Georgia Pok Guy

Are you excited about the new Guns n’ Roses album?  Ever star in a movie with Axl Rose, where you were lost in the desert and giant scorpions roamed the land?  Do you like Dr. Pepper?  If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you might be interested to know that Dr. Pepper (the corporation) is giving out a free Dr. Pepper (the soft drink) to every American person (you don’t need to be a citizen, just live here) in honor of a pledge it made that it would do so if Guns n’ Roses actually released a new album this year.  Apparently you shouldn’t underestimate Axl Rose.  I know I never will again.  I do applaud Dr. Pepper (the corporation) for sticking to an inane promise it made; this sets it a cut above the vast majority of corporations.  For once, hubris has the sweet taste of Dr. Pepper (the soft drink)…

According to Google Maps, it’s an 11 hour drive betwixt here and Atlanta.  Limozeen is playing the Tabernacle on November the 8th.  It’s kind of a long weekend (sort of, since I get the Tuesday afterward off).  Is this a recipe for an epic journey?  Or the trappings of epic fail?  Can’t decide if I want to do something this reckless, even with a guarantee Waffle House payoff…

Within the past week I’ve had two dreams where I was in Tokyo, the first in search of an Olive Garden, the second trying to get out to my old school.  While I probably dream of Tokyo more than any other locale (at least, in the ones I remember), it’s unusual that I have two dreams set there in such a short time span.  Maybe it’s my subconscious telling me it’s time for a little reunion.  Or maybe it’s just a hell of a lot more interesting backdrop than the Maryland suburbs…

I have been musing for a while now about possible costumes for Halloween.  Not that I’ll be trick-or-treating (I’m a little old for that), but my office is planning on having a luncheon that day.  Originally I was thinking of being the Conductor of the Credit Train (a work related inside joke), but I’m not sure how keen I am on buying a conductor’s outfit for a single use.  Then it struck me, something that wasn’t anime related (and by definition overly complex), but still related to a cartoon series I really like: the Wireless Wizard of Homestar Runner fame.  And if even that seems too challenging, perhaps sci-fi greg (but not d n’ d greg).  Now the true test will be to see if I’m motivated enough to do something simple…  The last time I “dressed up” for Halloween I had crafted a stovepipe hat out of construction paper with the intent of being Lincoln, so it might be nice to do something a bit more substantial.  Stay tuned…

I’ve heard the word “dynamite” pronounced four different ways:

1.  DYE-nuh-mite (standard)
2. dye-NO-mite
3. DYE-KNEE-mite
4. DEE-nuh-ME-te

Of the four, only the second and fourth could be used in a poem in iambic pentameter.  Something to keep in mind, the next time you write a poem in iambic pentameter and want to include the word “dynamite” (and I know you do).  Such as, “Thine visage ’tis dynamite, beautiful / Thine perspicacity salubrious.”

Apparently I didn’t have a typical childhood.  Amongst four co-workers of comparable age, I was one of two who had heard of “As I was going to St. Ives”, and the only one to have heard it as a child, the other having learned it from Die Hard With A Vengeance.  When I brought the rhyme up in conversation I was greeted with puzzled looks and attempts to calculate the answer to the riddle.  It is strange the things we take for granted, that we just assume are part of the collective, or rather American, experience.  I suppose since nursery rhymes were a part of my childhood I made the mistake of thinking they were a part of most people’s childhoods (at the very least that more than one in five would have heard it growing up).  And that ultimately is the challenge in being objective.

 On my way to St. Ives

I met a man with seven wives

Each wife had seven sacks

Each sack had seven cats

Each cat had seven kits

Kits, cats, sacks, and wives

How many were going to St. Ives?