The Hymie Manoeuvre

NO, I DON'T MEAN THIS -- THE HEIMLICH MANOEUVRE.

Self-administered...

Or by someone else, when you're choking on whatever you've consumed or taken in...


I'M talkin' bout the HYMIE Manoeuvre.

As in Hymie, the robotic idiot from Get Smart, one of my favourite shows of all time.

Like Hymie sometimes, smoke has been coming out of my ears. I'M BURNING UP!


So I need to get checked out by Agents 86 and 99 and the Chief and the rest of the crew. I need an overhaul and a respite from the computer or I'll be decomissioned!



So I'm taking a bit of a break to recover my brain, such as it is, which has been jettisoned.


See you later!

Don't Dream It's Over

BUT IT IS.

The strike at my newspaper, that is.

After 16 days of grief, stress, frustration, anger, angst, anxiety, walking a picket line for 20 kms per day, I'm back at work on Wednesday.

I compare these past two weeks roughly with the rollercoaster that the stock market has been, basically a free-fall of folly and f*ck-ups, and a feeling of how can this be happening.

Like someone had pulled a big chunk out of me and wouldn't give it back.

But after our company finally pulled all its concession demands off the table, we ended up with mildly improved wages and benefits in what is a very profitable market for our owner.

All I can say is:

UGH.

And WHEW!

BOYS' NIGHT OUT

THIS WEEK, FOR A LOT OF 16-YEAR-OLD BOYS ACROSS CANADA AND MAYBE NORTH AMERICA, THIS IS WHAT LIFE IS LARGELY ALL ABOUT.

At the very least, this RPG (Role Playing Game) is certainly what's taking up most of the time for my 16-year-old son (right, below) and one his buddies, Alex.

The game was released in Canada this past week. I drove my son down to the mall on Tuesday to pick it up. He paid for it himself, which is a departure from past experiences when I'd foot the bill.

And that's a good thing, seeing as I'm on strike at the moment and not bringing in any cash.

I have no idea what the game is about, but I'm very familiar with RPGs, I play some of them myself from time to time as a diversion.

I think this one involves a central character who battles the usual demons and monsters and stuff, but he can also get married, have kids...you name it.

In some ways, I'd like to be able to rail against these computer games and how kids are exercising their thumbs and fingers rather than their hearts and legs, but this is their culture.

What I care more about is that my son feels comfortable enough to bring his friends here to my place and to do their thing, not my thing, with me more or less being a fly on the wall.

The two of them spent hours Saturday afternoon playing this game.

And then they went to meet another friend at the pizza joint where several of them and their friends work for supper, although I expect them back here at some point.

I like their independence and that they feel cool hanging out here...I had offered to make them supper, but they said that's cool.


Although when I pick my daughter up from work, of course, they become secondary and will have to move out of the living room and into his bedroom to play the game on HIS TV, which is smaller...

That's the pecking order of life, they're learning.



And they appear to be learning it pretty well.


(This is my shot of the TV with them playing the game on it...)

What REALLY, REALLY, REALLY matters

Palin stylist draws higher pay than policy adviser
By JIM KUHNHENN
WASHINGTON (AP) — An acclaimed celebrity makeup artist for Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin collected more money from John McCain's campaign than his foreign policy adviser.

Amy Strozzi, who works on the reality show "So You Think You Can Dance" and has been Palin's traveling stylist, was paid $22,800, according to campaign finance reports for the first two weeks in October.

In contrast, McCain's foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, was paid $12,500, the report showed.

In recent days, McCain and his running mate have tried to douse a furor over how their side spent their money.

The Republican National Committee came under scrutiny after the party committee reported earlier this week that it had spent about $150,000 in September on wardrobe and cosmetics after Palin joined the GOP ticket.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune and Fox News on Thursday, Palin said the clothes bought for the Republican National Convention were not worth $150,000 and said most have not left her campaign plane. She also said the family shops frugally.

"Those clothes are not my property. We had three days of using clothes that the RNC purchased," Palin told Fox News in an interview that aired Thursday night.

There was no evidence of additional clothing purchases in the most recent reports.

It has to be said, however, that she IS kinda cute.

And isn't that all that REALLY matters?