Another initiate to the broadcast hole

Wednesday night’s broadcast of Technology Bytes will feature yet another guest host in the studio.

Tomorrow night we will be joined by Kyrie O’Connor. Kyrie is best known for her efforts at The Houston Chronicle blogs under the name MeMo writing about, well, read it yourself and you tell me.

She’s also an occasional guest on NPR’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me program along with such notable talent as Paula Poundstone, P.J O’rourke, Sue Ellicott and others.

Kyrie has a long standing love hate relationship with my regular co-host, Dwight Silverman, who she affectionately calls Evil Dwight.

This should prove to be quite fun! Apparently she’s under the same impression.

Hey! NPR! Listen up!

This Friday! Great music combined with adults in their PJ’s!

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Please help spread the word about this Friday!!

What a lineup!

Clouseaux!

Aqua Velva!, Houston’s only and by default, BEST B-52’s cover band!

The Flying Fish Sailors!

And it’s a pajama party! Wear yours and get in FREE!

Molly and the Ringwalds will be doing they’re usual happy hour show from 7-9ish. There’s no guarantee they will wear pajamas but the rest of us will be adorned appropriately.

Flying Fish Sailors go on around 10 followed by Aqua Velva and then Clouseaux.

Woozle Wuzzle?

From this Wikipedia article:

The Simpsons, an animated series, has used and coined many neologism for humorous effect. The most famous example is Homer Simpson’s signature annoyed grunt, “D’oh!” which has been listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, in addition to smaller references such as OUP’s single-volume Oxford Dictionary of English (second edition).

Few of the following would qualify as neologisms from a strict lexicological perspective due to their extremely limited use outside of the show. For those that have found their way into regular use, the route passes through the considerable fan-base where use of these words carries the prestige of pop-cultural literacy among those who catch the references, just as among other cultural groups a clever parallel to a well-known phrase from the literary or rhetorical canon would be acknowledged.

The following, then, is presented more as a glossary of references than a list of neologisms. This list, however, is distinguished from other Simpsons-related lists by focusing on invented words and phrases rather than the names of specific characters or locations that are well documented elsewhere.

Many of these are intentional mutations, mispronunciations, amplifications, or portmanteaus of recognizable words that reveal or emphasize aspects of the characters using them. Homer, for example, often mispronounces words, showing his ignorance. Grandpa Simpson and Mr. Burns use obsolete or old-sounding words, which emphasize their age. And Professor Frink and Dr. Nick Riviera invent new scientific-sounding jargon to lend meager credibility to their obvious ineptitude.

Partial list of made up words from the Simpsons, courtesy of Wikipedia (check the article for even more):

1 Assal Horizontology
2 BBBQ
3 Beginulate
4 BiMonSciFiCon
5 Bloodening
6 Blurst
7 Boneis Eruptus
8 Boo-urns
9 Bort
10 Buh
11 Car Hole
12 Cheese-eating Surrender Monkeys
13 Chester A. Arthritis
14 Chocobots
15 Chocotastic
16 Clouseauesque
17 CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet
18 Craptacular
19 Cromulent
20 Dash Hole
21 Debigulator
22 De Fault
23 Diddly
24 Dickety
25 Donder-Blitzen
26 Dorkus Malorkus
27 Double-Bacon Geniusburger
28 Drunkening
29 Dumbening
30 Embiggen
31 Fit
32 Flupid Bloroplope
33 Flunjers, Capdabblers, Smendlers
34 Frinkahedron
35 Frogurt
36 Führerific
37 Funzo
38 Gamblor
39 Garbagewater
40 Glayvin
41 Groin-Grabbingly Transcendent
42 Hoaxiscope
43 Homersexual
44 Hoyvin-Mavin
45 I, for one, welcome our new (insert word) overlords
46 Interslice
47 Jebeditis
48 Jebus
49 Jerkass
50 Jerkface
51 Klauh Kalesh
52 Knowitallism
53 Kwyjibo
54 Learnding
55 Lupper
56 Malk
57 Malparkage
58 Meh
59 Milpool
60 Mmm, (gummi beers, chocolate, floor pie etc.)
61 Momato
62 Monsterometer
63 Nuclear Panner Plant
64 Nucleon
65 Nucular
66 Ovulicious
67 Panaphonics
68 Poindextrose
69 Possi-bligh
70 Posturologists
71 Pull a Homer
72 Quetzlzacatenango
73 “Radioactivity”
74 Rebigulator
75 Re-Deadening
76 Redorkulated
77 Retirony
78 Sacrilicious
79 Saxomophone
80 Scrabbleship
81 Scientician
82 Scotchtoberfest
83 Screamapillar
84 Shazbot
85 Shinning
86 Shirkaday
87 Skittlebrau
88 Smarch
89 S-M-R-T
90 Snacktacular
91 SNUH
92 Sophistimacated Dowhackey
93 Speedholes
94 Spirakeet
95 SSCCATAGAPP
96 Steamed Hams
97 Superliminal
98 Supernintendo Chalmers
99 Thrillho
100 Tomacco
101 Tramapoline / Trabopoline
102 Tunk
103 Unblowuppable
104 Unpossible
105 Vegetabletarian
106 Worst (insert word) Ever
107 Woozle Wuzzle
108 Xtapolapocetl
109 Yoink!
110 Yvan Eht Nioj

All comments to this post must use a Simpsons neologism.

Small Stars @ Rudyard’s

Saturday night I broke routine and followed my musical nose to the upstairs of Rudyard’s to catch The Small Stars.

Imagine, if you will, seven caricatures from some cheesy out of the way casino/lounge act in Reno, Nevada and you will begin to understand what The Small Stars are all about.

It’s pure “shtick” and they do it well. In fact, they do it VERY well. You see, they’re not just a bunch of hacks with a comedic idea, they are each skilled musicians and what they accomplish as an ensemble is nothing short of flabbergasting.

Featured in the band is Austin guitar legend Landis Armstrong (aka Richard Steele) from such noteworthy musical projects as McLemore Avenue and The El Orbits.

Cynthia jokingly suggests I have a big ole’ man crush on Landis. I suspect she’s right. He’s a nice guy and an amazing musician and whenever he performs in town I try to make it a point to go see him.

Oh Landis, if only someone could tame him…

The front man for The Small Stars goes by the stage name of Guy Fantasy. His real name is Miles Zuniga and is most famous for the song “The Way” he wrote and performed with the one hit wonder band Fastball in the 90’s. He’s incredibly funny and reminds me is subtle ways of a musical Bill Hicks.

On of the more entertaining characters is Vic Odin, the “manager” of the band who has some GREAT songs he sings and cracks me up when he’s running around the performance venue with his bullhorn.

All in all, a very enjoyable evening.

The Small Stars

The Small Stars

Vic Odin

Click any image to see a larger version

Art Festival

Today was a GREAT day for the Bayou City Art Festival. The last several times we have visited this festival we have obtained some nice pieces for our collection. We didn’t end up buying anything this year but there was a lot of wonderful art present. We did get a few cards to follow up with some artists at a later date.

Cynthia’s coat of many toads made her a walking art piece and she was commented upon and complimented frequently as we walked about the festival.

Art Festival

Lucky me!

When I go to the Houston Chronicle site to update The HelpLine Blog and I see that banner pictured above it’s like seeing my name in lights.

I was just browsing through the archives of my column and was amazed to realize I have been writing for the paper for almost 6 years now.

What an amazing experience the whole technology explosion has been for me. From my humble beginnings as a sales dweeb in the computer department at Best Buy over 11 years ago to working in the IT department of a huge software company today.

Along the way I have gotten to do cool things and meet amazing people.

When I was the operations manager at Neosoft many moons ago was when I first encountered technology columnist Dwight Silverman. Dwight was the original HelpLine columnist for the Houston Chronicle.

Technology Bytes was still in it’s infancy and Dwight was an early adopter of residential ISDN. I had many opportunities to sit on the phone and go over the configuration of his Pipeline 25 whenever his Internet connection would drop. Over a short time we developed a rapport and he even wrote a very nice article about the radio show for the Chronicle which gave us a much needed push in listenership back in those formative years.

I moved on from Neosoft in 1999 but did not lose touch with Dwight. He guest hosted on the show every now and then and in 2000 he informed me that he was getting promoted at the newspaper and would be giving up the HelpLine column.

The story on how I came to take over the column varies depending on whether you talk to me or talk to Dwight.

My recollection is that Dwight didn’t even offer me the opportunity to apply for the position. When I suggested the idea to him I seem to recall him dismissing it rather out of hand, citing my lack of journalism credentials. In my mind I pushed the issue and was granted the opportunity to write a test column to be reviewed by his editor and they would consider my application. It was none-too-encouraging, but my desire to be a media-whore was strong.

I took the time to find the original e-mail exchange. This is the response I sent to Dwight when he announced his moving on to other things at the Chronicle:

To: Dwight Silverman
From: JLee
Subject: Re: The times, they are a’changin’ (was Re: Tech Bytes)
Cc:
Bcc:
X-Eudora-Signature:

Wow….big changes!

Maybe I should apply as your replacement…

At 09:26 PM 08/21/2000 -0500, you wrote:

Jay –

You may be interested in this note I’m sending out to my sources…

Effective Monday, Aug. 28, I will no longer be covering business technology for the Houston Chronicle. Instead, I am taking on the job of Web Development Editor for HoustonChronicle.com, the newspaper’s Web site….*snip*

And this was his reply:

To: “Dwight Silverman”
From: JLee
Subject: Re: The times, they are a’changin’ (was Re: Tech Bytes)
Cc:
Bcc:
X-Eudora-Signature:

Ha! Maybe you should! Got a journalism degree?

At any rate, I applied and Dwight ended up helping me quite a bit with my first efforts at writing the column. In the end the position was offered to me and I accepted.

Things have evolved over the years. The HelpLine column is now an almost daily blog and remains a weekly feature in the business section of the paper on Tuesdays. It used to be Wednesdays, same as the radio show which made Wednesday Jay Lee Day for awhile, or so I dubbed it when Andrea declared that nothing important or entertaining happened on Wednesdays.

Now Dwight is a regular on the program and we’re going stronger than ever as the show approaches it’s 11th anniversary in June.

I just love being a geek and getting to do what I do.

Security!

I absolutely less than three Keith Olbermann from MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann. He’s funny and his ongoing rivalry with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly has had me in stitches here recently.

There’s been a bit of a brew-ha-ha lately over an incident on the Bill O’Reilly radio show when he threatened a listener with calling Fox Security after the caller mentioned Keith Olbermann’s name.

Apparently Bill made good on the threat and had Fox Security contact the caller. Keith did a bit on it during his program and actually interviewed the caller.

O’Reilly is an example of talk radio gone terribly wrong.

Although I wonder if I should threaten callers to my show who mention my nemesis with a visit from KPFT security? It could easily put the fear of gawd in them to know that a bunch of disorganized liberal vegans might pay a visit to their home or place of business and stage a peaceful protest.

Yea, there’s an idea.

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