Too funny

Aug. 31st, 2020 03:49 pm
filkferengi: (Default)
Hey, y'all, check this out - I sponsored an e-book kickstarter for $10 Australian [$7 US]. It funded; yay! I got an email, claiming my card was declined, & I should contact the bank. I called Bank of America and was on hold for under 10 minutes: yay! The minion alleges that we're late on a payment he claims was due on the 24th, when the statement just arrived in the mail today. When I asked him how I was supposed to have already paid a bill which just arrived today, the (gormless, helpless, and many words ending in -less] minion asseverated that payment was always due the 24th of the month.

Now, I have many gifts, but a Tardis is not among them. The irony is, we allegedly have all this credit available, yet they're blocking me on a $7 charge. It's almost as funny as the times (plural!) when my card that had paid my fare to Seattle for 10 consecutive years of the filkcon Conflikt, got blocked at the Denny's across the street (that I've been going to the same time of year for several years) on a $6 charge. That was far easier for ze spouse to fix; the kickstarter nonsense will take longer. Unfortunately, Kickstarter doesn't take Discover, so I can't just add another card.

These days, take your laughs where you find them. Also, I think the credit card company's miffed, because we pay in full every month, so they make no interest on us.

Sometimes, Uncle Murphy loves on us harder than other times.

:)

portrait

Sep. 3rd, 2019 04:19 pm
filkferengi: (Default)
Check out the fun and groovy portrait an online friend sent me!

https://filkferengi.dreamwidth.org/file/295.jpg
filkferengi: (Default)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P30ckBf1wk

I'm very sad to not be able to share this with Michael or Harold, but it's still a very cool video. I love the captions.
filkferengi: (Default)
I just got a cd by Australian folk singer Eric Bogle. Check out the picture, here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Voices-in-the-Wilderness-Bogle-Eric-Good/173173194318 or here: https://www.amazon.com/Voices-Wilderness-Eric-Bogle/dp/B000000PVJ

Doesn't he look like someone's long-lost Klingon kin?

;)
filkferengi: (Default)
Hello,

I missed GaFilk this year, because there was snow & ice, & I didn’t want to risk being stranded with no meds. January was a whole new symphony: A Root Canal In Six Visits & Two Dentists [interspersed with going to Conflikt with a zombie tooth and getting back home with a more severe lung plague than usual.

My a1c that had been 10--very diabetic!--got down to 6.7, nearly normal. Instead of the super-early morning cattle call, ze spouse & I went to the Cobb sale on Saturday. He got to try out a new breakfast place, & I didn’t have to drive--win! The extra sleep and fewer crowds were also fun.

When he went to AZ, I binge-read Wen Spencer’s Elfhome series. He hiked to Havasu Falls, a beautiful blue-green waterfall [& spent more time getting a reservation than actually hiking, which was 10 miles each way]. He hiked 56 total miles for the trip, a new record. Also, there were lots of baseball games.

Other highlights of the year included: sponsoring a book give-away to a whole school, hours before the highway exploded; my first colonoscopy [clear, yay!];
winning the song contest at my first Westercon; a long chat with Sharon Lee at the Teddy Bear Tea at Confluence; the total eclipse at our nature preserve; a bad splat & new glasses; and enjoying great music at cons with friends. Ze spouse was especially thrilled that there were new Braves & Falcons stadiums in the same year. The Braves can’t win for beans, but they got the parking right.

We also enjoyed 3 local housefilks this year, in March, July [in AL!], & December. There was a big book sale in LaGrange [where my mom grew up], so I got ze spouse to drive, using the excuse of seeing Hills & Dales, a huge estate. We had a lovely day out, & I only got 2 bags [at $5/bag].

Big news: my a1c for at least the last 6 months has been 5.7, solidly pre-diabetic!

Ze spouse & I went to a free concert by fabulous blues man Bob Malone [who plays with John Fogerty]. He did some rock covers & rocked ze spouse’s socks. Tee hee hee. The cat has needed shots, but is doing much better. I’ve begun regular trips to Half-Price Books to trade in what I can’t swap [to build up more credits & sponsor another book give-away later on].

There have also been lots of: booksales & thrift stores; lunches with friends & conversation; and lots of missing Max [my dad], Michael [our filk-dealer], & Meg [our friend].

This year, the 30th anniversary of our first date and 26 years of marriage, had some sad, but much good. We wish all of y’all peace & happiness, now & always.
Love, filkferengi & lawyerspouse
filkferengi: (Default)
https://www.buzzfeed.com/jaimegreen/who-gets-a-happily-ever-after-in-2018-romance-novels

I enjoyed this analysis & conversations with authors. Y'all might, too.

obLMB: I can't help picturing how this kind of thing might've been going on on Barrayar all along, completely under most male radar. [Although now I'm picturing Professor Vorthys finding himself in the middle of a romance symposium to collect the Professora & liking it more than he expected; I'm also picturing Gregor & Laisa reading romance novels to each other, undoubtedly giggling over how the galactic romance writers get the Barrayaran alphas skewed. Plot bunnies, deployed!]

;)
filkferengi: (Default)
Ursula Vernon, who just won the Best Novelette Hugo, stopped in Iceland en route to WorldCon. She was with her husband Kevin, his cousin, Amy, & their friend Tina. They storified the trip, here:

https://storify.com/RebelsHeart/ursula-vernon-and-friends-vs-iceland

There're lots of gorgeous photos & great snark.
filkferengi: (Default)
You know that Robert Burns poem, about wishing "to see ourselves as others see us" and those physics stories about seeing the back of one's own head? Yeah, that. Check out the front row:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkPpCcTtvnI

*Dang*, the back of my head looks good! Especially when you consider I cut my hair in front of a mirror with no hand mirror [so I'm doing the back by feel]. I really should've been on the second row with my feet up, though. If my feet had swollen less, I might've been able to make it to some filking at night. As it was, I taped 14 concerts from that seat. I should've filed a homestead exemption. ;)
filkferengi: (Default)
Palette Swap Ninja has a whole new album for free. It's the most brilliant mash-up of "Star Wars: A New Hope" and "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"--the whole album! It's free to download here: http://www.paletteswapninja.com/2017/05/01/new-album-princess-leias-stolen-death-star-plans/ Or, you can watch the entire story via videos [with lyrics] at bit.ly/starwarsbeatles .

Woot, woot!
filkferengi: (Default)
Ever helpful, [personal profile] hms42 sent me this link.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxBioJmHs31grtYB3pHk8jFvTCPkJB0Nb

If anyone ever wonders what a filk con is like, check this playlist out for yourself. You can definitely see why Judi won the Pegasus award for Best Performer, though!

I've not checked all the videos, but if they show the bottom of the microphones, the small recorder on the front of the stage is mine. I'm the one in the first or second row, savoring the goodies.

:)
filkferengi: (Default)
Wondrous Winterthings to one and all!

Or, given the way it's looking, Hot fun in the summertime. ;)

On our walk, we just saw:

5 sunning turtles,
4 yellow sulfurs (butterflies!)
3 lee-zards (2 skink, 1 anole)
2 titmice, &
1 kingfisher caroling around.

All presided over by Goose-Gamesh (the resident Canada goose at the pond).

obLMB--It's 70 degrees fahrenheit today, & *that's just wrong!*

Tee hee hee.

Kid Books

Dec. 13th, 2016 06:29 am
filkferengi: (Default)
Back in the spring, my bridesmaid & I got together for lunch. I wasn't sure what to do with her afterwards. Her allergies mean she wasn't up for a walk at the nature preserve, & she's so fidgety, she's got Restless Body Syndrome. ;)

She's a kindergarten teacher, & I have lots of extra credits over on paperbackswap.com, so I suggested ordering some books for her class. She gave specific searching parameters, & we ordered some things. So far, so fine.

But I'm the filkferengi, used to shopping for several people at once. At the next book sale, I started seriously checking out the kid books. It was a whole new revelation. Lots of the library book sales I go to had recently started raising their prices, to $2 for an adult hardback. That doesn't sound like much, but adds up quickly, & actually is a lot for a beat-up ex-library discard. The kid books, however, are still .25-.50 most places, which filled my frugal heart with acquisitive glee.

Bridesmaid Kim was very excited, too--at first. The first box was pounced upon with grateful glee, as was the second. By the third, she was getting a big glassy-eyed & starting to whimper. So, I quit buying for her, but that left me with lots of boxes potentially for me. There's the shelf in the hallway, the large box in the media room [formerly known as the book room], the two boxes in the living room, not to mention the tall stacks on the kitchen and coffee tables. Eep!

Still, finding all those made for a very fun spring and summer. It seems as if every author I like has written a kid's book: Jane Yolen, Jay Williams, et-extensive-cetera. Now I've discovered all kinds of groovy new authors, mostly artists: Jan Brett, Molly Brett, Steven Kellogg, Lesley Anne Ivory [cats!].

As I'm [very] gradually working through them, it's quite convenient. When ze spouse is watching a particularly news segment, it's the simplest thing in the world to reach down & read half a kid's book or so. If nothing else, it's certainly beefing up my monthly books-read total. Fun times in filkferengi town!
filkferengi: (Default)
Because the [personal profile] filkferengi just had to share the love. Note: all of these albums are on bandcamp, which means you can listen to the whole thing for free before buying, if you want to. [If you run the cursor over the song title, a link to lyrics frequently appears on the right.]


Amanda Palmer did an album with her dad. The whole album's $1.
http://amandapalmer.bandcamp.com/album/you-got-me-singing-2


The PDX Broadsides have a new album. These folks are funny!
https://thepdxbroadsides.bandcamp.com/album/somethings-rotten


Emily Holbert also has some good stuff. This album includes her recording of her own song "The Maiden And The Selkie" which was so gorgeously covered by Heather Dale [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGT5lBve_v4 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om8LzIcFmbA - with lyrics]

https://emholbert.bandcamp.com/album/foxfire


Now, *that*'s a message we can all approve of!

;)
filkferengi: (Default)
Saddle up with Sir Patrick in the best infomercial ever! Also, it's for a good cause. We just wish the rest of the ad were real.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/watch-patrick-stewart-go-country-for-charity-in-outrageous-ad-20160705
filkferengi: (Default)
I surprised my headbanging, hunky hubby with a new cd. It's by a group called Hayseed Dixie. The album is "Kiss My Grass: a Hillbilly Tribute To KISS." The very first track I played him off it was:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOMZCLiPnUk

So. Deliciously. Wrong. The look on his face when *those* sounds came out was absolutely priceless.

Tee hee hee.
filkferengi: (Default)
http://dreamcafe.com/2016/01/21/mondays-cat/

Steve Brust says it's all Emma Bull's fault.
Page generated May. 22nd, 2025 05:06 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios