:: the verbal stylings of ::

what is sleep?

Mon, 04 May 2009 07:04:17 GMT

After a weekend of wacky hours and work tomorrow morning, you'd think I would be asleep by now. But of course, the Internet once again has destroyed any hopes of a decent schedule.

Amazing new site filled with endless fun:

Broken Picture Telephone

It's pretty much what the title describes: the game 'Telephone' mixed with images. One person starts a game by typing out a scenario, the next person reads that scenario and tries to draw it as accurately as possible, the next person only gets the drawing and tries to type out an accurate description, and so on. You can only participate in a game once, and when it's done, you get notified so that you can see how it turned out. You are able to both start games and join in ones that are already going (though I believe they require you to start a couple when you first sign up before you can start joining existing ones).

Anyway, visit the site, sign up, check it out, and try not to get addicted at 3AM*.

*Just a friendly suggestion.

This is the perfect example of why I read through Free For All Friday posts on ohnotheydidnt : great way to discover new parts of the Internet (much like how I found about perennial favorite Anonymous Message Server, which I will pimp 'til the cows come home).

con-glom

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 04:32:53 GMT

I haven't written in a while, not really for lack of things to say... just nothing built into the brain to direct me to LJ when thoughts arise.

I was going to post this anyway, and then as it happened LJ's suggestion for writer's block tonight was to post about an earworm you have—a song you can't get out of your head. This song has been an earworm of mine forEVER it seems, and I've never really dedicated my memory to, well, remembering it. At least not the title, artist, etc. The music itself is hard to forget.

(If you didn't know already, I have eclectic tastes that often venture into nerdy, so in a nutshell... sorry. I won't be able to provide you with the new hip-happening indie track because apparently I am stuck in the last millennium.)

Bach, Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007 - Prelude

I posted Yo-Yo Ma's version because, out of the top three on YouTube, his was by far the most emotion-filled. The other two were technically beautiful, but also played at a fairly consistent quick speed, whereas Ma manipulates the tempo much more often. The result, I think, is something with more depth.

ANYway, you might recognize this most recently from The Soloist trailer or from life in general, as it is pretty famous. But I figured I'd throw that out there for anyone trying to figure out the name of it because shit, it took me long enough!

Also earwormming me in a big way is Krishna Das' 'Mere Gurudev,' as picked up from the Mind The Gap end credits. Song with accompanying YouTube slightly-ball-trippin video can be found here!

Despite any stress accumulated during Senior Design, I have a great itch to self-publish another book. Problem is, I can't figure out what about! I've been saving bits from The Anonymous Message Server in hopes of creating a memorable collection, but the stuff is so scattered that it'd be hard to amass anything meaningful. I would write a novel if I had an idea. That's always what it comes down to: I need ideas.

In other news, Netflix is awesome (except when it sends me wrong DVDs in place of ones on my queue... but that's only happened once, much to my amusement). I've seen so much good stuff in the past few months that it would take great time to list it all out. Currently I'm into Mad Men, working on the second season (not on DVD yet, so after blowing through season one discs, I being my impatient self found other means to obtain it). Generation Kill was an A+ miniseries: it felt real and it covered a lot of perspectives on the Iraq war, plus was filmed beautifully. Probably something I'll buy when I get a good enough coupon for a box set. And I thought I would really dislike There Will Be Blood, given the subject matter and the length—I get distracted easily (em dashes are great for that [and so are parentheses!])—but it turned out to be a very fascinating film, thanks largely to DDL, Plainview, and both their respective infinite weirdnesses. Plus, when you have a brother who does Plainview impersonations on a regular basis, it's nice to see the roots of his obsession. Only downside, I thought, was the music. Holy mother, it was not good. So overdramatic at inappropriate times! I'm glad it was ineligible for an Oscar to begin with, because if it'd won (and beaten out Atonement) it would have been a travesty.

Oh, and if I've never mentioned it: anyone prone to the tl;dr should really reconsider looking at my posts. I do not 'do' succinct.

Final note: it is really hot and new best friend is my new fan (fan as in plastic cooling device, not groupie). I just realized I put the grill on crookedly, so the logo is at a 135 degree angle. I kind of like it that way, though.

wear your redemption on your sleeve!

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 08:06:54 GMT

Upon seeing examples of these shirts, I had to inspect the site to see if they're for real. Unfortunately, I think they are:

EX-Shirts

The most bothersome part, in my opinion, is not that they're completely judgmental or practically unwearable for anyone trying not to be a social outcast, but rather the fact that the capitalization of the sin is inexplicably different on a couple of shirts. Most are formatted EX-Capitalized Sin, but not EX-fornicator or EX-atheist. Does not compute! If you're going to be righteous, you should really watch your consistency.

In other news, I went to an aquarium while in Las Vegas and tried to face my fear of jellyfish by taking pretty pictures of them. It did not work.

quick fun link

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 06:10:30 GMT

This weekend has been action-packed, and it's back to work tomorrow. So sad! Good news is, I do my 5 days in the office this week and then the whole next week I get to be elsewhere. At least I have that to look forward to.

The Super Bowl was on tonight and was a fabulous game. I got pretty nervous when Warner started racking up completions and the Cardinals pulled ahead, but ultimately, I think the Steelers deserved to come out on top. What a pretty ballet-esque catch by Holmes for the winning touchdown, amirite?!

I missed the Mean Joe Coke: Polamalu Zero Remix commercial and wanted to find it tonight, and in doing so discovered that all of the Super Bowl ads are up on Hulu, available in hi-res:

http://www.hulu.com/superbowl

Particularly with this icing on the cake, I actually really enjoyed NBC's treatment. And I didn't miss that damn Fox robot at all.

dnw dnw dnw

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 08:32:45 GMT

Dear Coconut Crab,

You make me happy to not be living in the vicinity of the Indian Ocean. Stay far away from my shiny things if you ever venture to North America. Thank you.

Best regards,
Sarah

wow, seriously?

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:35:40 GMT

Take a look-see at this video and see what you think:

www.youtube.com/watch

Apparently, this is proof that all abortions are bad because of the possibility that the fetus you're carrying could change the world. Of course, the opposite argument could be made that abortion is good because of the possibility that the fetus you're carrying is the next Hitler, but I digress.

This commercial is trashy and manipulative for the following reasons:

1) Barack Obama's parents were married when they had him.
2) There is no evidence that his mother ever struggled with the decision of abortion.
3) Did I mention it's manipulative?
4) Why does a single-mom household constitute a 'broken home,' anyway?

Yes, Barack's mom chose to carry him to term... but you see that operative word there? CHOSE. She had the choice. And that's what's important. The thing that I will never understand about this so-called pro-life movement is that they have what they're fighting for already. They have the right to pop out as many babies as they want (oh hai Duggar family!). Problem is, they also seem to think that they have the moral authority to tell everyone else what to do. No one likes a know-it-all. Especially when the know-it-all isn't necessarily right.

I'm glad there's more of a movement towards pushing for abortion reduction, rather than abortion bans, but more people need to pick up on it. Maybe the Catholic church could start by waking up and realizing that people are going to have sex for pleasure and that birth control is actually your friend for preventing those gosh darn things that lead to those abortions you so despise? I dunno.

the day, it is historic!

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:48:12 GMT

Barack Obama is officially our president! Wonder how long it will take these browsers to update their spellcheck so that I don't get red squigglies every time I type his name.

www.msn.com had a ticker of comments about the Inauguration from people around the world. For all the people who seem positive in whatever respect—hopeful and excited, didn't vote for him but supportive, respectful of the historical significance--there are an awful lot of people who have terrible attitudes. Many are eager to see Obama screw up, I suppose to prove themselves right. Others are desperately 'reminding' us that Obama is just a man, not a messiah or Jesus or a savior (I swear, the people who perpetuate that aren't realizing that no one really considers him to be more than human). Others yet are depending on God to save the country, because apparently we are that bad off.

Regardless, I really don't get the idea of assuming bad things are going to happen without giving Obama a chance. If he screws up, then fine, criticize all you want. I'll be right there with you. But please, don't start off with this piss poor pessimistic attitude. It's more counterproductive than anything else. I see no reason why we shouldn't start off by laying out the situation in honest terms, setting high standards for fixing our problems, and setting out to do the best we can.

Later in the day, most of the comments centered around people sick of hearing about Obama's race. Sorry to make you uncomfortable by discussing race in public, folks, but like it or not, it's a big fat meaningful day. His being half black is a big deal—look how far we've come since the 60s! The mistake, however, is to think that he's getting all this attention solely based on his race, which some people argued in their comments. All you need is to remember Kennedy and the effect he had, whiteness and all, because people knew he was a transformational figure. The same goes for Obama.

So, let's strap in, hope for the best, and see where we go.

ETA: Hopefully this won't get removed, but the Inauguration performance by Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Anthony McGill, and Gabriela Montero is posted up on YouTube for now: www.youtube.com/watch. The piece is called Air and Simple Gifts, arranged by John Williams, based on the original by Aaron Copland. Hooo man, these musicians are incredible.

Note of the day, re: the difference between 'historic' and 'historical,' courtesy of my desktop dictionary:

In general, historic means 'notable in history,significant in history,' as in a Supreme Court decision, a battlefield, or a great discovery. Historical means 'relating to history or past events': ( :historical society;: historical documents). To write historic instead of historical may imply a greater significance than is warranted: a historical lecture may simply tell about something that happened, whereas a historic lecture would in some way change the course of human events. It would be correct to say, : Professor Suarez’s historical lecture on the Old Southwest was given at the historic mission church.

oh lj, it's been so long...

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 09:10:31 GMT

We'll see how long it lasts, but for now, I'm back on LJ. It's always nice to have a place to store thoughts.

Right now, things are quiet and my mind is fairly clear. Great feeling. Perfect for wasting hours of days off! Since I haven't got much to add at this point, I'll throw in some links to sites that I'm all about:

Fabulous celebrity gossip:

ohnotheydidnt

community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt

Hilarity of human communication:

www.passiveaggressivenotes.com

Great place to dispense wisdom, then in return receive from totally random people:

www.smalltime.com/anon.html

I'm really enamored of the Anonymous Message Server. I've been collecting everything I've received and enjoying the mixture of encouraging notes, facts, secrets, quotes, and total nonsense.

Need to make some 100x100s to get this party started! Probably should consider sleeping first, though. :)