the site formerly known as Gail On The Web: July 2003

Wednesday, July 30, 2003

The Big Woof

This is to hold onto for later.

The Big Woof
Where Have All the Heroes Gone?
by Nelson Montana

The Big Woof

Saturday, July 26, 2003

Bye bye Ramon!

Ramon Stoppelenburg of LetMeStayforaDay.com was here again for a while last Tuesday. I'd e-mailed him last week, and asked if he needed a lift to the airport. Helijet sponsored Ramon to fly him from Victoria to Vancouver Airport earlier today, so he didn't need a lift to the airport, but he asked if I could take him to the ferry terminal. He was arriving by train early Tuesday morning, but his host in Victoria didn't finish work until 5 o'clock.

I didn't want to fight the commuter traffic to get back into Vancouver if I'd taken him straight to the ferry terminal from the train station. So I made a deal whereby I would pick Ramon up at the train station, and then he'd stay in the apartment until I could take him at lunchtime. Christa was still sleeping when we arrived back at the apartment, so I took Ramon to my local coffee house across the street for breakfast. We sat outside with our coffee and muffins and chatted away until it was time for me to start work. By this time Christa finally woke up, and decided to skip her first class, so there we were -- all three of us studious and hardworking people! Christa was busy writing, I'd plugged Ramon into the network, and I got going on more graphs. Then, oh dread of dreads, the final report of newsprint data from the PPPC (Pulp and Paper Products Council) came in, and I couldn't take Ramon to the ferry terminal. He ended up staying until about 3pm, which was the absolute latest he could leave to catch all his connections to get to the ferry terminal, but I had this feeling he would miss the Tsawwassen bus after the Skytrain... go Ramon go!

I made a little Shockwave PhotoJam tribute show of Ramon:

The Ramon Show

You'll need Quicktime to view these files:
- a little AVI clip of Ramon talking about the wankers he met on his Canadian trip (7.63MB)
- another little video clip of Ramon talking about being a "man's man"(6.71MB)

Thursday, July 24, 2003

Naked Boys Singing

That's right. Last night I was enraptured by eight stark naked men prancing around the stage at The Vogue Theatre, singing at the top of their lungs as their willies flopped about, all from the second row!!! Thanks to A Loving Spoonful for making this all happen, for free!!

Naked Boys Singing

Friday, July 18, 2003

What Do I Know About Luaus, Anyway?

What a relief! I wrote another Linguistics mid-term a couple of hours ago, and I am another step closer to finishing this term, and salvaging at least three weeks of summer before the next term starts! This week was pretty brutal, what with an American History paper and Linguistics exam only two days apart. But I felt quite good about both papers, and I attribute that feeling of relative calm to the systematic way in which I tackled each one. I think that's been my problem lately, just not having a process, feeling overwhelmed, and not focusing.

On a completely different note, at the LetMeStayForaDay forum a lady named Lise mentioned she was hosting a luau, and needed some ideas for adult games. This is the thread:

Luau
« on: Jul 17th, 2003, 11:45pm » Quote Modify

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm looking for ideas to host a luau. We are hosting one in a couple of weeks and I'm looking for game ideas for adults. I've got the limbo poles made up, hoola hoop contest, but I'm desperate for more ideas. It will be held outdoors by the pool. I am expecting approximately 40 people. If you can help, please post your ideas. thanks

Lise

Ramon S.
Forum Administrator
Re: Luau
« Reply #1 on: Today at 12:29am » Quote Modify

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Without even knowing what a 'luau' is, I just did a search for that on Google:

http://www.hawaii-luaus.com/

That's I guess a lot of information already.

gail
Re: Luau
« Reply #2 on: Today at 1:44am »

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lise,

What about a trivia game, using Hawaii- or island- shows like Hawaii Five-O, Magnum, P.I., Fantasy Island, etc. etc... if you have a mixed-age crowd, they'll know those cheesy shows from the 70s and 80s (maybe Love Boat, too, but that's a bit of a stretch for your theme), with maybe some older films like From Here to Eternity, and don't forget Elvis Presley's Blue Hawaii... to make it more interesting than just reading out trivia questions, you could play a clip from a show and get people to identify it, or turn portions of it into charades or Pictionary or Taboo...

You could have teams and give out kitsch prizes, like those dashboard wobbly things, or an ice cube tray that makes forms ice in weird shapes... you get the idea.

I went to a party once where the hosts actually hired a Polynesian dance group, and that was really interesting, especially when it came to audience participation!! (get out your cameras and watch your friends make fools of themselves!)

In Canada, cultures with traditional dancing put a great deal of effort in keeping it alive, and many compete internationally, so I don't think it should be too difficult to find a troupe (especially if you pay 'em).

That's what I could come up with off the top of my head, but I could probably think up more if you're still in need of some ideas...

Happy Luauing,
Gail

Wednesday, July 16, 2003

No Water!!!

Early this morning a water pipe burst in my building and we had no water ALL DAY! Christa refused to go to school without having a shower, and I felt even worse than that. If I didn't have a really long shower, I would never have stayed awake through American History class. Thankfully, they got it going before class started.

Thursday, July 10, 2003

Same-Sex Marriage

I posted more of my rantings in SOUNDOFF (Canada.com) on BC's ruling on same-sex marriages.

There is a pervasive double standard for heterosexuals when it comes to homosexuality. So many posts in the Soundoff condemn homosexuals and their behaviour as "disgusting", whereas I find some "acceptable" heterosexual behaviour just as disgusting: wet t-shirt contests, reality TV shows like "Temptation Island," men groping women in clubs... you get the idea.

Tuesday, July 08, 2003

Steve's Hitched Up North with the Keys!

Steve heads north... keys in pocket.

Got a voicemail this morning from Steve in Fort Nelson, apologizing for unintentionally taking my spare set of keys up north with him! Christa and I have had to share one set of keys since Saturday... it was supposed to arrive by priority post today, but it hasn't shown up yet!