More compatibility test results

More results from the AccordionGuy compatibility test from my friends:

Science fiction author, OpenCola founder, BoingBoing editor and EFF Outreach coordinator (and in the future, audio-animatronic attraction at Disneyland): that’s my friend Cory Doctorow. One of my fondest memories of my days in California was the time when he and I went to Disneyland. He walked around the place as if he were Walt himself, chatting up the castmembers and reporting attractions that weren’t working properly.

Cory rated as 68% similar and 69% complementary.

Not even the power of the accordion can protect you from girl trouble, and for that, my friend Adina Goldman has always lent a sympathetic ear and a relevant saucy anecdote.

Adina rated as 75% similar and 73% complementary.

In the parallel universe where my life actually just a TV show, Will McLean is the popular new character. We met at Kick Ass Karaoke, and you’ll often find us on Queen Street, either busking or looking for kicks.

Will rated as 72% similar and 73% complementary.

Here’s Cass Mittlestead, the world’s cutest Johnny Cash impersonator, whom I also met at Kick Ass Karaoke.

Cass rated as 78% similar and 90% complementary.

If there’s debauchery to be had, “Too-tall” Tina Gravelson will be there will bells on. And 8″ platform boots, too! Tina wins the “Most Similar to Me” contest. The only way we differ is that I look even better than she does in fishnet stockings.

Tina rated as 91% similar and 78% complementary.

(In The Happiest Geek on Earth):

Loads-o-stuff

Here are the last few postings from my other blog:

Armed and Dangerous

Google programming contest winner announced

A Python poster for your Saturday amusement

Lisp, lemonade and love

Unholy alliance

Blond again

With the return of the summer comes the return of the return of hair colour tomfoolery. Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced my camera — I’ll bet I left it at my parents’ house — so I have provided the photo above, which is a reasonable approximation of what I’ll look like for the next few months.

Normally, going blond is something that happens without incident. This time, however, I think my hairstylist Roxy got a bit too liberal with the peroxide, which has left my scalp a little sore for a day or so. Being a guy, I machoed my way through the pain during the bleaching, only to dicover later that I’d earned a small Mikhail Gorbachev-like burn at my hairline, right where I part my hair. Thankfully it’s small, noticeable only if you really look closely and already fading. I must have a word with Roxy when I see her next.

I can still take comfort in the fact that:

• On the scale of disastrous results of male endurance rituals, it’s pretty minor.
• I look mahhhh-velous.

Compatibility test result #2

Super-sexy Brit chick, Queen of the Inappropriately Funny Adventure (and the person I know who’s most likely to end up as a character on Bobbins) Helen Waters submitted her results for the compatibility test:

you are 89% similar

you are 77% complimentary

Helen writes:

Wow, I’m a more likely mate than George, and more likely to sleep with you too!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Sweet Lord Jesus, for answering my most fervent prayer.

Soccer: a bridge to other cultures

Stavros the Wonder Chicken, a Canadian expat living in Korea, has been doing the occasional bit of what’s been happening with the World Cup off the soccer field in his blog, EmptyBottle.org. In his latest posting, he has this photo of a soccer player doing one of those second-grade-kid-who’s-never-been-anywehere imitations of his hostesses’ eyes:

His hostesses should’ve countered with Brazilian stereotypes: they could’ve had a cab driver hold him for ransom, or maybe they could’ve subjected him to a rabid monkey attack.

Gun-toting Catholic girls? Count me in!

Apparently, women and girls from Mafia families are helping out more and more with the Family Business. We’re talking well-dressed black-skirted women with a taste for blood. Being Italian, I’m sure they dig guys with accordions (especially since I play a mean Speak Softly Love, a.k.a. The Theme from The Godfather).

Or, given that neither of us can resist a good Mafia movie, this could be the germ for that sitcom George and I have been threatening to write. Whaddaya think, George — Gilmore Girls meets The Sopranos? Bianca the Slackjawed-fucking-rat Slayer? Work with me, paysan.

They “Look Asian, think Spanish, act American“. They’re called “flexible, industrious, and frequently skilled”. They’re long distance commuters, travelling thousands of miles away from home and sent back a total of US$6 billion last year. They’re OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers — also called OCWs, Overseas Contract Workers, back home). As this Wired article, One Nation, Overseas puts it:

…the Philippines has discovered the future of work. At any given time, about 10 percent of the country’s 76.5 million population is hard at work – outside the country. During 2001, more than 800,000 people headed out on a commute that makes Rye-Grand Central seem like a milk run to the corner store. They went to Italy, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Singapore, and Uzbekistan. They went to Mongolia and Equatorial Guinea. Unlike Mexicans, who flock primarily to the United States, Filipinos traveled to 162 nations in all. Unlike Indians, who fill mostly tech and medical positions, Filipinos toil as domestic helpers, engineers, nurses, bricklayers, teachers, farmers, seafarers, stenographers, hairdressers, crane operators, cooks, and entertainers.

Using stronger foreign economies to help sustain their familes and technologies such as SMS and instant messaging to stay in touch with loved ones, OFWs make for a significant portion of the Philippines’ GDP. The price they often pay is terrible — between mistreatment by employers (especially in Singapore and the Gulf States) as well as long-term separation from family (especially rough on Filipinos, whom Neal Stephenson observed in Cryptonomicon as “incredibly family-oriented. They make Jews look like a bunch of alienated loners.”)

Check it out.