Last night was a gong show. Seriously. I kept checking the moon to see if it was full but it wasn't. How else to explain the three drunken/crazy/suicidal teenagers who jumped in front of my moving haul truck in the middle of the night when I'm least expecting it? They were dancing or cavorting like the beasts in Where the Wild Things Are. Weird, but at least I didn't turn them into pancakes. Later I myself was nearly turned into a pancake when one of these:

tried passing me and had to swerve out of the way of another one of those so he cut me right off in the little cable reeler I was running. If I hadn'ta veered . . . Later he pulled over to offer what I thought would be a heartfelt apology but it turned out he really just wanted to explain why the whole situation was my fault. Me: No, I'm sticking to my guns on this one. You shouldn't have passed me. Him: Yeah but I'm much more important than you so you should have got out of the way. Me: So, I'm guessing you're not going to apologize.
And the reason I was in the cable reeler in the first place was because another coworker, who I will affectionately refer to as Ten Tons of Moron, hit a shovel cable with his backhoe bucket and shorted out the entire pit, meaning me and my buddy Robin had to fix everything up for him. And that's a whole process and comedy of errors which would take ten paragaphs to properly explain.
The frustrating thing was, if it wasn't for Ten Tons of Moron's screw-up (#36 of an ongoing series, btw) it would have been a pretty good shift. My Dad, who has worked out there at that mine since I was ten months old- 32 years- finally tendered his resignation so I wanted to go and visit him for a while on his last shift, but I never got a chance. But I know he understands- over the last couple of decades he's had to fix more than a few of TToM's mistakes himself.

Star Wars is 30 years old this week. They're having a big party/convention in LA to honor the venerable old movie- Celebration IV it's called. Lots of great artists will be there exhibiting SW-based prints, like this one from Grant Gould:

Star Wars Celebration IV Print by *grantgoboom on deviantART

And plus there will be all sorts of original sketch cards available, wish I could get some of these, like the ones by Otis Frampton, whose work I love:


Star Wars 30th 2 by *OtisFrampton on deviantART

So if you happen to be going this week, say hi to Chewie and pick me up some of those cards! The rest of us can read Bear Wars, the epic tale of how Homie Bear got caught up in the SW universe once.

My third musical recommendation this week comes courtesy of some of my work buddies. If you like didgeridoos and singing voices reminiscent of Paul Simon, than Aussie Xavier Rudd is for you! Not only does he play the didge, he also plays harmonica and kick drum and guitar and probably other instruments as well, usually several at once.
You can listen to one of his best-known tunes, Let Me Be.
Looks like he's got a new CD coming out soon, I looked into ordering it but the international shipping costs, and then having to pay duty on top of that made me think I'll just buy it at HMV.

Another recent musical discovery I made (thanks to late night CKUA at work) is Ridley Bent, a Canadian singer/songwriter/guitar player who blends acoustic country with hip hop beats and rhymes. He calls it hick hop. From Suisidewinder, which you can hear on his site:

I'm Johnny Cash when I'm drinkin', I'm the Clash when I'm thinkin' I'm Mad Max when I'm drivin', I'm Mike Diamond when I'm rhymin' I'm Humphrey Bogart when I'm smokin', I'm Bob Marley when I'm tokin And in bed when I'm dreamin' I'm a guitar slingin' demon

It was last week or maybe two weeks ago, I was reading an article about cover songs when I first heard of Amy Winehouse. The article (written by Sandra Sperounes in the Edmonton Journal if I recall) asked some musicians not who they would cover, but who they would want to cover them. Good question! Anyways, a couple of them mentioned Amy Winehouse. And after that her name just kept popping up all over the place so I headed over to YouTube to see what she was like. Whoa! I think you should do the same, or go to her website.
If I ever wrote a song, though, I would want Emmylou Harris to cover it. Or maybe Cookie Monster, since I regularly cover his signature tune, "C is for Cookie".

Michelle's school is putting on a production of Les Mis this week, we caught the matinee (how can I make a french e with an accent?) and I was really impressed. That's an ambitious musical to perform for a professional troupe, let alone some high school students. And I have to say it was nice to walk in on Michelle's grade 7 class and have them remember me and start shouting out the details of my story that I read to them, waaay back in September. They wanted me to make up another story for them on the spot but I was literally saved by the bell.
And now, in true Victor Hugo fashion, I will completely change the subject and ramble on about something altogether unrelated for a while.
NASA put on a Regolith Excavation Challenge, in which the object was to design a machine for digging Lunar regolith. The rules were fairly straightforward- it had to be less than 40 kilos, totally autonomous and had to dig 150 kilos (330 lbs) of regolith in a half hour. No one won. At first I was a little surprised by that- I mean I can dig over 80 tons- 160,000 lbs- in one scoop, not even a minute. How hard would it be to design a little miniature shovel or loader that could do the scale equivalent? But I guess the point is to develop something lightweight enough to be economically feasible to send to the moon, that can work in a vacuum, under radiation and micrometeorite bombardment. And it has to be a robot.
But still. Next year they're offering $750,000. How much you figure it would cost to build something?

(Flickr)
Due to the Labour Shortage (that's right- capitalized like a force of nature- Labour Shortage Larry!) I often find myself doing several jobs at once. It can be a pain in the butt sometimes. I remember one night I drove the pit bus, went back and got the pump truck to do some pump stuff, moved the cable stands, then had to go on the water truck, then relieved the shovel operator while he had to go down and write an incident report, then back on pumps, then I did some loader training, then . . . But over the course of a 12 hour shift there's lots of times to do stuff and being busy helps it go by faster. Last night was a new one though- I was written in on the lineup sheet twice, in two different jobs (neither one my own). "Do I get paid twice?" I asked.
"No."
"Oh. Well, I can do two jobs half-assed or I can do one job with my whole ass, which would you prefer?"
So I wound up doing three jobs with, I suppose, one third of an ass each.

Some Random Roman Stuff
I finished watching Season 1 of HBO's Rome tonight(hey gabrielle, what does HBO stand for?)- and though I kind of knew how it would end, historically anyways, it was still a helluva ride. I feel like Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo are old friends, and I loved watching their Forrest Gump-like journey through the rise and fall of Gaius Julius Caesar. Especially the second-last episode, if you've seen it you know what I mean. Ooh- and their encounter with Cleopatra! Classic, if not exactly true to the classics.
And I have to send another shout out to Avatar the Last Airbender. For a kids' show it's surprisingly well written and engaging. I just watched the episode with the hippie nomads. Hilarious.
Check out my new desktop background. Kind of Avatary in a way, crossed with Crouching Tiger. But not Forrest Gump.
That's all for me, I'm heading to work tomorrow. Did you know I put more videos on my YouTube from work? It's true. Like this one:


One more thing- the new Marilyn Manson video can be found here- but it's not safe for work.

Okay, so Spidey 3, though it had its moments, wasn't amazing. But that's alright. For the truly amazing all you have to do is turn to real life, which never runs out of innovative ways to surprise and astonish. Have you ever heard of Attila Ambrus? I hadn't, and I even spent a few days in Budapest in his heyday. Luckily for us, author Julian Rubinstein was paying attention and wrote a book about his exploits. It's called Ballad of the Whiskey Robber, and it's about a Transylvanian who defected to Hungary, became the unpaid backup goalie of a professional hockey team in Budapest, and made his money by robbing banks and post offices. He was very good at it, and was known for his thoroughness, his politeness (even once giving a cashier flowers), and his penchant for whiskey. When he was finally caught he confessed to everything, but then decided it would be best if he broke out of jail, so he did.
That's just the broad strokes. You should read the book to truly appreciate the story of Attila Ambrus and the cast of colorful characters that lived in the outlaw days of post-communist Hungary.
Attila never killed anyone's uncle or turned into living sand, but his story is far more amazing than any onscreen burglar, I'll tell you that much.

Taking a break from Venom week to bring you some important Panserbjorn news:



That is all.
Oh yeah and May the Fourth be with you. (Thanks Kimdianna, ever since I heard you say that it's my new favorite day!)

I found another Venom for you, which I think is one of my favorites so far- it catches a certain insane, coming-undone quality which suits the character.

It's by a Deviant known as EuphoriouSin so go take a look at his gallery, he's got some pretty interesting pieces.
I also found a cool pop culture blog that's having a Spider-Man week, check it out: Blogzarro.

Happy Miner's Day! Instead of being a miner and going to work like I was supposed to today, I get to celebrate by staying home and NOT mining! I like how that works.
Here's what you can get me for Miner's Day this year- a Venom Vinyl teddy bear! Actually, I don't want one, I just thought it was funny.
And in continuing with the tradition I started last year, here are some examples of Miner's Day cards you can send to the miners in your life:
"You're Such a Blast!"
"You may be a miner but to me you're major."
"Roses are red and coal is black
as coal miners go you're ahead of the pack!"