Understanding Engineers.

Understanding Engineers:
One (my favourite)
Two engineering students were biking across a university campus when one said, "Where did you get such a great bike?
The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking along yesterday, minding my own business, when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike, threw it to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, "Take what you want." The first engineer nodded approvingly and said, "Good choice; the clothes probably wouldn't have fit you anyway."
Two
To the optimist, the glass is half-full. To the pessimist, the glass is half-empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
Three
A priest, a doctor, and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed, "What's with those guys? We must have been waiting for fifteen minutes!" The doctor chimed in, "I don't know, but I've never seen such inept golf!" The priest said, "Here comes the green-keeper. Let's have a word with him." He said, "Hello George, what's wrong with that group ahead of us? They're rather slow, aren't they?" The green-keeper replied, "Oh, yes. That's a group of blind firemen. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime." The group fell silent for a moment. The priest said, "That's so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight." The doctor said, "Good idea. I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist colleague and see if there's anything he can do for them." The engineer said, "Why can't they play at night?"
Four
What is the difference between mechanical engineers and civil engineers?
Mechanical engineers build weapons. Civil engineers build targets.
Five
The graduate with a science degree asks, "Why does it work?"
The graduate with an engineering degree asks, "How does it work?"
The graduate with an accounting degree asks, "How much will it cost?"
The graduate with an arts degree asks, "Do you want fries with that?"
Six
Three engineering students were gathered together discussing who must have designed the human body.
One said, "It was a mechanical engineer. Just look at all the joints."
Another said, "No, it was an electrical engineer. The nervous system has many thousands of electrical connections."
The last one said, "No, actually it had to have been a civil engineer. Who else would run a toxic waste pipeline through a recreational area?"
Seven
Normal people believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.

The good ship Venus

McLean and McLean, the North Atlantic Squadron

Its all in fun...and perfect for a festive Saturday night!

Old soldiers never die....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjxsFH7qngQ&feature=related

Not quite sure what to make of this video.  Makes me think I would like to try to find some of the wine they make there.


On a less serious note,  here is some footage of the toughest, most dangerous special forces organization in the world.  Makes the British SAS and the Legion Estrangaire seem like boy scouts!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50f6HoZb5qM&feature=related

More Fan Expo pictures

The batmobile was there.  As far as I can see, Adam West never even looked at it, though of course, he was there along with Burt Ward.

Lovely. 

A couple of random chicks in chain mail checking out my swords.

Girls just having fun. 

Darth Vader posing with a lego replica of himself.

And Jeff posing with a lego Bobba Fett.  They must have glued those arms together! 

Pregnant at Fan Expo

Holly of course, had her baby on Sunday right here in Ottawa, but she told me that she was seriously thinking of going to Fan Expo, perhaps dressed as the "death star". 

(Okay, its the inevitable result of long cold nights on Tatooine and a squadron of storm troopers.)

And it looks like Supergirl found some trouble.  So Mandrake the Magician told you it was his magic wand did he?  Right.

Fan Expo Pictures

Lots and lots of tattoos.  Most are fairly standard, but these sort of stood out.  The sleeping fairy above and the noose in the attic window below.  Hmmm.  Is the fairy really sleeping, or is she, like tinkerbelle, dying like the leaves in the fall?  Click on the image to enlarge, as usual.

It seems a girl thing to get really interesting tattoos.  Guys don't have a fashion sense I guess.  Case in point is below. 

Not quite sure what they are doing here.  But it looks nice. The pretty corset and lace skirt don't really go with the cloche hat and brolly, but hey, one could imagine them stepping out of a Mike Hammer murder mystery!

Had to look twice to be sure this fella really was in a costume.  Come to think of it, I'm still not sure.  Tell me what YOU think!

Mind you, I was there pushing my sexy armour.  Fortunately, I had no trouble finding sexy ladies to pose for me.  (funny that!)

Doesn't she look demure with that knife in her hand!

Tess looks good in chain mail.  That was my top, but her belt-bottom was all hers. 

And those who haunt my archives remember seeing the lovely Ashley some years ago at the Renaissance Festival. 

More later...grin!

Let there be cake

Brenda made this cake.  Well, that and she decorated the cake.  Those are her roses.
Now THATS artistic.  Believe it or not, this is her first time doing this!

I am so proud of her!

She used "butter cream icing" instead of the usual dead dull stuff they usually use on cakes.  So these ended up being remarkably tasty as well as looking a treat!
       We had been watching episodes of "Cake Boss" and noted that Buddy uses Butter Cream icing almost exclusively.  So nobody can tell me that its not as good.  And as you can see in the above pictures (when you enlarge them) that BC is a little too soft in most cases, not as crisp as the no-taste stuff the cake decorating books recommend.  Perhaps a chilled room would be a good idea.  I notice that Buddy puts his cakes in the refrigerator a lot, even when he is working on them.

(I don't know what it is about professional bakeries...they no longer seem to put out tasty treats any more...they are all about pectin glaze, shortening icing, and overly sweet stuff.  And they wonder why their clientelle are falling off.)




        

Fan Expo

The Fan Expo comes around every year.  We did well this year...darn near sold out of stock.  Thats a good thing.  There were a lot of problems....the day was stinking hot, and the lineups were sometimes very very long.  Even the convention centre had problems....the security personnel limited every venue at one time or another simply because of the huge number of people exceeded fire marshal requirements.  (The Fan Expo web site has posted an apology).  On Saturday morning, the lineup stretched from the CN Tower  to Union Station four deep.   The lineup to see Summer Glau never got less than 100, and you had to buy tickets to get into line for Bill Shatner.  I didn't see very many short lineups for autographs....last year there were times when some of the celebrities were twiddling their thumbs, but not this year.
     The guests of honour were many and varied...from William Shatner to Ernest Borgnine.

 

Doug Sneyd was there again this year.  He was one of the old guard at Playboy magazine...(if you look closely at the enlarged picture above, you can see some of his work.. his remarkable and easily recognized  pencil art decorated the magazine from 1962 until the present.  Above, I am posing with Doug and Tess.

This is a better picture of Tess Jewell, the brilliant, and remarkably decorative lass who spent the weekend showing off my beautiful armour.  I did not succeed in getting any firm commissions, but the year is young....she handed out more than five hundred business cards to interested Zena wannabes.

I'll post some more pictures when I get my camera charged....grin!