About a Hat

or how sometimes poody, really is...

(/cosby)I want to talk to YOU about a hat.(/cosby off)

Pictured at the left is Adam Baldwin, in his stellar portrayal of Jayne Cobb, mercenary for hire and member of the crew of the Serenity. If you are fan of Serenity or Firefly, or both, good for you. As am I. That's key to this story, so put it in memory. If you want more detail about the hat, and what it's all about, go here:
Jayne's Hat Brigade. (I haven't asked for permission to place that link, but that will be the least of my sins in this post...)

That page will give you plenty of detail.

Now it's not this hat specifically, that I am on about. About three weeks ago, I received a box, in the mail. The box was simply addressed to me, and in and of itself was completely unassuming. It featured nothing besides the postmark and my name and address. I naturally assumed it was yet another eBay purchase which I had lost track of.
When I opened the box it was filled with 3 things. Actually, it was filled with excelsior. Nestled among the excelsior (and who packs anything with excelsior these days anyways) is a hand written note and a hat. This hat is a knitted cap, oddly shaped. The included note is hand written, in an unrecognized scrawl.

The note includes such comments as "Your brother Matty is still suffering from the wet lung."

At this point in the reading of the note, my dear wife, Rebecca (also purportedly a fan of both Firefly and Serenity), suspects the worst. Some fiend has sent us a plague infested hat. And wash your hands. The hat is placed on the top of the fridge. It sits there (out of her reach, really) for three days. She contacts Canada Post in an effort to track the package back to its source. No dice. Feeling that discretion is the better part of valor, she trashes the hat (with my permission, of course).

Two. Weeks. Later.

While at a bachelorette party for a mutual friend, said wife speaks with the wife of a close, personal friend. Who drops the hint "Soooo ... did you guys receive a package lately?"

Yes, dear reader, it is at this point that you may wish to turn to some other blog. Perhaps the blog of some other, better informed SciFi nut. One who gets it. In this case it being the fact that the hat in the box, with the excelsior, and the note, of no return address, is in a hand made replica of the Jayne Cobb hat, with authentic note as seen in the episode of Firefly, entitled "The Message".

Yes, I have already turned in my Firefly fanclub card.

I hang my head in shame.

Whoa...

From the GameGeek file...
Rarely does a game come along these days that is so great that it actually pulls me away from everything else. Even more rare is a game which appears to live up to all of the hype.
Oblivion, however appears to be quite a rare bird. I'm only about 3 hours in and already I'm hands down impressed with it. And the graphics are simply amazing, both for their quality and how well they run on my slightly older system. If you're on the fence on this one, don't wait - it's totally worth it.

InterWeb Nightmare

From the "All I want is frikkin' sharks with frikkin' lasers on their heads! Is that too much to ask ?" file ...
All right, the revolution is at hand. I'm going to the telco's highspeed and TV. Why? It's half the price for the same (sort of) level of service. And it means every TV will have digital signal. Of course I don't own a digital TV.
My gMail address is now my primary eMail. My shaw address will be gone after the end of the month or so.

Take that giant cable megamonolith!

Danger, Wil Robinson! Danger!

From the WarGameGeek File...
Yesterday, the boy and I spent the day together. Erik and Rebecca were at the hospital all day so Erik could get 14 fillings ( which is almost 5 fillings for each year), so I spent the day with Zachary.

After eating at the Clown Burger joint (you know of whom I speak...) (no, that's not the danger, but it is a danger), we went over to the Mall and wandered around a bit. After stopping in at the ExpensiveJapaneseTVsOnly Store (to stare at the giant TVs), and making the requisite stop at the toy store to look at (look with your eyes, not with your hands) the Thomas the Tank Engine stuff, we went to the GamesWorkshop store.

I thought he would think all the painted figs were cool. I was right, and that is still not the danger part. No, now I want to paint again.

Let me bring you up to speed on this. I have a history of buying and storing up stuff to be painted (now, in this context, realize that paint means apply paint to pre-scuplted objects, not use liquid pigments creatively on canvases or walls). I have a *HUGE* (and in this context huge in the meaning of the word where we mean much bigger than it should ever possibly get) pile of boxes with stuff in it to paint. But that is not what it's all about.

No, what this is about is the acquiring of more stuff to paint. If I do that, I need to replenish my supplies, as by this time the only thing that is still of use will be my palette (best painter gift ever, thanks Kev!). So that's another 30 bucks. And then I need secure space to work in.

I think I need to do a garage to workshop conversion. Stupid van can sit outside.

Stupid Van.