Expect the Unexpected

Driving home from work tonight I was stopped beside a mid-90s Corolla. The car was dirty and driven by what appeared to be an young twentysomething dork. Skinny, short hair, not the type that from appearance seemed unremarkable. Until he pulled ahead when the light changed and this is what was on the back of the car.

I laughed my ass off all of the way home.

I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon

It's snowing! I know that to most people that is not terribly special as it is a common occurrence, but come on, this is Texas. We get ice and sleet every now and then but snow? Two days ago I was wearing a tank top and was comfortable. Today I wake up to discover fluffy little cotton balls of snow falling outside my apartment. I tried to take some pictures but all I got was little white specks and some snow on the balcony. Which, as it had already landed, looked like ice and not snow. Disappointing.

But we finally get a day that seems like a real winter! I didn't figure that would happen for another 5 years or so from the pattern shifts. Perhaps the world is ending a little earlier than expected.

Damnit, it stopped. If the snow starts again and sticks a little it should be made into a holiday so I can make a mini snowman instead of going to work.

It's a Dumbass Kind of Day

Try naming 3 co-workers this does not describe

Baudad: n. - an idle, markedly stupid individual who believes just about anything and is a half-witted gossip

Give Him a Goddamn Seeing Eye Mini-Horse

They should have just taken his eyeballs out. Evidently he is too dumb to deserve vision.

All in the Same Show

This is why I like fashion. True, it is not exacly approriate for work tomorrow, but fantastic nonetheless.

Same as: exhibit a, exhibit b (ignore the model, she is hideous), or the simplicity of exhibit c.

This is why not. Same collection: bad exhibit z, exhibit y or exhibit x

....

So, tonight I told Adrian how I was going to die early thanks to new research showing how cynicism is linked to cardiovascular disease. And then he reminded me of how unlikely this is as it would require me to "have a heart to begin with."

I feel much better.

Oh, What a Fun Day It Would Be!!

Ilubmayob

"We will be looking at if and how we can integrate the embedded product into existing Fujitsu products, like self-checkout devices, or our handheld platform or point-of-sale terminals," says Beecher. These applications would be used for reading item-level RFID tags.

And of course, this explains the entire point of having the downstairs breakroom turned into a grocery store mock-up for the past year.

Grrrrrr

I felt this as I left IKEA after buying a replacement bulb for Adrian's glass case. An insane, unreasonable anger that has been welling up for a very long time. It likes to typically sit right below the surface, simmering for the next chance to explode. I just wish I knew the cause and the reason. An article I read listed the reason for anger as either fear, boredom of frustration ot a combionation of all three. I can reasonably say all qualify in different forms and with different values to each. Unfortunately, the values have not been fully decided.

Something needs to change, I am just unsure at this time what that is.

Sometimes People are Suprising

Why Do You Blog?

An interesting harvesting of information. If I was planning a trip to Canada in the near future I would schedule the lecture in. However I am not. There are prizes for filling it out. Help the man. Now.

Women, Know Your Limits

...via Noritha

Robot Chicken dumbness

Scarlett Johansen has a Johansen


Video taken out due to the auto-play function. And that pisses me off.

This Feeling, I Remember

'The wind was a proud being, and it was becoming irritated with whast the boy was saying. It commenced to blow harder, raising the desert sands. But finally it had to recognize that, even making its way around the world, it didn't know how to turn a man into the wind. And it knew nothing of love.
"In my travels around the world, I've often seen people speaking of love and looking towars the heavens," the wind said, furious at having to acknowledge its own limitations. "Maybe it's better to ask heaven."
"Well then, help me to do that," the boy said. "Fill this place with a sandstorm so strong that it blots out the sun. Then I can look to heaven without blinding myself."
So the wind blew with all its strength, and the sky was filled with sand. The sun was turned into a golden disk.'

--from The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo

After a bottle (!!!) of Sangre de Torres Mr. Bungle music makes perfect sense with every large or small change in music.

And, in case I ever forget it, Richard Cheese was a highlight. I own it, but nonetheless. Almost disappointed in the real U2 instead of the cheesy version.

That Is and Cannot Not Be

So Adrian finished call backs for Metamorphoses: A Play tonight. Unsure of which parts he will he playing yet, just told that he will play four. Most likely Hermes and Orpheus and a few smaller parts as well. Hopefully none of the ones that include swimming in the tank for long times. And although I would like it, also hopefully not Eros, as if he will not lounge around in a loincloth for me, than he is not allowed to do the same for the world.

I'm proud. It has been much too long since he was on stage, letting life and job get before that which made him as he is. It was time. The world needs great actors.

Truth

Because it needs to be shown

....

Sitting waiting on a help desk and listening to classical music in one ear and having Nine Inch Nails blare in the other ear from a headphone does not mix. Just an FYI.

Walmart Sells Porn

Due to an "isolated system filtering issue" Walmart has been selling different kinds of hentai on its website. Yaoi, tentacle, furry, etc managa is being sold on the website with a 90-day in-store return. So much for the standard family-friendly evil empire image Walmart normally brings to the table.

Pretty Boys in Makeup

"Mascara's recent rise, though, comes from the punk/goth revival"

Mascara for men, that is.

I am Such a Girl Sometimes

As anyone who knows me well knows, I really relish wrapping presents. Yes, I might be insane, but nothing bothers me more than giving someone a gift wrapped in some trashy paper that screams 'Happy Birthday' every few inches with pictures of balloons and stupid little animals. Almost every year around Christmas there is the journey to the Northpark Container Store (as it is freaking huge) to buy paper and ribbon. Simple patterns and rich colors will always win me over compared to traditional or easy styles. So to see all the collections from Whimsy Press makes me disgustingly happy.

But, now that I am poor, feel free to buy me some of the collections. Between the 'Oh So Current', 'Dim Sum' and 'Dude Wrap' papers and the others I am quite willing to promise to buy presents for you at some point and wrap them in this fantastic double sided paper.

Too bad the only picture large enough to show as an example is of wedding paper. There are types I like a little more, but the colors are too cute to pass up.

The News I've Been Waiting My Whole Life to Hear

"Only in America. Only in America do we have to label every vice a ‘disease.’ Only in America are all our hobbies suspiciously probed until we can figure out a way to classify them as an ‘affliction.’ Are Americans so reluctant to admit to any sort of personal responsibility or decision making capability that they can’t even enjoy a glass a wine with dinner without wondering if they should seek treatment? The whole goddamn concept of functioning alcoholism is bullshit. Functioning alcoholic equals NOT A FUCKING ALCOHOLIC."

...via Violent Acres

Breaking in to the Unknown

Below Niagra Falls is a giant hydroelectric plant. In side of the plant is a gargantuan set of tunnels that hide behind the falls, accessible only to outsiders by rappelling 10 stories into the plant, a path that is crumbling and decayed 100 years after it was laid. Here is the story of three adventurers who decided to brave the tunnels.

Also, kind of reminds me of the type of stuff Ninajlicious used to do on Infiltration.org

Who Needs a Soul?

"The Rational Response Squad is giving away 1001 DVDs of The God Who Wasn't There, the hit documentary that the Los Angeles Times calls "provocative -- to put it mildly."

There's only one catch: We want your soul.

It's simple. You record a short message damning yourself to Hell, you upload it to YouTube, and then the Rational Response Squad will send you a free The God Who Wasn't There DVD. It's that easy."

Blasphemy Challenge

The World is Full of Weirdos

The 10 Most Unusual People in the World

I think there are a few I've met that out-do these 10, just are not a publicly known.

Day's Off

So there is Wario Ware: Smooth Moves going on downstairs. Crazy fucking shit. The developers must have been on acid. It's fun and cute, awesomely crazy.

But there was another part of my day that was cold and conversational and over hours ago. There are 9 people downstairs and somehow I feel like I'm somewhere else.

I hate animals

Hypocrisy at it's Finest

Yes

"consciousness seems a little misused. it's like pimping out a space shuttle, then using it to cruise up and down the street."
--Nihil

Real Life Final Fantasy

Seriously....If you've ever played any Final Fantasy game, you need to watch this. Five minutes makes you watch the other 35. This is what happens in college when you are a dork and have too much free time. I just wish I had been a part of this.


Please...watch this. It is too great to go unloved.

Add Some Milk...

Some Crafty Guy

BUY THIS GUYS LIFE!!!!

....

Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.
-Montesquieu

We Will Rock You

Last one of the night....



I especially like the part at the end where they explode after seemingly drowning. Good job for the kid singers. Not Mercury proginy, but hell, no one will ever be.

I miss the old days

Hey, Hil, remember these days from like a million years ago? They need a recurrence. I need some thrift store shopping and hours of gabbing.

Oh, and this time your ass can drive me around now that you have a car instead of just the bike.

Imminent Disappointment

"The New York Times ran an article today on the long saga of the Atlas Shrugged movie, focusing on how “until now, at least, no one in Hollywood has figured out a formula that promises both to sell popcorn and to do justice to the original text, let alone to the philosophy that it hammers home endlessly” and the pesky (if not outright paranoid) habit of Rand and her heirs to insist on script control.

File this kind of story under “as long as they spell the names right, who cares,” which is where I expect to file a lot of the stories that come as a result of this movie."

...via Rule of Reason

Things I need to Buy

For the first time in a long time when an artist claims to create unique jewelry it's not a lie. Check out the ear brooch.

Margaux Lange's Plastic Body Series

Hey, a TV show I like! Weird!

Powers on Heroes that should never be

To Dream

What would life be like without Feminism?

All this tells me is that I would not exist. My body might still be around, but I as a person wouldn't be possible. And since I'm awesome, the world is a better place now. Go feminism.

And from my friend Rebecca: "I personally love how they manage to blame women for single-handedly making everybody obese. That's the icing on the cake"

Exploded the Fuck to Death

Thermite vs Ice Experiment. Skip ahead to about 2 minutes unless you want to here the German dude try to be cute.

I'm glad to not be wee

Why Americans are shorter than Europeans

Alternating Currency

Pretty nifty exhibition of art made from worldwide currency. Take a look.

Some of the patrons are wearing t-shirts

Lego Church by someone with too much talent and free time.

Frank Miller on 300

I've been watching every teaser and trailer and every stupid little feature that has come out on 300 since it was first announced. No, I have not read the comic. I'd like to at some point, but like everything else, it's a desire that gets thrown further and further away due to the accumulation of all the books I've bought and been given. There's always a stack to read that comes before purchasing more. My original draw to the movie was Gerard Butler after seeing him as the Phantom. I would watch anything that man has made with open welcome arms. The other major draw is all of the studying I did on the Spartans and Greeks back in the day when I wanted nothing more than to become an archaeologist and live in a tent. Those classes were like sitting down to a magical story every day. And now comes a movie based on elements of all the mythology I held onto so tightly as real. Just with a very violent heroic front. As a standard, I go out of my way to avoid war movies, whether they be based on true events or are totally fantastic. I do not enjoy war for I cannot discriminate between the massive pointlessness of death and the strategy. But this is a movie I have been waiting on for a long time. And, albeit a rather blithe interview, it is an interview nonetheless with Frank Miller, the man who made this anticipation possible. So please, read and enjoy.


Oh, and on a side note, it really sucks to be enjoying a glass of wine outside in the beautiful night air to have it come to a sudden halt due to rain and the effect it can have on a laptop.

Net Neutrality Bill

Here's the full bill being sent to Congress yet again. True AT&T has alerady put a stall on prioritizing internet usage as a requirement by the FCC for the SBC/Cingular/AT&T conglomeration but its only for two years. All the other major providers have been salivating over the idea of the bill being vetoed as they then would have the opportunity to charge variable prices with no base standard. And it would be damn nice to be able to have intenet at home without the cost of paying for a telephone that is not connected to a wall or for cable that I would never watch. Maybe if this bill is just sent back to Congress every few months they might agree to it out of annoyance.

The Bill

Lushness

This confirms it. I must be a freak.

The Ideological Animal

"...Most people are surprised to learn that there are real, stable differences in personality between conservatives and liberals—not just different views or values, but underlying differences in temperament. Psychologists John Jost of New York University, Dana Carney of Harvard, and Sam Gosling of the University of Texas have demonstrated that conservatives and liberals boast markedly different home and office decor. Liberals are messier than conservatives, their rooms have more clutter and more color, and they tend to have more travel documents, maps of other countries, and flags from around the world. Conservatives are neater, and their rooms are cleaner, better organized, more brightly lit, and more conventional. Liberals have more books, and their books cover a greater variety of topics. And that's just a start. Multiple studies find that liberals are more optimistic. Conservatives are more likely to be religious. Liberals are more likely to like classical music and jazz, conservatives, country music. Liberals are more likely to enjoy abstract art. Conservative men are more likely than liberal men to prefer conventional forms of entertainment like TV and talk radio. Liberal men like romantic comedies more than conservative men. Liberal women are more likely than conservative women to enjoy books, poetry, writing in a diary, acting, and playing musical instruments."

The full article

Catch the New Wave

November 22nd 1987, Max Headroom intercepted the video feed of WGN-TV. Here's the footage from the second interception.

...via Damn Interesting

The Feeling of Going to Work

Also, check out Gizmodo over the next few days. They've been covering CES and there's some pretty interesting gadgets and technology coming out.

Charlie the Unicorn

It is to the gay. Watch the entire thing.

The Lifer

Unique in that it does not belong to a species which congregates, or even acknowledges, one another, The Lifer is the only Hipster that remains completely ignorant of its own classification as such. While generally not Hip, not young, the species warrants inclusion due to its impressive ability to peacefully coexist in otherwise trendy terrain. Approach is unnecessary; they will initiate conversation when ready. Most species tend to be between 53 and 65 years of age, with little reported deviation.
The Life is rarely spotted outside of a drinking establishment. Interestingly, only one Lifer is alloted to each bar. They are never spotted in pairs and experts remains puzzled as to the possible existence of some Great Lifer Bar Patronage Schematic. These Hipsters possess also a chameleon like adaptability which allows them to complement the general atmosphere of their chosen environment. In the absence of a Lifer, many bars feel as incomplete as if, say, the jukebox blew a fuse. The Lifer is often resident historian of its terrain, able to recall the state of now-trendy environments during the dark agaes of pre-gentrification.
...from A Field Guide to the Urban Hipster

Links to things that shouldn't have been news

An indecisive atricle about slashes
Sharing the bathroom
The Man's Room

On the side of cool:

60 facts about David Bowie on his 60th birthday

People with Skellingtons

I am truly an utterly amazed at what some people will do to hide acne.
...via ModBlog

I like Harmonics

I swear, sometimes when everything you wanted in a night is terribly upset and ends up pretty much everything you were neither expecting, nor looking forward to at all, ends up a good night. Karaoke Revolutions: American Idol came out a few days ago. The boy bought it today since we are huge fans of all Karaoke Revolutions games to this point. But yet, seeing as how we do not actually watch tv and have never seen American Idol then it means only more songs to us. Yes, we own 1-4. Singing is fun, especially when drunk in groups. But having the unfriendly British man complain about the singing is never a fine point.

And, after kicking ass on Build Me Up, Buttercup, Heartbreaker, Crazy Little Thing Called Love and just about every 70's-80's song there is on the disc then I feel pretty much immune to anything that an over-paid snot can say against me.

Singing I can do. Normally within tune and range requirements, I can actually sing impressively (to me) well. I refuse to be modest and pretend I am nothing special. No, I could not sell albums. Mostly a choir voice with an alto range. But in short bursts, I can pull off a falsetto soprano and make it sound at least not ear-drumming bursting level pain. And the amazing part is the random selection of this album. I enjoy. Thank Jebesus for the more classic choices instead of what so-and-so recorded after their 15 minutes of win.

By the way, typing an entry after about the equivalent of 12+ shots of whisky in drinks requires a bunch of re-reading and deleting. Hmm. I need more work on that.

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs

We hit the Garden of the Gods right after sunrise in August on our way to Seattle. Here's one of the hundreds of photos taken that morning.

Statistics Bent to Will

As the youngest of three daughters of parents who are around the age of 60, finding out that my father is 60 % more likely to develop prostate cancer then men who have sons causes a bit of concern. My mother already struggles with COPD and the idea of my father getting prostate cancer is rather frightening.

On a completely different note, if I had seen this in a bathroom in Betheseda, MD it would make me smile.

...via Ironic Sans

Fortune-telling

I feel sorry for people who don’t drink or do drugs. Because someday they’re going to be in a hospital bed, dying, and they won’t know why.
--Redd Foxx

Especially Good for Firefox Users

Unknown Google Applications

The Creation of Patience

Art by Peter Callesen

mmm

I have finally found a red wine I can actually drink that is neither too tannic or expensive. I am in love. Der Gottseibeiuns would be proud.

The Introduction

For Christmas I received a shiny new iBook from the boyfriend. Well, used, but shiny and new to me. Around this time I was also toying with the idea of starting a new blog and abandoning the old as preposterous and adolescent. The mobility has thus pushed me into creating this and starting all fresh. Right around the time of New Years but really due to the formation of a new friendship that has gotten me started thinking about the point of stability for the reason of in my life. And when better to form a new outlet for stupidity and randomness then after quite a few glasses of wine and hours of conversation?

So here begins. Two days in, a few posts, and a voracious (and obsessive compulsive) appetite to constantly post new stories, links, pictures, videos and even perhaps the occasional insight.

To the future, as little or much as it may be.

This is John Galt Speaking

"Morality, to you, is a phantom scarecrow made of duty, of boredom, of punishment, of pain, a cross-breed between the first school-teacher of your past and the tax collector of your present, a scarecrow standing in a barren field, waving a stick to chase away your pleasures--and pleasure, to you, is a liquor-soggy brain, a mindless slut, the stupor of a moron who stakes cash on some animal's race, since pleasure cannot be moral.
"If you identify your actual belief, you will find a triple damnation--of yourself, of life, of virtue--in the grotesque conclusion you have reached: you believe that morality is a necessary evil."

-Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Queen is the King

Queen was just named the best British band of all time. This a month after Brian May and Roger Taylor announced they are joining with Paul Rogers to record the first Queen album in over 15 years.

I am just now left wondering whether the vote was to try to convince the trio to pick another band name/not record and revel in the glory days or if this is the greatest news ever. Perhaps it is actually something very akin to when Roger Waters released the opera Ca Ira; unexpected and artistically genius.

Things Everyone Should Know

I especially liked #85: On the intimacy scale, sharing a quiet drink is between a handshake and a kiss.

I've been there. And it's been nice.

Short on time, too much information

Apple Myths 2006
Anti HIV Condoms
Darwin Galaxy
High tech watches you can't buy