It’s sad to hear that this comedic legend passed away. His knack for slapstick humor and oddball accents, Korman was a master sketch comic who did his best-known work on ‘The Carol Burnett Show’. I also enjoyed his comedy antics in the Western satire ‘Blazing Saddles’ and in the silly sitcom ‘Mama’s Family’. Sketch comedy presents particular challenges that not every actor can handle, but Harvey Korman handled it deftly. I think I’m going to watch some old Burnett Show repeats.

Let me start off by saying that for most of my life I’ve been a fan of Wil Wheaton. I’d first seen him in the movie ‘Stand By Me’ and was instantly enthralled with the movie when Wil regaled his friends with the pie eating contest story. My friends and I howled with laughter and proceeded to rewind the tape and watch that part a few dozen times more. (The part with the leech in his underwear had the opposite effect on us, but we still watched that part a lot too.)

Like many people I grew up watching Star Trek:TNG, with a young Wesley Crusher on board the Enterprise. Whenever he would help out Data with his human endeavors, I always had to laugh. The two of them made quite the team. Even as a kid among adults Wil handled the situation deftly and with a boyish charm, which reminded my mom a lot of me. (Being compared to Wil was quite the compliment, even if it comes from your mom.)

Well, over the weekend I was fortunate enough to meet Wil Wheaton in person. He came to a local brewery promoting his most recent book, The Happiest Days of Our Lives. It’s a collection of fabulous stories about him growing up as a geek in the 70s and 80s. He dazzled the adoring group as he read through parts of his book, pausing occasionally to enjoy some tasty Arrogant Bastard beer.

Afterwards we had a Q&A session. He was asked how he met his wife, how he got into acting, how it was like working with River Phoenix and many other questions. He was open, down to earth and eloquent with his responses and was quite entertaining. I took some candid pictures of Wil at the event for posterity’s sake. A big thanks to Wil for chatting with me and signing my copy of Happiest Days! His book is quite entertaining, as is he; check it out. (I look forward to seeing him at the San Diego Comic-Con again.)

Want to add an air of of ruggedness and Paul Bunyan-ness to your school or TPS reports? Why not use Tim Yarzhombek’s cool beard font? More fun fonts for you.

A Day of Remembrance

Instead of talking about the awful events that took place last year, I decided to talk a bit about my memories of being a Hokie.

As a Hokie and Blacksburg native, the events of last year really hit home for me. I was at work when a friend called and told me what had just happened. I called home to check on my folks to make sure they were OK. Thankfully they were. (It’s the oddest thing for something like this to thrust your little hometown and college into the world’s limelight.) Blacksburg had changed dramatically on that day.

The Blacksburg and Virginia Tech area were a great place to grow up. I went to grade school from K through 12 there in relative peace and tranquility. With a Mayberry like atmosphere of very little crime, but a highly educated and completely wired college town, I learned a lot about the world without traveling much. (It might come as a surprise to you, but Blacksburg was an early adopter of the Internet back in 1994.) With parents and friends involved with the university, I grew up as a Hokie well before I decided to get my computer degree from Va Tech.

After I graduated and went off into the world, whenever I told people where I was from and what college I went to, they hadn’t heard of it. (Unless it was of the high ranked ACC football team.) I was usually tarred with the epithet yokel, merely because I came from a small southern town. With people’s preconceived notions, I’d surprise them whenever I spoke without a southern drawl. I’d reply, “I was edumucated!” I owe a big thanks to my English teacher mom for my upbringing.

Even after I left town and the East Coast, I’m still connected to Blacksburg and Virginia Tech. Taking up residence across the country in California hasn’t changed this small town boy much. It’s sad to see something like this happen in my hometown and the community I grew up with. I imagine even with a tragedy like this, Blacksburg and the Hokies will stand strong together with the rest of the world, and we will prevail.

On Wednesday, April 16, the Virginia Tech Day of Remembrance will be held in honor of those lost a year ago. So please take a moment out of your schedule tomorrow to remember and honor the victims of this tragic event.

I really have been enjoying Twitter since I started in January. Twitter is a way to share bit-sized updates of your life and follow those that matter to you. It’s like a mini blogging system where you can tweet about what you are currently doing (via the web or mobile phone). Give a shout-out on Twitter and it broadcasts to all of your friends in simple 140 character messages (or less). It’s your real life between your blog posts and emails. Learn more about Twitter in plain English.

Twitter is a great way to keep in touch and it’s pretty fun. I recommend that you give it a try and tweet me sometime at http://twitter.com/OldManMusings.

I thought I’d throw this question to the masses. Should the OldManMusings feed move over to FeedBurner? I’ve been pondering the question for awhile now and with recent feed issues, have been considering moving over. Please let me know what you think about it and if you’ve got any insider info why I shouldn’t move. Pros and cons? I’d like to hear your opinions.

Prices are a changing. With inflation continually rising over our lifetimes, we can expect prices to also grow. When I used to fill up my old Chevrolet Impala and gas rose over a buck, I was shocked. Now with U.S. gasoline prices heading up to $4/gallon, my $20 barely fills the tank half-way. I know compared to the rest of the world our gas is relatively inexpensive, so we shouldn’t complain. With the increase of fuel prices, the prices for other goods and services will also rise. So expect to be spending more and getting less.

I was mulling the idea of the usefulness of coins as money. I really don’t use change, I just collect it. When I get enough of it, I just wrap it up and take it to the bank. Even the price of creating coins is increasing with scarcity of metals. Manufacturing both a penny and a nickel is more than the 1-cent and 5-cent values of the coins themselves. I’ve heard talk of a penniless America, but I beleive we’ll be a coinless America before we get to a cashless society. The dollar bill will be the new penny. What do you think?

(Of course we could all be penniless if the economy tanks…)

Come enjoy some photographs from our most recent trip to San Francisco on Flickr. We try to make it to San Fran at least twice a year, because we enjoy it so much. With all the walking, food, fun, sights, walking, stores, toys and plenty of walking. (I’m not a fan of driving in the city, no matter what city because they’re all crazy and I’ve driven plenty of them already.) Getting out, hoofing it and having fun is what we like.

Our friends over at the popular gaming site 4CR, had their heart stolen!

It seems that their artwork, which was posted two years ago for Valentine’s cards, was unceremoniously nabbed by a big fashion company in the UK - All Saints Fashion. What a bunch of bologna! I know that pictures and posts are “borrowed” off the site by seedy folk because this medium makes it easy, but when an actual company steals your artwork and uses it in their merchandise - that’s just wrong!

I wonder what 4CR’s recourse is now? (Perhaps contacting the perpetrators or Consumerist.com or even the U.S. State Department?)

Update (April 9, 2008): Success and victory by 4CR!

Flip for Free Pancakes at participating IHOP restaurants this Tuesday! From 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., they’ll give you one free short stack (three) of their famous buttermilk pancakes. All they ask is that you consider making a donation to support local children’s hospitals through Children’s Miracle Network, or other local charities.

I know Pancake Day was Feb 5th, but this is for a good cause and you get to enjoy some tasty pancakes! (I don’t mind IHOP reseting my Pancake related holiday this year.) If you can’t make it for breakfast, you can eat pancakes for lunch and/or dinner. I could eat pancakes any time of day! (With lots of syrup too, please.)

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Happy Chinese New Year!

I hope the world is treating you well and that you’ve been enjoying Old Man Musings. I try to have a fun mix of topics going on around here for your entertainment. As the years progress (for all of us), I’m glad you continue keeping up with this Old Man. I’m looking forward to another good year and more good times. Drop me a line here or Twitter me when you have the time, I’d like to hear how all of you are doing.

As you may know, it’s Chinese New Year and it’s the Year of the Rat. It is also slightly less well known as the Year of the Mouse. As you may have noticed in the illustration above, my mouse character is having a blast and I hope you are too. He’s one of the illustrations in my continuing Roundimals series.

Enjoy, have fun and take care.

There’s a lively debate going on about eating cloned animals. People are worried about if it is safe or right and it seems they’d rather not eat cloned meat. I’ve read that some people believe cloned animals do not have souls. So with that I’d surmise that people like to gobble up animals that once had a soul - even if it was born via a giant turkey baster. Either way, I bet the damned meat will cost you a hoof and a leg, and I doubt you can taste a difference.

Of course you could just eat a vegan, like Pamela Anderson.

I saw Juno over the Xmas holidays and really enjoyed it. I would even go as far as saying that it was the best movie I’ve seen in a long time - one that I would recommend. The movie was just very real, clever and pretty humorous. I think it’s funny how the parents in the movie dealt with their pregnant teenage daughter and how it would have been way different 20 years ago. Times change.

I also really enjoyed the opening titles by Shadowplay Studio. The sketchy animation was just plain cool. You can watch a clip of the titles here.

One of the lines I enjoyed was when Juno announces her water breaking with “Thundercats are go! The wife and I will remember that one.

I’m back from my whirlwind holiday, across the freezing East Coast. On my trip, I went to visit family and friends in the Carolinas, Virginia and Washington DC. I’ve put some of my photos up on Flickr of my adventures, so why not take a gander? I visited some historical landmarks and found some cool vintage toys too, like the Tecto toy pictured above. It was a good time, even though it was 20° and snowing outside.