saw that truck taken away. Mowed Mom's lawn. Took Mom shopping. Now, I'm watching "Smallville" before heading to bed.

Tomorrow I've got to finish cleaning out the basement. Bunch of other stuff as well.

No rest for the Bevboy.

From Bevboy's BlackBerry to BevBoy's Blog!