brykmantra.com

It occurred to me that maybe, just for the rest of this month, I could try to post every day, just like in the old days — just not several times a day like in the first three years, and not taking an hour per post.

So far, we’ve got two days in a row, so far so good …

Anyway, today I’m getting back to my roots by finding and posting funny stuff that I find on the “Inter-nets”.

Let’s start with this BP commercial I’ve been seeing lately, with a cool song and cooler animation:

Next: I’ve previously mentioned the Jack-Black-produced VH1 series, Acceptable TV, and here’s one of their latest short parody pilots, this one kind of a cross between Profiler and the old HBO series The Hitchhiker:

And finally a short sketch from a British (or Scottish?) comedy show:

Okay, that wasn’t too bad, as long as I can curb my tendency to rattle endlessly …

More tomorrow, maybe …

I mostly missed all the fun last year, since I was only a week out of surgery, so this year I went wild with all the trinkets and other trappings. I’ve posted my Irish Festival schwag to Flickr, but I only took pictures of my older stuff this week, so I’ll post that today.

Keep checking back, and I’ll be posting more here …

Okay, time to post more, I guess:

I’ve uploaded more Irish festival pictures to Flickr, including a lot of my festival loot this time, plus more of the doggies that were visiting or up for adoption, so if you haven’t checked it out in a couple of days, there’s more there now.

And keep checking back this week, because I’m planning on posting pictures of some of my Irish books, and well as more cheap plastic green party favors …

Six day’s to St. Paddy’s Day! Check out that link for all sorts of cool things about the day, and about all sorts of Irish stuff …

And for a more serious historical look, check out the Celtic Folklore page …

And now that I’ve done my obligatory educational pointings-out, let’s go back to more phony, Madison Avenue Irishization, with the new Irish Spring promotional site, GetIrishNow.com.

Okay, sure, it’s as fake as Tang Breakfast Drink, but hey, it’s green and has shamrocks, and has all sorts of Irish references and pictures and a sweepstakes to win an Irish vacation, plus the guy in it is funny, plus it’s interesting to see how they’re suddenly targeting Irish Spring to the Maxim magazine crowd, by making a body wash for the first time, and populating their TV commercials with hot young lasses, and implying that said lasses can be theirs if only this product is used.

Pretty much the same as the Axe and Tag commercials. It’s sad to see it come to that …

Anyway, Happy St. Patrick’s Week! I might even actually blog this week for a change!

Yay! I’ve finally got most of my Irish Festival pictures uploaded (Click here to view).

And a little later in the week I’ll try to post a few comments about last weekend’s event …

Okay, I still can’t get motivated to take time from my other activities to do any serious blogging, but I feel obligated to post something, so, in honor of the North Texas Irish Festival being just one week away (WOO-HOO!), I finally got around to uploading my pictures from the 2004 festival to Flickr — so check ‘em out, and check out my ’05 pics as well.

(And if you’re wondering why there are no pictures here from the 2006 festival … well, last year I was otherwise engaged, as you know if you’ve been around the blog for a while … )

I’m being prodded to post, so here goes:

Anna Nicole Smith: They keep saying on the news that her death was “shocking”.

Um … no. Surprising, maybe, since we didn’t know it would be that particular day, but as messed up as she was on a regular basis, it wasn’t really a shock to hear that one day she finally passed out and didn’t wake up.

And comparisons to the fate of Marilyn Monroe? Sure, if you take away the presidential connections, big Hollywood movies, marriage to a baseball superstar, a general sense of classiness, and probable Mob involvement in the mysterious circumstances of the death, then yeah, the two situations are almost exactly alike …

Hey, you know who’s probably glad to have the Anna Nicole story suddenly take over the news spotlight?

That’s right: Alleged Murder-Attempting Astronaut Barbie Action Figure! (Includes NASA Action Diaper with Kung Fu Grip!)

I think we have a winner for Wackiest Story of the Year …

And speaking of adults dressing up and doing wacky things: One of my co-workers passed out her wedding invitations today. I asked if the wedding date of March 17 was intentionally set for St. Patrick’s Day, she said, “Oh yeah, we’re having an Irish wedding!”

In fact, her husband-to-be will be wearing not a tux, but some elaborate pirate outfit (an Irish pirate, presumably), and the blushing bride will herself be decked out in ethno-anachronistic garb that will include a green cape, among other things.

Some other co-workers also began making plans to attend in costume, and I said, “Hey, good idea — I think I’ll go as a robot!”

And speaking of robots (but not of Texas women this time), today I overheard some managers talking to some vendors about putting some robots in our manufacturing area … but when I found out that they’re not the kind that say “Danger danger Will Robinson!” or “Bite my shiny metal ass!”, or much of anything at all, for that matter, I quickly lost interest …

Okay, that oughta hold y’all for another week …

Here’s an interesting set of Flickr tags …

And here’s a couple of mostly unrelated but still interesting photos in that group: “Yum!” and “In the irish foods isle”.

Enjoy!

Rain!

It’s been raining most of the day today, and hopefully it’ll make up for our recent drought. The downside is that it kept me from my daily walk, but at least it give me tendonitis a rest.

Our friend Pamibe has recently lost her collie of 13 years, Tess. Having lost our own little Schotzy recently, we know what she’s going through, so stop by her site and pay your respects.

One of the worst part of my surgery in March was missing the Irish Festival, so I was looking forward to this weekend’s Celtic Heritage Festival. But alas, my ribs still kill me if I stand around any at all, so I decided to pass this time around and just wait until next March.

It’s just as well, though, since I probably would have done something stupid like buy a Utilikilt or something …

Remember the NBC promo contest video I did with my co-workers a couple of months back? No, of course you don’t. Anyway, now PayScale.com is running the Salary Stories video contest, which will have three $1000 winners until the end of the year. The rules and requirements are kind of vague, but it still looks like the kind of thing we could have a shot at again … I’ll keep you updated on further progress …

A final thing to end the day: Google’s special logo for the occasion:

Plus, the St. Patrick’s Day search results that clicking on the logo linked to.

Hope you had a fine Irish day!

Me? I was stuck on the couch — but at least I wore my embroidered “Irish” t-shirt …

The next installment of Irish tidbits, lifted from what I wrote for my old blog two years ago:

As I’ve researched Ireland these past few years, I’ve realized that what fascinates me about the land is not so much the Potato Famine Ireland, or Frank McCourt’s latter-day industrial squalor Ireland. I’m more drawn to the Ireland of the Middle Ages — that time of villages and castles and hay carts — and especially to the ancient times: The era of the Celts.

Wikipedia has this to say: “The Celts are a European people that once inhabited a territory that stretched across Europe from Turkey. Today, the term Celt is applied to a speaker of a Celtic language. Celt is inaccurate if used to represent an ethnic identity as Celtic refers primarily to a cultural and linguistic family, not an ethnic one. Hence, there are no ‘pure blood’ Celts, but the Irish form the most celtic enriched culture still in existence. Many areas of Britain, such as the Scottish Highlands, parts of Wales, and areas of England like Cornwall, Devon and the remaining South West counties along with Cumbria and Northumbria retain elements of notable celtic culture in modern life.”

Notice that “Celtic” is not a term of race but of culture; that fits in nicely with the idea that “Everyone is Irish on Saint Patrick’s Day”, and it’s also a nice thought for those of us (adopted, in my case) who aren’t sure of our ethnic heritage. It’s a culture uniquely suited for taking in anyone that wants to participate.

According to Ibiblio’s “Who were the Celts?”, the Celtic people were (to the best that anyone can figure) barbarians who descended from the Alps around 400BC and took over great sections of Europe, especially in the British Isles, and their culture formed a foundation for a lot of what Irish, Welsh and Scottish has become today.

For more information on the Celts, check out these links:

Encyclopedia of the Celts — A vast treasury of Celtic knowledge, arranged alphabetically and searchable.

History of the Celts — An examination of the Celts from ancient times to the present.

The Story of the Celts — DataWales’ FAQ on Celtic culture.