Sunday, March 30, 2008

O's new hobby

O installed an IRC client on the computer this week (don't even ask me what this is, he took over being the technical person in the house when he was, oh, 6 or so.) Basically, though, it allows him to go into chat channels, very, very specific channels. Being O, he went straight to scanlation house channels, and has volunteered himself to do typesetting for his favorite houses.

So now he's shopping around for a cheap version of photoshop, or, preferably, a creative commons, open source version, to teach himself to typeset. Only this kid would dream of typesetting--when he took acting classes as a little kid, the teachers loved him because he was the only kid who didn't want to be the lead actor, he wanted to pull the curtain, make props and do sound effects. For an instrument, he chose the bass. He's totally the behind-the-scenes, indispensable but unnoticed kind of guy. I love the fact that he knows who he is and what he wants better than a lot of 40yos that I know.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

The half-assed band

O and his buddies want to put a band together (for the chicks, I'm guessing, though B may be in it for the sheer rock glory.) Since none of them can play their instruments, and none of them play drums (they've got 2 guitars, 1 bass and a fiddle), they are talking about naming the band Three and a Half Asses.

I am, unfortunately, responsible for this name. When B was describing how he could "half-assed play guitar, half-assed sing, half-assed play banjo, etc." I told him he had about 3 and 1/2 asses between them all. They all immediately decided that this was the perfect band name. I can only hope that I will not be mentioned in some future Spin magazine article.

Went to see TOFU today (Tons of Fun University, yeah, worst band name evah! but they rock, or, more specifically, talk-rock) then went for Shawarma and falafel.

TOFU at the Regina Folk Fest (not the Winnipeg show where I first saw them):

Monday, March 17, 2008

Curling, hockey and Untalkative Bunny

Our life has been hijacked by an odd Canadian obsession, curling, specifically, the Brier, the Canadian mens championship and probably the largest curling event in the world, hosted, this year, at the arena where both O and I work. Now we have some back to back concerts and the end of the hockey season. School, and life, will resume after playoffs, hopefully!

Anyhoo, O and I had a day off today and spent it lounging luxuriously, watching kids tv and generally being lazy. We suddenly got the urge to watch Untalkative Bunny, one of the most sublimely genius kids shows ever, about a mute,vegetarian, jazz loving, urban bunny. And someone on You Tube has uploaded all of the shows available, so we're going to be going on an Untalkative Bunny spree for the next few months.

One thing that struck me was how much of an unschooler UB is, she's always reading, listening to jazz or the radio, and signing up for courses that sometimes she likes, and sometimes she doesn't and she just leaves. I love UB!

Here's a fave of mine, and I think quite suitable for an unschooling oriented blog:

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Yoga day

O is totally burned out on football (at his size, it's the first thing most people bring up), so I gave him a list today of some things he can choose from for a regular physical activity (none is not an option, though he did try to argue for it, lol)

Not surprisingly, since it's about -30 today, he choose to do yoga with me in the MPR. It's going to be a challenge to do some of the poses with him. He's just soooo big, he just physically can't do some movements, especially his legs. Even at a lower weight, he's just not going to be able to do some of these poses. His whole bone structure is so big (his knee cap is about as big as my face), I'm going to have to find ways to adapt poses for him pretty radically.