Yet Again Still More Random Links
This counts as blog content. Shut up. It does.
Star Wars Valentines: These range from the kind of lame to the hysterically funny to the just plain disturbing.
Seremuppety: Serenity enacted by the Muppets. I found Fozzie's Wash especially amusing.
JesusPets: A call for heathen animal lovers to volunteer to care for pets left behind by Christians after the Rapture. (Yes, it's a joke. At least, I'm pretty sure it's a joke. But it's a damned funny one. Uh, no pun intended.)
The Elements of Spam: Learn to spam grammatically and with style!
Monday, February 13, 2006
Sunday, February 12, 2006
The Cat Came Back
For everyone who expressed disappointment that the Garfield link I posted a couple of days ago was down: it's working now.
For everyone who expressed disappointment that the Garfield link I posted a couple of days ago was down: it's working now.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
I Love That Movie.
 | You scored as Forbidden Planet. You are the film score to Forbidden Planet. You accompany the story of the human discovery of the ruins of a powerful alien race that lost control of its own evil desires: the monsters from the id! The composers of your "electronic tonalities" never received proper credit for their innovative work.
What Sci-Fi Film Score Are You? created with QuizFarm.com |
Friday, February 10, 2006
Yes, It's the Lazy Person's Way of Blogging
Still more random interesting links, stumbled across here and there on the net:
American Book Review's "100 Best First Lines from Novels": I don't agree with all these choices, by a long shot, but there certainly are some intriguing opening lines here.
Brokeback to the Future: I will never, ever look at the Back to the Future movies in quite the same way again.
Ask a Stupid Question: You think you have to deal with idiots in your job? Try manning the phones in an emergency room.
Romance Covers Gone Wild!: Much amusing mocking of romance novel covers. I might have linked to this site before; I can't quite remember if it was this one or a similar one. In any case, there's certainly a lot of stuff there I know I hadn't seen before.
Garfield, Minus the Talking Animals: Take the animal dialog out of a "Garfield" comic strip, and, bizarrely, it mutates into something sad, profound, and not entirely without artistic merit.
Doctor Who Fan Podcasts from Tachyon TV: I haven't listened to the "Five Doctors" one yet, but I did download and play the "Christmas Invasion" commentary, in which the episode is heartily mocked in ways I alternately found mildly annoying and hysterically funny.
Still more random interesting links, stumbled across here and there on the net:
American Book Review's "100 Best First Lines from Novels": I don't agree with all these choices, by a long shot, but there certainly are some intriguing opening lines here.
Brokeback to the Future: I will never, ever look at the Back to the Future movies in quite the same way again.
Ask a Stupid Question: You think you have to deal with idiots in your job? Try manning the phones in an emergency room.
Romance Covers Gone Wild!: Much amusing mocking of romance novel covers. I might have linked to this site before; I can't quite remember if it was this one or a similar one. In any case, there's certainly a lot of stuff there I know I hadn't seen before.
Garfield, Minus the Talking Animals: Take the animal dialog out of a "Garfield" comic strip, and, bizarrely, it mutates into something sad, profound, and not entirely without artistic merit.
Doctor Who Fan Podcasts from Tachyon TV: I haven't listened to the "Five Doctors" one yet, but I did download and play the "Christmas Invasion" commentary, in which the episode is heartily mocked in ways I alternately found mildly annoying and hysterically funny.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
A Family Matter
So, as previously mentioned, I've been watching The Sopranos, and it occurs to me to wonder if perhaps someone out there can answer a question that has been driving me absolutely crazy about this show. Namely: How is Tony related to Christopher? I know Chris is his nephew, but he certainly doesn't seem to be either of his sisters' kid, and I can't remember that Carmella even has any siblings. Anyone? I could try googling, but a) I'm not entirely sure what to search for, and b) I'm only in the middle of season 3, and would prefer to avoid stumbling across spoilers by accident. But, honestly, this is the sort of thing that I lie awake at night and wonder about.
So, as previously mentioned, I've been watching The Sopranos, and it occurs to me to wonder if perhaps someone out there can answer a question that has been driving me absolutely crazy about this show. Namely: How is Tony related to Christopher? I know Chris is his nephew, but he certainly doesn't seem to be either of his sisters' kid, and I can't remember that Carmella even has any siblings. Anyone? I could try googling, but a) I'm not entirely sure what to search for, and b) I'm only in the middle of season 3, and would prefer to avoid stumbling across spoilers by accident. But, honestly, this is the sort of thing that I lie awake at night and wonder about.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Monthly Update Meme
Because I know you're all just dying to know this stuff...
Current clothes: Blue hoodie with the Blogger logo on the front. Black t-shirt from Mt. St. Helens under it. Tan jeans. Black belt. White crew socks. Black sneakers.
Current mood: Pretty good. The upside to working a bunch of overtime (aside from the money, of course) is that it makes you appreciate every moment of free time. Just not being at work is enough to make me feel happy right now.
Current music: Pachelbel's Greatest Hit: Canon in D, my guaranteed never-fail Serious Stress Reduction Music. I played it at work earlier, then when it finished, I turned the volume up and started playing it again. Which tells you something about what work was like today.
Current annoyance: I still have a big old icky snot-glob hanging out in the back of my throat. And, yes, that's disgusting to hear about, I know, but, trust me, it's even more disgusting to have.
Current thing: Waiting for this week to be over so I can be off the day shift.
Current desktop picture: This Astronomy Picture of the Day photo of Earthrise on the moon.
Current song in head: "Sometimes a Fantasy" by Billy Joel. Who I am kind of starting to wish would keep his fantasies to himself.
Current book: Doctor Who and the Claws of Axos. Not one of the show's most interesting or exciting (or, for that matter, scientifically plausible) episodes. But the writing, at least in places, actually seems rather better than Terrance Dicks' usual for these novelizations. There are some nice moments of humor.
Current video in player: Nothing since the last episode of Battlestar Galactica.
Current DVD in player: Disc 1 of Season 3 of The Sopranos.
Current refreshment: Moroccan Mint tea. That's mint-flavored green tea. Excellent stuff.
Current worry: The cracks in my walls are expanding again. I suspect part of the reason is that it's been dry as a bone here for months, which leads to soil shrinkage. But I don't like it at all, and I'm particularly worried about damage to my new stucco.
Current thought: It's nice to have a cat on my lap who actually sits still, rather than jumping up and down onto my keyboard and bouncing all over the place. Good Nova! Of course, being that Vir isn't in the room, I'm now wondering what trouble he's getting into elsewhere in the house...
Because I know you're all just dying to know this stuff...
Current clothes: Blue hoodie with the Blogger logo on the front. Black t-shirt from Mt. St. Helens under it. Tan jeans. Black belt. White crew socks. Black sneakers.
Current mood: Pretty good. The upside to working a bunch of overtime (aside from the money, of course) is that it makes you appreciate every moment of free time. Just not being at work is enough to make me feel happy right now.
Current music: Pachelbel's Greatest Hit: Canon in D, my guaranteed never-fail Serious Stress Reduction Music. I played it at work earlier, then when it finished, I turned the volume up and started playing it again. Which tells you something about what work was like today.
Current annoyance: I still have a big old icky snot-glob hanging out in the back of my throat. And, yes, that's disgusting to hear about, I know, but, trust me, it's even more disgusting to have.
Current thing: Waiting for this week to be over so I can be off the day shift.
Current desktop picture: This Astronomy Picture of the Day photo of Earthrise on the moon.
Current song in head: "Sometimes a Fantasy" by Billy Joel. Who I am kind of starting to wish would keep his fantasies to himself.
Current book: Doctor Who and the Claws of Axos. Not one of the show's most interesting or exciting (or, for that matter, scientifically plausible) episodes. But the writing, at least in places, actually seems rather better than Terrance Dicks' usual for these novelizations. There are some nice moments of humor.
Current video in player: Nothing since the last episode of Battlestar Galactica.
Current DVD in player: Disc 1 of Season 3 of The Sopranos.
Current refreshment: Moroccan Mint tea. That's mint-flavored green tea. Excellent stuff.
Current worry: The cracks in my walls are expanding again. I suspect part of the reason is that it's been dry as a bone here for months, which leads to soil shrinkage. But I don't like it at all, and I'm particularly worried about damage to my new stucco.
Current thought: It's nice to have a cat on my lap who actually sits still, rather than jumping up and down onto my keyboard and bouncing all over the place. Good Nova! Of course, being that Vir isn't in the room, I'm now wondering what trouble he's getting into elsewhere in the house...
Monday, February 06, 2006
Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me
Oh, wow. Insomnia. I haven't had that since I first moved in here and kept waking up at 4 AM to hammer shelves together.
I don't actually think I slept last night at all, but, then, I read a study once that said people who lie in bed all night and get up convinced they never slept often did sleep for many hours, and the time between when I looked at the clock at 3:30 and again at 6:00 did seem to pass surprisingly fast, so maybe I'm better off than I think. Still, I'm pretty sure that if I ever wake up enough to tell, I'm going to feel like crap. And not just from lack of sleep, either: I seem to have been (mostly successfully) fighting off some kind of infection for the last week, but it's made my tonsils feel a bit tender and left big gobs of viscous nastiness sitting in the back of my throat. I finally gave in and took a decongestant last night, and while the throat-glob appears to have decreased in size, the inside of my mouth now feels like... Hell, I don't know. Whatever your mouth feels like when it's all dried out. I'm all sleep-deprived; my brain can't handle metaphors.
Bah. I'd think about calling in sick, if it wouldn't make all that overtime I worked this weekend to help us get caught up kind of pointless.
Oh, wow. Insomnia. I haven't had that since I first moved in here and kept waking up at 4 AM to hammer shelves together.
I don't actually think I slept last night at all, but, then, I read a study once that said people who lie in bed all night and get up convinced they never slept often did sleep for many hours, and the time between when I looked at the clock at 3:30 and again at 6:00 did seem to pass surprisingly fast, so maybe I'm better off than I think. Still, I'm pretty sure that if I ever wake up enough to tell, I'm going to feel like crap. And not just from lack of sleep, either: I seem to have been (mostly successfully) fighting off some kind of infection for the last week, but it's made my tonsils feel a bit tender and left big gobs of viscous nastiness sitting in the back of my throat. I finally gave in and took a decongestant last night, and while the throat-glob appears to have decreased in size, the inside of my mouth now feels like... Hell, I don't know. Whatever your mouth feels like when it's all dried out. I'm all sleep-deprived; my brain can't handle metaphors.
Bah. I'd think about calling in sick, if it wouldn't make all that overtime I worked this weekend to help us get caught up kind of pointless.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Baby Boom
I'd like to offer hearty congratulations to my blogger buddy Peter Chattaway and his wife, Deanna, on the birth of beautiful twin babies! Even if it is extremely freaky to me, for some reason, that so many people I know are having babies. (A cousin of mine gave birth last month, f'rinstance, and a friend of mine should be due pretty soon now.) I think part of it is that it makes me feel old... Surely people my age (or younger!) aren't ready to be the generation of parents? Never mind the fact that when my mother was my age, I was nearly ready to start high school. And part of it is that babies just seem to me like deeply strange things for anybody to want. Although I can't help but look at Peter's pictures of tiny beautiful helpless things and sort of see the attraction. Still, getting up for 2 AM feedings with the kitten was more than enough for me...
I'd like to offer hearty congratulations to my blogger buddy Peter Chattaway and his wife, Deanna, on the birth of beautiful twin babies! Even if it is extremely freaky to me, for some reason, that so many people I know are having babies. (A cousin of mine gave birth last month, f'rinstance, and a friend of mine should be due pretty soon now.) I think part of it is that it makes me feel old... Surely people my age (or younger!) aren't ready to be the generation of parents? Never mind the fact that when my mother was my age, I was nearly ready to start high school. And part of it is that babies just seem to me like deeply strange things for anybody to want. Although I can't help but look at Peter's pictures of tiny beautiful helpless things and sort of see the attraction. Still, getting up for 2 AM feedings with the kitten was more than enough for me...
Whoo-Who!
I just pre-ordered the new Doctor Who boxed set from Canada. Because I've waited long enough, damn it!
Of course, for those of my fellow Americans who are, um, a bit less obsessive than I am, I remind you that you'll be able to catch the show when it comes to the Sci Fi Channel in March. Which, you know, you should absolutely do.
I just pre-ordered the new Doctor Who boxed set from Canada. Because I've waited long enough, damn it!
Of course, for those of my fellow Americans who are, um, a bit less obsessive than I am, I remind you that you'll be able to catch the show when it comes to the Sci Fi Channel in March. Which, you know, you should absolutely do.
Friday, February 03, 2006
Because I Can Never Resist a Music Meme...
Open ITunes, or whatever you happen to use, and answer the following questions:
Number of songs: 5126
Sort by song:
First Song: "'Cause Cheap Is How I Feel" by the Cowboy Junkies.
Last Song: "Zorak's Horrorscopes: Scorpio" from Space Ghost's Surf & Turf. Which isn't technically a song, so if we're rejecting it on those grounds, the last song is "Zorak's Blues," in which the bug actually sings. Sort of.
Sort by time:
Shortest song: Well, the shortest track is called "Mutant Enemy Closing" (aka "Grr, Aargh!") and is all of three seconds long. The shortest actual song (which I had to skip through a whole bunch of dialog snippets and stuff to find) appears to be "Miracle Cure" by The Who, from Tommy, clocking in at 12 whole seconds.
Longest song: The longest track is "The Original, Uncut Dramatization of The War of the Worlds." The longest musical track is "La Zebramix Special John Lennon," an interesting remix-mashup thing featuring a bunch of Lennon tunes. It's a smidge over 29 minutes long. If we disqualify that as counting as more than one "song," then the crown is instead held by Pink Floyd's "Echoes," at 23:28.
Sort by artist:
First Artist: The 5.6.7.8's ("Whoo Hoo")
Last Artist: Zolar X ("Silver Shapes") (That's ignoring the tracks that don't have an artist listed.)
Sort by album:
First Album: 20 Years of Jethro Tull
Last Album: Zooropa by U2. Again, ignoring the tracks with no album title listed.
Top Five Most Played Songs: Well, here they are, but bear in mind that I've only had the iPod for a few weeks so, statistically, these mean nothing:
1) "Clocks" by Coldplay
2) "Cartoon Heroes" by Aqua
3) "eBay" by Weird Al Yankovic
4) "Woke Up This Morning (Chosen One Remix)" by Alabama 3
5) "Time" by the Alan Parsons Project
Though, actually, only the first three have been played more than twice.
Search:
"Sex": How many songs come up? Only two, which kind of surprises me. "All He Wants Is Sex" from one of the Lexx soundtracks, and "Sex Farm" by Spinal Tap.
"Death": How Many Songs come up? Six.
"Love": How many songs come up? Two hundred and thirty-two! Wow, you'd think that was a popular emotion or something.
"You": How many songs come up? 372. Of course, that includes "your" and "you're" and "yourself" as well. Also "youth," "young" and other such things. If there's a way to search iTunes for "you" as a standalone word, I don't know what it is.
Open ITunes, or whatever you happen to use, and answer the following questions:
Number of songs: 5126
Sort by song:
First Song: "'Cause Cheap Is How I Feel" by the Cowboy Junkies.
Last Song: "Zorak's Horrorscopes: Scorpio" from Space Ghost's Surf & Turf. Which isn't technically a song, so if we're rejecting it on those grounds, the last song is "Zorak's Blues," in which the bug actually sings. Sort of.
Sort by time:
Shortest song: Well, the shortest track is called "Mutant Enemy Closing" (aka "Grr, Aargh!") and is all of three seconds long. The shortest actual song (which I had to skip through a whole bunch of dialog snippets and stuff to find) appears to be "Miracle Cure" by The Who, from Tommy, clocking in at 12 whole seconds.
Longest song: The longest track is "The Original, Uncut Dramatization of The War of the Worlds." The longest musical track is "La Zebramix Special John Lennon," an interesting remix-mashup thing featuring a bunch of Lennon tunes. It's a smidge over 29 minutes long. If we disqualify that as counting as more than one "song," then the crown is instead held by Pink Floyd's "Echoes," at 23:28.
Sort by artist:
First Artist: The 5.6.7.8's ("Whoo Hoo")
Last Artist: Zolar X ("Silver Shapes") (That's ignoring the tracks that don't have an artist listed.)
Sort by album:
First Album: 20 Years of Jethro Tull
Last Album: Zooropa by U2. Again, ignoring the tracks with no album title listed.
Top Five Most Played Songs: Well, here they are, but bear in mind that I've only had the iPod for a few weeks so, statistically, these mean nothing:
1) "Clocks" by Coldplay
2) "Cartoon Heroes" by Aqua
3) "eBay" by Weird Al Yankovic
4) "Woke Up This Morning (Chosen One Remix)" by Alabama 3
5) "Time" by the Alan Parsons Project
Though, actually, only the first three have been played more than twice.
Search:
"Sex": How many songs come up? Only two, which kind of surprises me. "All He Wants Is Sex" from one of the Lexx soundtracks, and "Sex Farm" by Spinal Tap.
"Death": How Many Songs come up? Six.
"Love": How many songs come up? Two hundred and thirty-two! Wow, you'd think that was a popular emotion or something.
"You": How many songs come up? 372. Of course, that includes "your" and "you're" and "yourself" as well. Also "youth," "young" and other such things. If there's a way to search iTunes for "you" as a standalone word, I don't know what it is.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Cue the Slow, Sarcastic Applause.
All right, how's this for irony? I had a hankering for some new music to listen to at work tomorrow. And there's several new (well, new to me) bands whose stuff I really wanted to pick up more of, having been given a random track or two by various people. (Yes, given! For free! Over the internet! Gasp!) However, I've reluctantly come to the decision that I simply can't buy from iTunes, because stuff you get from them won't run on any player but an iPod, and I both object to that in principle and realize that it could seriously screw me a few years down the road. But tracks from Napster come with this DRM stuff that makes it impossible to get them onto the iPod without jumping through all kinds of annoying hoops that I really just don't feel up to bothering with right now. So in the end I said "screw it" and bought nothing.
Congratulations, music industry! Good job protecting your sales figures from evil music pirates! Congratulations Apple! Good job protecting that monopoly!
What's especially amusing is that, hey, I probably would have bought the albums the downloaded tracks were from.
All right, how's this for irony? I had a hankering for some new music to listen to at work tomorrow. And there's several new (well, new to me) bands whose stuff I really wanted to pick up more of, having been given a random track or two by various people. (Yes, given! For free! Over the internet! Gasp!) However, I've reluctantly come to the decision that I simply can't buy from iTunes, because stuff you get from them won't run on any player but an iPod, and I both object to that in principle and realize that it could seriously screw me a few years down the road. But tracks from Napster come with this DRM stuff that makes it impossible to get them onto the iPod without jumping through all kinds of annoying hoops that I really just don't feel up to bothering with right now. So in the end I said "screw it" and bought nothing.
Congratulations, music industry! Good job protecting your sales figures from evil music pirates! Congratulations Apple! Good job protecting that monopoly!
What's especially amusing is that, hey, I probably would have bought the albums the downloaded tracks were from.
The Nicest Thing Anybody's Said to Me All Week
A friend of mine, on having located the relevant anthology and discovered that I had, in fact, correctly identified the author of a science fiction story he'd mentioned in passing to me months ago: "You're a scary, scary nerd."
What especially pleases me about this is the fact that I live in a world where people say things like that to each other and mean it as a compliment.
A friend of mine, on having located the relevant anthology and discovered that I had, in fact, correctly identified the author of a science fiction story he'd mentioned in passing to me months ago: "You're a scary, scary nerd."
What especially pleases me about this is the fact that I live in a world where people say things like that to each other and mean it as a compliment.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Contrition and Linkage
Man, I really have been a bad blogger lately. I don't even have an excuse. It's pretty much just a combination of busyness (working lots of overtime, having a friend over last weekend, etc.) and, I dunno, apathy. I'll try to do better in the near future. Really. Or at least to update a bit more often; I don't ever promise quality.
Anyway, for the moment, have some more random links.
The Firefly Season 2 Project: An "independent production company" is exploring the possibility of resurrecting Firefly in some kind of on-demand format. You can drop by and take their survey if that sounds like a good idea to you.
The Daily Kitten: Kittens! Daily!
The Religious Affiliation of Comic Book Characters: Because I know I know people to whom this is interesting and useful information.
Man, I really have been a bad blogger lately. I don't even have an excuse. It's pretty much just a combination of busyness (working lots of overtime, having a friend over last weekend, etc.) and, I dunno, apathy. I'll try to do better in the near future. Really. Or at least to update a bit more often; I don't ever promise quality.
Anyway, for the moment, have some more random links.
The Firefly Season 2 Project: An "independent production company" is exploring the possibility of resurrecting Firefly in some kind of on-demand format. You can drop by and take their survey if that sounds like a good idea to you.
The Daily Kitten: Kittens! Daily!
The Religious Affiliation of Comic Book Characters: Because I know I know people to whom this is interesting and useful information.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
What's Undependable About Plants?
You are Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan. You are deeply spiritual,
and may enjoy meditating in the nude. You
are peaceful at heart, although if provoked,
you can turn murderous. You can be a lover, a
sister, a confidant, and a comforter. People
trust in you for the balance in their lives
when things get out of hand. You're very
dependable... especially for a plant.
Which Farscape Character Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
You are Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan. You are deeply spiritual,
and may enjoy meditating in the nude. You
are peaceful at heart, although if provoked,
you can turn murderous. You can be a lover, a
sister, a confidant, and a comforter. People
trust in you for the balance in their lives
when things get out of hand. You're very
dependable... especially for a plant.
Which Farscape Character Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
Friday, January 27, 2006
Monday, January 23, 2006
Some of His Stories Were Very Good.
 | You scored as The Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy). You loved the Seventh Doctor best. The stories weren't so good, but he had Ace and a fab umbrella.
Which Doctor Who are you? created with QuizFarm.com |
Random Linkage
I don't remember how long it's been since I did one of these posts, so clearly it's been too long. Here ya go:
What Is It Like to Be a Robot?: Somebody's dissertation on the depiction of artificial intelligences in SF films. I've only skimmed a bit of it so far, but it looks interesting.
William Shatner sings, er, performs "Rocket Man": There. Are. No. Words. Don't eat or drink anything while watching this, I beg you. I very nearly needed a new keyboard.
Penn Jillette podcasts: Man, I love this guy.
I don't remember how long it's been since I did one of these posts, so clearly it's been too long. Here ya go:
What Is It Like to Be a Robot?: Somebody's dissertation on the depiction of artificial intelligences in SF films. I've only skimmed a bit of it so far, but it looks interesting.
William Shatner sings, er, performs "Rocket Man": There. Are. No. Words. Don't eat or drink anything while watching this, I beg you. I very nearly needed a new keyboard.
Penn Jillette podcasts: Man, I love this guy.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
I'm Just Glad I Didn't Wait Until the Spring.
Oh, man, I think I just found Vir's mom.
I was out in the back yard hacking down vegetation, because I've been seeing the cracks in the walls spreading and getting worse again (including a hairline crack in my new stucco, grr), and I strongly suspect part of the problem involves tree roots. In the course of my hacking, I pulled aside a bunch of dead weeds, and there, nestled in next to the fence, was a dead cat. It looked exactly like Vir, only bigger and, you know, dead.
It was a little bit distressing, to be honest.
Oh, man, I think I just found Vir's mom.
I was out in the back yard hacking down vegetation, because I've been seeing the cracks in the walls spreading and getting worse again (including a hairline crack in my new stucco, grr), and I strongly suspect part of the problem involves tree roots. In the course of my hacking, I pulled aside a bunch of dead weeds, and there, nestled in next to the fence, was a dead cat. It looked exactly like Vir, only bigger and, you know, dead.
It was a little bit distressing, to be honest.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Up, Up, and Away!
After multiple delays, the New Horizons mission is at last on its way to Pluto. Hooray! Now we just have to wait a decade or so for it to get there. (Man, I've had road trips like that.) To help pass the time while we're waiting, here's an interesting article on the naming of Pluto that a friend sent me a while back.
After multiple delays, the New Horizons mission is at last on its way to Pluto. Hooray! Now we just have to wait a decade or so for it to get there. (Man, I've had road trips like that.) To help pass the time while we're waiting, here's an interesting article on the naming of Pluto that a friend sent me a while back.
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