humor – Incorrigible Imaginings

I am the Very Model of a Modern Unitarian

Published by Alan Alpert on 2019-03-14

I recently had reason to extend these lyrics, based off the two verses by Christopher Gist Raible, and sung to the tune of “I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General” by Sir Arthur Sullivan.

I have followed Christopher’s lead in just saying “Unitarian”, as “Unitarian Univeralist” is not just a mouthful; it’s impossible to rhyme! But this really is the UU version.

Note that the third verse has a much more subdued musical accompaniment, as in the original third verse the Major General was confronting his lack of any skills actually relevant to being a general. For the UU lyrics I attempted something similar with confronting the hard truths about actually living the UU values. But there was still time for a cheap laugh or two after that.

Pun Interlude

Published by Alan Alpert on 2018-09-09

Since my usual D&D group can’t play while I’m travelling, here’s a D&D themed pun interlude to tide them over.

Holiday Research 2

Published by Alan Alpert on 2017-11-23

The holiday season is well know as a time for cashing in on crappy sequels. I did this one mid November, but pegged the publish date to the holiday in question. Just in case this cheap attempt at wordplay comedy is too subtle for some.

Holiday Research

Published by Alan Alpert on 2017-01-04

Here’s one I wrote over the holidays just recently. In the best traditions of online comedy, I think there’s something here to offend everyone! But if I said who would be most the offended, then I’d ruin the surprise.

Peter Parsec

Published by Alan Alpert on 2016-01-01

The last few stories I wrote were a little downcast. Here’s a quick space comic-opera to restore balance. At least the Portal 2 space-core should love this one…

Heroes of the Storm – Dragon Shire Origin Story

Published by Alan Alpert on 2015-04-05

At the start of this year I was really enjoying Heroes of the Storm, a new DotA-clone by Blizzard Entertainment. I was even going to write a review before the beta came out, but then the beta re-worked my favorite hero and I lost interest (even though he was too powerful, so he deserved it). Before I started drafting the review though, I wrote some HotS fan-fic on a flight somewhere. Mostly because of the challenge, this isn’t a deep and lore-driven world like the three it’s based on. But I overcame that, to write this backstory for the map “Dragon Shire”.

The Qt/QML User Story Redux

Published by Alan Alpert on 2013-06-22

A while ago I posted one version of a QML user story. But that term is quite vague, and so here’s the other ‘user story’ which came to mind. Since it uses APIs new in 5.1, it was delayed to allow those APIs to stabilize.

A Straw-Woman Argument

Published by Alan Alpert on 2012-10-28

I strongly support gender equality, but it bugs me that sometimes modern gender equality is mis-interpreted as pro-woman. Political correctness also bugs me, particularly when people try to rewrite the English language because some words or expressions might be deemed offensive. Leaving aside for a moment that being offended is a state of mind in the reader, a language is not suitably expressive if it cannot provoke an emotional response (including offending people). I thus will try to provoke an emotional response with this short speech, modeled as being by and for some of the people who bug me in a non-insectoid way.

The Corporate Drone

Published by Alan Alpert on 2012-09-27

I just went and did a bit of interviewing in the US, the time on plane flights was enough for me to write a short story on the subject. I had been researching the issue for some time as well in preparation, which ended up more useful for humor writing than for actual interviewing. Thus it’s based on the stereotypes, not on my actual experiences (except that the Zerg were on my mind after one particular interview 😉 ).

Office-chair Experiments

Published by Alan Alpert on 2012-08-08

I’m a big fan of self-improvement, and one aspect of that is to analyze re-evaluate your routines. If there’s a task or situation you encounter every single day, the cumulative benefits of doing it better is hard to overestimate. So one thing I have been experimenting with for a while is how to sit at my desk.

Tag: humor