They say it's bigger than Pluto.
Hat tip: Boing Boing.
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Friday, July 29, 2005
My First Friday Spies
It comes in bright colors, with all the sharp edges rounded off and no bits I could break off and choke on.
1. What five things should you never buy used?
Food, drinks, and drugs, obviously. People who say that used underwear, swimsuits, socks, and the like have no uses are simply insufficiently imaginative. Sure, you'd never want to use those things as intended, but who says we've got to follow the rules like that? Fourth, then, never buy used anything you could get new for free. Fifth, cursed magical artifacts. This will almost invariably shift the curse to you, the new purchaser. Not good.
2. Sony BMG just ended a payola investigation by settling with New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer. So let's engage in some reverse payola: What song or artist would you pay to never have to hear again, and how much would it be worth to you?
I would gladly exchange the change strewn across my dash (in excess of two dollars and seventeen cents!) for the right to snap in two the Bright Eyes CD my brother puts in my car stereo.
3. In honor of the new Bad News Bears: Did you ever play little league, or other organized youth sports?
I played little kid soccer like everyone else, running around, eating orange slices and drinking Capri Sun. I played little league baseball too. I mostly stood in the outfield staring at the sky and chewing absentmindedly on the leather of my glove. My parents tried to discourage this with chili powder and bitter apple spray, two tastes I came to appreciate.
4. What was your biggest fashion faux pas?
One Halloween, I went to high school dressed as a Heaven's Gate cultist. That was, in retrospect, a bit tasteless.
5. In honor of all our readers who took the Bar Exam this week: What was the hardest test you ever took?
The final exam in Philosophy 160B: Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem. This was the first class I ever took where I maxed out intellectually. I realized that no matter how much I studied or how hard I tried, I would simply never be smart enough to understand what the hell was going on in this class. I left the final an hour early because I'd run out of questions that I could understand.
1. What five things should you never buy used?
Food, drinks, and drugs, obviously. People who say that used underwear, swimsuits, socks, and the like have no uses are simply insufficiently imaginative. Sure, you'd never want to use those things as intended, but who says we've got to follow the rules like that? Fourth, then, never buy used anything you could get new for free. Fifth, cursed magical artifacts. This will almost invariably shift the curse to you, the new purchaser. Not good.
2. Sony BMG just ended a payola investigation by settling with New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer. So let's engage in some reverse payola: What song or artist would you pay to never have to hear again, and how much would it be worth to you?
I would gladly exchange the change strewn across my dash (in excess of two dollars and seventeen cents!) for the right to snap in two the Bright Eyes CD my brother puts in my car stereo.
3. In honor of the new Bad News Bears: Did you ever play little league, or other organized youth sports?
I played little kid soccer like everyone else, running around, eating orange slices and drinking Capri Sun. I played little league baseball too. I mostly stood in the outfield staring at the sky and chewing absentmindedly on the leather of my glove. My parents tried to discourage this with chili powder and bitter apple spray, two tastes I came to appreciate.
4. What was your biggest fashion faux pas?
One Halloween, I went to high school dressed as a Heaven's Gate cultist. That was, in retrospect, a bit tasteless.
5. In honor of all our readers who took the Bar Exam this week: What was the hardest test you ever took?
The final exam in Philosophy 160B: Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem. This was the first class I ever took where I maxed out intellectually. I realized that no matter how much I studied or how hard I tried, I would simply never be smart enough to understand what the hell was going on in this class. I left the final an hour early because I'd run out of questions that I could understand.
More Comicy Goodness
I have stumbled upon a new fount of wonder: A Lesson is Learned But the Damage is Irreversible.
Boing Boing
Someone in San Francisco filmed a commercial that involved launching 100,000 rubber bouncy balls down the street. Pictures here, by way of Boing Boing. This is possibly the coolest thing ever done.
It reminds me of the very end of my sophomore year. My roommates and I were packing at three in the morning when we came across an old, cheap set of billiard balls we had never opened. Naturally, we tore open the packaging and headed over to the stairwell.
We lived in a three-story building, and the stairwells were tall rectangular boxes with poured concrete stairs running up around the walls leaving a square area about six feet on a side open all the way down. Our experiments revealed that pool balls dropped form this height not only didn't break, but they bounced back up to almost the same height they were dropped from. A well-dropped ball could get several solid bounces in before it drifted into a set of stairs and began to carom wildly throughout the well. Soon we were throwing out the whole tray of balls at once, watching them fall and rise information before exploding all over the stairs in a glorious cacophony.
After a few minutes a bleary-eyed dormmate wandered out to the landing we were standing on to ask us, incredulously, whether we were throwing pool balls down the stairs. Why yes, we replied, as though this was not only self-apparent, but also perfectly normal. Shaking his head, he wandered back down the hall.
It reminds me of the very end of my sophomore year. My roommates and I were packing at three in the morning when we came across an old, cheap set of billiard balls we had never opened. Naturally, we tore open the packaging and headed over to the stairwell.
We lived in a three-story building, and the stairwells were tall rectangular boxes with poured concrete stairs running up around the walls leaving a square area about six feet on a side open all the way down. Our experiments revealed that pool balls dropped form this height not only didn't break, but they bounced back up to almost the same height they were dropped from. A well-dropped ball could get several solid bounces in before it drifted into a set of stairs and began to carom wildly throughout the well. Soon we were throwing out the whole tray of balls at once, watching them fall and rise information before exploding all over the stairs in a glorious cacophony.
After a few minutes a bleary-eyed dormmate wandered out to the landing we were standing on to ask us, incredulously, whether we were throwing pool balls down the stairs. Why yes, we replied, as though this was not only self-apparent, but also perfectly normal. Shaking his head, he wandered back down the hall.
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Outer Life
Scheherazade asks why some men refuse to dance, a subject I have touched briefly on before. I don't think my input would contribute to anyone's understanding of the phenomenon at this point. But follow the link to the blog of that first respondent, Outer Life. His work is nothing short of brilliant. No, seriously. Go read this. Right now.
Slackers Wanted
I went to my second California Club summer event yesterday. The returning students were unanimous in recommending that we "pre-Ls" not work too hard. "You're going to look around and see that everyone is killing themselves with work, and you'll think that you should kill yourself too. Don't do it!" Everyone agreed that grades didn't correlate well with effort, and they all swore they did much less work second semester. "There are only going to be like two As per class per section," advised one student, "and you won't get one unless you're really brilliant AND you work pretty much all the time." The others nodded in agreement. Just stay caught up, they told me, and study before finals and you'll be fine.
And you know what, that all sounds like good advice. I have no intention of killing myself with work. I was glad to hear people advise against it. Now, maybe that's just the kind of person my state produces, but I think I'd be sort of fine with that.
And you know what, that all sounds like good advice. I have no intention of killing myself with work. I was glad to hear people advise against it. Now, maybe that's just the kind of person my state produces, but I think I'd be sort of fine with that.
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Advice to Law School Applicants
Josh's post today reminds me of this time last year, when I was just a wide-eyed prospective applicant, scouring the internets for wisdom and advice. That's how I found all these blawgs in the first place. It seems like it would be good karma to pass on now what I learned in the process, so I'll go ahead and do that.
The June round has come and gone, so I'm going to skip writing about the LSAT. My experience was pretty unusual anyway; I was taking practice tests on my kitchen table in Berlin this time last year. My experience as a sub for Kaplan didn't teach me all that much about what most people need either, since I never saw a given set of students more than twice. Still, if you want to ask me about the LSATs for October or December, feel free to shoot me en e-mail.
I'll be back later to the specifics of writing a personal statement, and I'll go through how I wrote mine. The first thing I did, and I recommend you do the same, was to start getting down on paper as many ideas as possible. It was surprisingly difficult for me to write about myself, to describe what I would be like to another person. I always knew who I was, and never had to worry about describing me to myself. So when I had to talk in the abstract about who I was, I had no practice at it. Coming up with meaningful insights is hard.
Luckily, brainstorming can help a lot. I started out by writing, in a complete stream of consciousness style, things that I thought were true about myself. It looked something like this:
Worry later about making this into a meaningful statement. Right now the idea is just to off-load all of these thoughts about yourself onto the paper, so you can address them visually rather than from memory. If you're like me, this will already help you get a better sense of who you are than you had before. It sounds silly, but for me writing this thing was kind of a process of self-discovery.
More about that process later. Now, I have to go watch The Wedding Crashers.
The June round has come and gone, so I'm going to skip writing about the LSAT. My experience was pretty unusual anyway; I was taking practice tests on my kitchen table in Berlin this time last year. My experience as a sub for Kaplan didn't teach me all that much about what most people need either, since I never saw a given set of students more than twice. Still, if you want to ask me about the LSATs for October or December, feel free to shoot me en e-mail.
I'll be back later to the specifics of writing a personal statement, and I'll go through how I wrote mine. The first thing I did, and I recommend you do the same, was to start getting down on paper as many ideas as possible. It was surprisingly difficult for me to write about myself, to describe what I would be like to another person. I always knew who I was, and never had to worry about describing me to myself. So when I had to talk in the abstract about who I was, I had no practice at it. Coming up with meaningful insights is hard.
Luckily, brainstorming can help a lot. I started out by writing, in a complete stream of consciousness style, things that I thought were true about myself. It looked something like this:
Okay, so I like fixing things. Finding problems and fixing them. See this in CS. Like thinking in the big picture, don't like wroking out pointer details. Like finding clever solution. "it's a big hack" inelegant, but effective. Umm, what else? like to talk in section, argue debate. easily distracted, like to focus on one thing at a time ...
Worry later about making this into a meaningful statement. Right now the idea is just to off-load all of these thoughts about yourself onto the paper, so you can address them visually rather than from memory. If you're like me, this will already help you get a better sense of who you are than you had before. It sounds silly, but for me writing this thing was kind of a process of self-discovery.
More about that process later. Now, I have to go watch The Wedding Crashers.
Fantastic!
Janine at Very Unnecessary has graciously agreed to send me my her spare copy of Eddie Izzard's Glorious. For those unfamiliar with is work, Eddie is a British transvestite standup comedian, and he's absolutely hilarious. You should at least try to see his Dress to Kill. You would never have thought that riffs on imperialism, the Protestant Reformation, and squirrels could be so funny. Sharp-eyed observers may recognize him from a cameo in Ocean's Twelve, as the guy who makes that weird hologram thingy. Anyways.
I really wanted to throw an Eddie track on the tape I'm making for the Magic Cookie mix swap, but I figured that two standup tracks would be too many, and I couldn't resist opening with some Dane Cook. Don't touch me you drink!
I really wanted to throw an Eddie track on the tape I'm making for the Magic Cookie mix swap, but I figured that two standup tracks would be too many, and I couldn't resist opening with some Dane Cook. Don't touch me you drink!
Path Dependence
For you to really understand me, you first have to understand my frame of reference. I would scoff when people would tell me that a few hundred students in a class is "pretty big" at a school; I graduated from high school in a class of 647. That's normal to me. What a class of this size meant was that the TV-land dyhnamics never played out. There were always enough geeks, theater wierdos, goths, surfers, skaters, and what-have-yous that every high-school stereotype had its own clique and self-reliant subculture.
So I spent today hanging out at the beach with a bunch of firends of mine from high school, who rolled in the same Advanced Placement circles as I did. So there's six of us, strectch out in the sun and we get to talking about what people will be doing next year. One was already getting into politics, focusing on environmental issues. Three of us are starting law school in the fall, and a fourth took the test with us, but opted for banking. The last? He's doing Teach for America, but studying for the LSAT.
So I spent today hanging out at the beach with a bunch of firends of mine from high school, who rolled in the same Advanced Placement circles as I did. So there's six of us, strectch out in the sun and we get to talking about what people will be doing next year. One was already getting into politics, focusing on environmental issues. Three of us are starting law school in the fall, and a fourth took the test with us, but opted for banking. The last? He's doing Teach for America, but studying for the LSAT.
Monday, July 25, 2005
The Funny Meme
Yeah so I did the quiz too.
It seems to me that it doesn't work well to give you a point on three axes. Some of us hapen to have a comic range, able to enjoy both the subtle ironies of great literature and great honking farts. I think it would have been better if the format was more, "check all that you find funny."
| the Wit |
| CLEAN | COMPLEX | DARK You like things edgy, subtle, and smart. I guess that means you're probably an intellectual, but don't take that to mean you're pretentious. You realize 'dumb' can be witty--after all isn't that 'the Simpsons' philosophy?--but rudeness for its own sake, 'gross-out' humor and most other things found in a fraternity leave you totally flat. I guess you just have a more cerebral approach than most. You have the perfect mindset for a joke writer or staff writer. Your sense of humor takes the most effort to appreciate, but it's also the best, in my opinion. Also, you probably loved the Office. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check it out here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice/. PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Jon Stewart - Woody Allen - Ricky Gervais |
 |
My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
|
| Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid |
It seems to me that it doesn't work well to give you a point on three axes. Some of us hapen to have a comic range, able to enjoy both the subtle ironies of great literature and great honking farts. I think it would have been better if the format was more, "check all that you find funny."
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Harry Skywalker and the Half-Blood Prince
I finally broke down and read the new Potter book. My brother had just finished and it was lying around so I picked it up, resigning myself to enjoy it without the sonorous voice of Jim Dale. I'm going to try not to give anything away, but I'm still going to write about it now, and if you're concenred that I might let something slip, you can stop reading now. Josh, this means you.
I read the thing practically cover-to-cover, so clearly I thought it was gripping and exciting. But I also loved how dozens of little things were done. I love the attention to detail in the social dynamic of Harry, Ron and Hermione, and all of their petty squables. I love how Dumbledore handles it when Harry disappoints him. I love that there's good reason for why the battle goes as well as it does. I love the gimmick in the first Quiddich match, even if you see it from a mile away. I love the way Fleur is handled throughout, and especially at the end. I especially love Dubledore's talk with Harry about the special power he has, and I love the Obi-Wan Kenobi act where that kind of power shows its true strength. And of course I love the violent suddenness of the marquee death - how like the real world!
Only two small quibbles: I don't understand why the silent loner hero thing at the end is so easily accepted, and I wonder what they'll call the seventh book now that Harry's dead.
I read the thing practically cover-to-cover, so clearly I thought it was gripping and exciting. But I also loved how dozens of little things were done. I love the attention to detail in the social dynamic of Harry, Ron and Hermione, and all of their petty squables. I love how Dumbledore handles it when Harry disappoints him. I love that there's good reason for why the battle goes as well as it does. I love the gimmick in the first Quiddich match, even if you see it from a mile away. I love the way Fleur is handled throughout, and especially at the end. I especially love Dubledore's talk with Harry about the special power he has, and I love the Obi-Wan Kenobi act where that kind of power shows its true strength. And of course I love the violent suddenness of the marquee death - how like the real world!
Only two small quibbles: I don't understand why the silent loner hero thing at the end is so easily accepted, and I wonder what they'll call the seventh book now that Harry's dead.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
The Firm
So apparently David E. Kelley is making a reality TV show around courtroom performances by trial lawyers. I can't say whether or not I'll watch this. Not because I have self-important notions about how it may reflect on the legal profession, or self-righteous condescension towards reality television but because I'm just not a very reliable television viewer. I wanted to watch 24 and Alias religiously because I thought they were engaging, but I was only able to because Mike watched them too and would remind me when they were on. The Daily Show has been my favorite thing on television for over five years, but I still only catch one or two episodes a week because I always forget when it's on. This is a show that airs literally every day in the same time slot. But I still regularly miss it.
Anyway, the story about the show ends with two people who think this show is Bad For America. Quips professor of legal ethics Victor Goode, ""What's next for reality TV? Which doctor can take out a gall bladder the best?" You know what? I'd watch that.
Anyway, the story about the show ends with two people who think this show is Bad For America. Quips professor of legal ethics Victor Goode, ""What's next for reality TV? Which doctor can take out a gall bladder the best?" You know what? I'd watch that.
Monday, July 18, 2005
Wonderland
I love Las Vegas. Yes, I am easily charmed by bright shiny lights, and by places that will serve you alcohol literally at any time. But it's more than that. I love the town because it is completely shameless. There is a fake pyramid, a fake Eiffel Tower, and a fake New York skyline. There's a small handful of buildings styled after European palaces, except fifty stories tall. The Bellagio has an enormous lake in front of it, so you can only enter from the sides, a lake filled with jets to shoot the water tens of stories into the air. The strip is one long string of egregious baubles. It's all so colossally, monumentally stupid. But, and this is the key, it's also normal there. Never mind that it's a hundred and fourteen degrees outside, in the middle of absolutely nowhere, it's perfectly reasonable to put faux European capitols down in there side-by-side. They belong there. So does everyone else. High rollers that want to bet thousands of dollars on a dice roll or hand of cards next to pasty tourists in shorts too short and sandals with socks. Five-star restaurants and unkempt migrants handing out escort service playing cards. I-banking hotshots in for the night from SF and chain-smoking eighty-year-old grandmothers. It all belongs there, and when it's in Vegas, needs not apologize for itself. You get fifty-year-old men in factory-ripped jeans and shirts a size too small unbuttoned to the navel, busts "enhanced" with silicon and saline to make them perfectly spherical, taxis with custom rims, and all of it is ready to meet derision or despair with perfect nonchalance. Everything is in Vegas is stupid and crazy. But it's okay. In Vegas, stupid and crazy are just fine.
At one point there was a brief discussion about the word "egregious" and what it really meant which led to it being adopted as a synonym for awesome and the new catchphrase of the trip. "Yeah man! You just hit the hard eight! That was egregious!" I met a cool 3L, and together we decided we would do all the monosyllabic Vegas nightclubs one better by opening our own joint called "Of." I think someone stole my cell phone at one of those places. I rode with two college friends up from LA and the drive both ways flew by as we had those long and far-reaching conversations about everything that articulate TV characters have and that real people never seem to. The last night we were there we were out a club until 6:30 in the morning, and spent the whole cab ride home dazed and blinking. The driver described himself as a "ho-ologist" and spent much of the ride laying out an elaborate taxonomy of his own devising.
At one point there was a brief discussion about the word "egregious" and what it really meant which led to it being adopted as a synonym for awesome and the new catchphrase of the trip. "Yeah man! You just hit the hard eight! That was egregious!" I met a cool 3L, and together we decided we would do all the monosyllabic Vegas nightclubs one better by opening our own joint called "Of." I think someone stole my cell phone at one of those places. I rode with two college friends up from LA and the drive both ways flew by as we had those long and far-reaching conversations about everything that articulate TV characters have and that real people never seem to. The last night we were there we were out a club until 6:30 in the morning, and spent the whole cab ride home dazed and blinking. The driver described himself as a "ho-ologist" and spent much of the ride laying out an elaborate taxonomy of his own devising.
Friday, July 15, 2005
Thursday, July 14, 2005
The Last Man
My brother just got back from preview night at the Comic Con, and he brought back two amazing trades, Vertigo's The Last Man, volumes 1 and 2. The premise is that some (so far unexplained) catastrophe instantaneously kills off every mammal on Earth with a Y chromosome, except for the main character and a Friends style helped monkey he was unsuccessfully trying to train. The story stays fresh and inventive through both books, but you can tell you're into somehting good right from the first few pages. Yorrick (for that's his name), is an ameteur escape artist, and you watch him wriggle out of a straghtjacket in flat, cramped drawings, inside a shuttered apartment while he talks about agoraphobia with his girlfriend, pictured hiking through sweeping Australian vistas. You've got all your thematic elements laid out form the start, but in a way that works without being showy. I mean, there are so many layers. It's like an onion, man.
God I'm a geek.
God I'm a geek.
Limited Invulnerability
I went to the doctor today to get a new tetanus shot - apparently my old one was out of fashion. Or at least I thought I was only getting a tetanus shot. Turns out it was a setup, an ambush, and once they had me down there they decided to stick me with drugs for hepatitis A (again), meningitis (again) and the whooping cough. Newly impervious to so many different kinds of harm, I now feel the need to do somehting needlessly reckless to compensate.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Nazis In Texas
When I got back from more basketball tonight, my parents were watching a show on PBS called History Detectives. They were talking to some woman from Hearne, Texas, who thought that some land her ancestors owned housed an internment camp during World War 2. An internment camp for Germans.
This sounds crazy right? It's not. Apparently at one point there were over half a million German POWs being held on American soil. Sure enough, the government appropriated 300 acres of this woman's family's land and built a POW camp, right in the middle of Texas. You see, it turns out that there's a provision in the Geneva conventions about what kind fo climate prisonerts can be kept in. Soldiers held in Hearne, Texas had been captured while fighting in North Africa, and the Powers That Were decided Texas had the most North-Africa-Like climate of any allied territory.
Imagine being drafted into the German army, being shipped off to Africa, suffering some of the first German defeats of the war, being taken prisoner, and then being shipped off to Texas! You just have to be thinking, "Was?" Then when you get there, they're allowed to put you to work, including in agriculture, so you wind up picking cotton. They hold old photos of the prisoners doing exactly that. THat kind of culture shock has to be near-fatal.
There was also a slightly scary bit about the underground activities of former Nazi party members. They published an underground newspaper inside the prison and even built a short-wave radio they used to contact other POWs. They ran their side of the camp until they murdered an informant one night and the guards segregated the prisoners by ideology.
So I thought that was a cool story and I wanted to share it.
This sounds crazy right? It's not. Apparently at one point there were over half a million German POWs being held on American soil. Sure enough, the government appropriated 300 acres of this woman's family's land and built a POW camp, right in the middle of Texas. You see, it turns out that there's a provision in the Geneva conventions about what kind fo climate prisonerts can be kept in. Soldiers held in Hearne, Texas had been captured while fighting in North Africa, and the Powers That Were decided Texas had the most North-Africa-Like climate of any allied territory.
Imagine being drafted into the German army, being shipped off to Africa, suffering some of the first German defeats of the war, being taken prisoner, and then being shipped off to Texas! You just have to be thinking, "Was?" Then when you get there, they're allowed to put you to work, including in agriculture, so you wind up picking cotton. They hold old photos of the prisoners doing exactly that. THat kind of culture shock has to be near-fatal.
There was also a slightly scary bit about the underground activities of former Nazi party members. They published an underground newspaper inside the prison and even built a short-wave radio they used to contact other POWs. They ran their side of the camp until they murdered an informant one night and the guards segregated the prisoners by ideology.
So I thought that was a cool story and I wanted to share it.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Combat!
Bad Glacier has challenged me for rights to the Evil Twin title, to be settled by honorable combat between Giant Battle Monsters, in accordance with prophesy and ancient custom. No doubt he will be left quavering in fear when he comes to behold the monstrosity opposite him in the Arena:
If anyone else wants a piece, I'll be stomping around right here, using my powers for Awesome.
UPDATE: My [evil/goody-two-shoes] twin at Bad Glacier demonstrates great [cunning/cowardice] and, seeing that no beast of his could match T Sinister for sheer stompiness, elects to go with a nimbler and cleverer champion, some kind of rusted, rabid robot. I have been temporarily defeated, and must retreat to my [glacial fortress/secret volcano lair] in order to [recover my strength/plot and scheme], before I can hope to return and [bring him to Justice/claim what is rightfully mine].
If anyone else wants a piece, I'll be stomping around right here, using my powers for Awesome.
UPDATE: My [evil/goody-two-shoes] twin at Bad Glacier demonstrates great [cunning/cowardice] and, seeing that no beast of his could match T Sinister for sheer stompiness, elects to go with a nimbler and cleverer champion, some kind of rusted, rabid robot. I have been temporarily defeated, and must retreat to my [glacial fortress/secret volcano lair] in order to [recover my strength/plot and scheme], before I can hope to return and [bring him to Justice/claim what is rightfully mine].
Friday, July 08, 2005
Frenching Volokh
Eugene Volokh suddenly and enthusiastically gets into the kissing day spirit, if a little late. Volume to compensate for tardiness?
Just Like Old Times
I got together with three friends from high school last night, guys I know from the swim and polo teams. We played basketball at the Boys' and Girls' Club where we used to swim, and let to play some low-stakes poker. I still can't shhot worth a damn, but against a bunch of swimmers I can be an inside presence. Still have to work on finishing with my right, though.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Fellow Travelers
Found and put up links to a small host of other incoming 1L's. You can access their compelling stories and whatnot from the links at right. And if you're an incoming 1L with a blog of your own, e-mail me, or leave a comment.
Nothing Nice To Say
is a comic, mostly about the punk music scene. I've never really been sympathetic to the kind of tribal warfare that hardcore music fans get into, but there's a kind of cheery misanthropy that they pull off well there. For example, this strip warmed the black depths of my soul.
Charles Darwin Has A Posse
Head over to this page at Swarthmore and print out a sheet of stickers that look like this one:
Link via BoingBoing.
Link via BoingBoing.
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
New Copper Comic
Kazu at Bolt City puts these out once a month. There's a new one up now. The joke is a very old one, but there's some good visual humor that's well executed. My favorite bit, though, is that the hatter is right at first: Fred looks better in the blue than he would in Maroon. Oh just shut up and go read the comic.
Media Gluttony
One of my favorite things about having this place is that I can take something I've been thinking about, something I saw or read recently, and just off-load it onto the site. Once it's set down here, I don't have to think about it actively, until it comes up again. But lately, I've been building a backlog. Lazing around on my ass, but frantically fleeing boredom, I move on to the next thing before I have a moment to compose my thoughts about it. I don't want to write anything unless it looks interesting, but that means I don't write anything, and I get this kind of mental indigestion. So forgive the extended metaphor while I brain-vomit all over this page.
The War of the Worlds is creepy, especially because you never see any politicians or other figures of authority. It's all just about one guy, and it seems like he's all on his own against the invaders (and the rest of humanity). It's pretty scary.
I was originally cynical about Peter Jackson's announcement that he wanted to remake King Kong, but we saw the trailer before War and it was breathtaking.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith is thoroughly silly, but I like that sort of thing. Said one companion, "Poor Jenny Anniston never had a chance." This is true.
I've got my hands on an advance review copy of Rick Moody's (forthcoming?) The Diviners, which seemed slow and self-indulgent for the first sixty pages but suddenly reached critical mass and all of a sudden is quick and funny.
I wouldn't really recommend anyone reading Accelerando, even though it's free. It's about how the world will undergo almost unthinkably radical changes as AI and neural input technologies develop, but the universe is too damn consensual. The main characters all get out of binds by making incredibly clever legal moves, trying to trick and outsmart their enemies. It's dirty, but everyone plays by the rules. Nobody ever just flips the board over and uses force. This becomes tiresome, and doesn't sound very realistic.
I've been re-reading the Calvin and Hobbes tenth anniversay book, whic has all kinds of interesting commentary by Watterson.
And I've been listening to the Willie Nelson compilation Revolutions of Time. i like the first two discs, but the tird one with all the guests doesn't feel right.
Ah, there. I feel better now. Must learn to use drafts, pace self. This would be be valuable skill.
The War of the Worlds is creepy, especially because you never see any politicians or other figures of authority. It's all just about one guy, and it seems like he's all on his own against the invaders (and the rest of humanity). It's pretty scary.
I was originally cynical about Peter Jackson's announcement that he wanted to remake King Kong, but we saw the trailer before War and it was breathtaking.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith is thoroughly silly, but I like that sort of thing. Said one companion, "Poor Jenny Anniston never had a chance." This is true.
I've got my hands on an advance review copy of Rick Moody's (forthcoming?) The Diviners, which seemed slow and self-indulgent for the first sixty pages but suddenly reached critical mass and all of a sudden is quick and funny.
I wouldn't really recommend anyone reading Accelerando, even though it's free. It's about how the world will undergo almost unthinkably radical changes as AI and neural input technologies develop, but the universe is too damn consensual. The main characters all get out of binds by making incredibly clever legal moves, trying to trick and outsmart their enemies. It's dirty, but everyone plays by the rules. Nobody ever just flips the board over and uses force. This becomes tiresome, and doesn't sound very realistic.
I've been re-reading the Calvin and Hobbes tenth anniversay book, whic has all kinds of interesting commentary by Watterson.
And I've been listening to the Willie Nelson compilation Revolutions of Time. i like the first two discs, but the tird one with all the guests doesn't feel right.
Ah, there. I feel better now. Must learn to use drafts, pace self. This would be be valuable skill.
Saturday, July 02, 2005
How Can You Tell If You're The Evil Twin?
Bad Glacier sounds a whole lot like me. You know what they say: fools seldom differ.
Bangkok 8
I finished reading Bangkok 8 last night. Of course it was great, or it wouldn't be worth talking about. The story is two parts detective thriller and one part Buddhist magic realism. The book aggressively defies conventioanl plot dvices and morality, and if you're willing to go along for the ride it's a lot of fun. With all that messiness, I don't think I could have readit and enjoyed it a few years ago, so I'm glad it came along when it did. I remember now Erem telling me about reading House of the Spirits, "Sometimes there's some crazy shit, but that's just how they roll."
Edit: Man, I can't even spell "Bangkok" when I've got the book right in front of me.
Edit: Man, I can't even spell "Bangkok" when I've got the book right in front of me.
Friday, July 01, 2005
Jim Dale
I have a confession: I've never read a Harry Potter book. This isn't so strange in itself, because though they are engaging stories they are also targeted at a slightly younger demographic than mine. They are children's books. Which is why it's somewhat embarrassing to admit that I haven't read any of these children's books because, like an illiterate barbarian, I have listened to them on CD instead. In my defense, the recordings are top-notch, done by an actor named Jim Dale, who does voices for all the characters and everything. There's a story about him and the Potter recordings in this morning's Wall Street Journal, so that's what made me think of it. I'll probably go buy the CD's of Half-Blood Prince when they come out, too. Because I can't read.
Also, O'Connor has retired. And so it begins.
Also, O'Connor has retired. And so it begins.
Bizarre and Wonderful Law Rap
First, a taste:
All this found in a sprawling comments thread over at Unfogged. Many thanks to Scheherazade at Stay of Execution for the link.
I put you punk-ass bitches in crisis--
I'm unprecedented; fuck stare decisis
All this found in a sprawling comments thread over at Unfogged. Many thanks to Scheherazade at Stay of Execution for the link.
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