A Little Silliness

It's been something of a crazy week. I'm taking a day and a half off work this week and am trying to catch up beforehand. I'm going to be gone most evenings so I won't have that time to post. So this might be it for the week. We'll see. I might surprise you with a later one.

I need a little silliness today. I've got a bit of a cold and am feeling it. I'm a tad run down and I'm even more stressed. But this little cottage in the field makes me smile. I imagine a wise old wizard or the fabled "crooked man" living out here. It would only be better with pink smoke puffing from the chimney. A little fantasy in an otherwise dull day.

For a Lark

I've been drawing robins recently. I'm not sure why. For the past year or so I've been drawing this one particular robin, a character with a mask. Sometimes he's a superhero. Sometimes he's a villian. I think there is probably a graphic novel in here somewhere but I haven't taken the time yet to find it. But yesterday over lunch I sat down and created these images really quick on MS Paint. Nothing artistic. Nothing incredible. Just pure silliness. And I thought I'd share.

It's the devious General Robin with his second-in-command Archduke Cardinal.

On a different note, I'm getting the hell out of dodge this weekend and there won't be any postings for the rest of the week and probably Monday. I'll try to get something up Tuesday but it's a vacation day and I'm not making any promises. Have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend!

Vending Machine Silliness

The website MthruF is a blog that is part of the Cheezburger group of humor sites. MthruF focuses on funny work related pictures. One of today's images was so much fun that I had to share it. It's a light post but it made me crack up laughing. And I'm off work today and not really in the mood to post too much. Enjoy the silliness.

Silly Songs Stuck in my Head

I'm prone to getting songs stuck in my head. A single phrase, or even just a couple of words, will plant a song that I can't shake for hours. It can be so bad that just hearing the word Why will stick Joe Purdy's song "Why Do I" in my head for the rest of the day. I wander around singing one or two phrases from the song before realizing that I'm doing it. If you ask Jeff, you'll find out that I'm constantly humming or singing something.

So this week I have two silly songs stuck in my head that I felt I had to share. The first is a new song that I just found yesterday. But it's catchy and so much fun that I keep singing it. I was looking at a picture on Bing.com and found a link on wanting to be a Canadian. The link led directly to the song "Canadian, Please" by Julia Bentley and Andrew Gunadie. The song has a bouncy beat and a silly rhyme and makes me incredibly happy. The video has the singers dressed a Canadian mounties splashing around in a stream. It even has closed captioning so you don't miss a single phrase. Well worth a watch. Downright hilarious stuff.

The other song is from Phineas and Ferb. I'm sure it surprises you that a cartoon offers a catchy funny tune but P&F are known for them. Each episode has an original song and many of them are perfect songs to stick in your head. The one I've been singing lately is Perry the Platypus's theme song. It starts out with "He's a semi-aquatic egg-laying mammal of action...." And it just gets sillier from there. I've even got Jeff singing along on this one. I'd link just the song but the video is well worth it as well.

Two silly songs to make your day a little brighter. Or to get stuck in your head. Goodness knows I can't get them out of mine.

Panicking

Part of my job is to read the news. Daily. I have a couple different news sources that I use every morning to try to keep up with the economic situation around the country. It's one of my favorite and least favorite parts of my job. Favorite because I get to learn a ton of new things each morning, least favorite because I don't really find business all that exciting.

But the big news today, as it has been for the last week, is swine flu. Everyone is talking about swine flu and I am starting to see the beginning of a panic. I read at least 20 headlines, from three different news agencies about the disease. Pictures of people all over the world in masks. And I just laugh. We work ourselves up over everything don't we? Does anyone remember Avian Bird Flu? The one that was supposed to wipe huge chunks of the population. Yeah, what happened to that one? Or the threat of biological warfare that never really materialized? People were stocking up on duct tape and bottled water preparing for the ultimate catastrophe.

So let's breakdown this illness. There are 20 confirmed cases in Mexico, with 80 more possibly linked to the disease. There have been 20 cases in the US, 6 in Canada, and 1 in Spain. Out of 6.5 billion people! Suddenly less than 50 cases and it's a global pandemic. For most of the people outside of Mexico, they have had flu-like symptoms for a couple days and recovered without issue. Hmmmm yeah this one sounds terrible. Why are we so afraid of the flu? Every year people rush to get their flu shots with the worry that the flu is coming. I've had the flu. It sucks, but it's not deadly. (Please note that the Influenza of 1918 is exempt from this. That actually was a pandemic) Has anyone thought to question that rural Mexico has less advanced medical treatments? No wonder the people are dying. Anywhere else, and we have a couple days in bed, maybe at worst some hacking coughs and dehydration and then back to work as usual.

I know I'm ranting and I'm sorry for that. It just floors me that we work ourselves up into a tizzy over these diseases. So in honor of Swine Flu, I think we should start the Panic of the Month club. Each month we'll find which issue has everyone panicking. Last month it was Salmonella in the peanut butter. This month Swine Flu. I can't wait to see what next month brings.