Thursday, October 30, 2008
Hi...sorry about the racket in here...
(to turn it off you'll have to go down a post or two to the youtube doubler. I sort of want to take down that post, but there's another part of me that love it's horrible-ness sooooo much that I can't.)
Anyhoo - lemme talk politics for a sec.
I have this little observation...
The Republican party seems to constantly throw old dudes up for Presidential elections. Reagan, Bush (the elder), Dole, and McCain. Bush the younger was their one exception in 28 years. Now Reagan was the oldest serving President (I think he was 74 when he left office, but I'm not positive - just guessing at a factoid) but he was pretty spry when he ran against Carter waaay back in the day. But against Clinton, they ran Bob Dole, who was pretty dang old, and against Obama they're running McCain who's like 72. It almost seems as tho they throw up these dinosaurs because they know they're going to loose, and figure - "why not get rid of this old asshole who's been gumming up the works" in a blaze of destruction that is a loosing Presidential run. (seriously - loosing a Prez election is just about impossible to rebound from. lookit John Kerry...whatchoo doin' nowadays Senator?) I'm not sure if the Republicans do this as a deliberate strategy, or if it's just they do elevate their senior members to the top of their ticket as a reward for their service. However, it does seem when the Democrats field a vibrant and articulate candidate...it's against some ancient dude. I think it's weird.
I guess there might be something in my statement that might be age-ist...and yaknow what, good. You gotta be 35 to run for President of the USA and that's age-ist. Why not have a cap on how frikken old a person can be to run this joint. If yer 18, you can drive, vote, and are forced to register for (the/a) draft, can join the Army and die/kill for the country. (you cannot legally drink liquor - that's for 21 year-olds and over - punk-ass-sucka-kids!) But, you throw a 72 year old into some kind of "this is the world" test with an 18-year-old, would you put money on the 72-year-old passing with a better grade?
Anyhoo - lemme talk politics for a sec.
I have this little observation...
The Republican party seems to constantly throw old dudes up for Presidential elections. Reagan, Bush (the elder), Dole, and McCain. Bush the younger was their one exception in 28 years. Now Reagan was the oldest serving President (I think he was 74 when he left office, but I'm not positive - just guessing at a factoid) but he was pretty spry when he ran against Carter waaay back in the day. But against Clinton, they ran Bob Dole, who was pretty dang old, and against Obama they're running McCain who's like 72. It almost seems as tho they throw up these dinosaurs because they know they're going to loose, and figure - "why not get rid of this old asshole who's been gumming up the works" in a blaze of destruction that is a loosing Presidential run. (seriously - loosing a Prez election is just about impossible to rebound from. lookit John Kerry...whatchoo doin' nowadays Senator?) I'm not sure if the Republicans do this as a deliberate strategy, or if it's just they do elevate their senior members to the top of their ticket as a reward for their service. However, it does seem when the Democrats field a vibrant and articulate candidate...it's against some ancient dude. I think it's weird.
I guess there might be something in my statement that might be age-ist...and yaknow what, good. You gotta be 35 to run for President of the USA and that's age-ist. Why not have a cap on how frikken old a person can be to run this joint. If yer 18, you can drive, vote, and are forced to register for (the/a) draft, can join the Army and die/kill for the country. (you cannot legally drink liquor - that's for 21 year-olds and over - punk-ass-sucka-kids!) But, you throw a 72 year old into some kind of "this is the world" test with an 18-year-old, would you put money on the 72-year-old passing with a better grade?
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Wow - that last one really blew up the template
Anyhoo - quite an awful combination no?
I thought I had something to say, but after 10 minutes of trying to write it, I'm giving up. It wasn't that great of an idea anyways. I will give you something tho.
Vegas-Sized
I believe it would come in order like this:
Small-size
Medium-size
Large-size
Monster-size
Vegas-Size
(altho there could be some argument for a swap between monster and Vegas sized, I think it's pretty close...and after Vegas-sized, what's next, gargantuan? - that'd be my bet.)
I thought I had something to say, but after 10 minutes of trying to write it, I'm giving up. It wasn't that great of an idea anyways. I will give you something tho.
Vegas-Sized
I believe it would come in order like this:
Small-size
Medium-size
Large-size
Monster-size
Vegas-Size
(altho there could be some argument for a swap between monster and Vegas sized, I think it's pretty close...and after Vegas-sized, what's next, gargantuan? - that'd be my bet.)
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
1,140
For about the last year or so, I've contended that to make a super annoying band, you would just have to combine the bagpipes with a steel drum. Now, thru the glory of yoo tube, and the you tube doubler...we can see if my theory was correct!
***Update**
This post has been killed for the sainity of readers and the author
***Update**
This post has been killed for the sainity of readers and the author
Distance = Rate x Time
Submitted for your approval...a couple of vids about racing cars.
Hypnotic in-car camera shot from a rally car.
(vid is 3:17 long)
A pretty nifty animation from the Singapore Grand Prix
(vid is 2:38)
(above found here, both thru darkroastedblend)
P.S. - Someone should tell the F1 folks that their on-line media presence is purtty lame.
Hypnotic in-car camera shot from a rally car.
(vid is 3:17 long)
A pretty nifty animation from the Singapore Grand Prix
(vid is 2:38)
(above found here, both thru darkroastedblend)
P.S. - Someone should tell the F1 folks that their on-line media presence is purtty lame.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Scale
I found this article that has a ton of super cool crap about an ancient archaeological find that dates to 11,000 years ago, which might be the world's first temple. Here's a savory quote:
Hodder is fascinated that Gobekli Tepe's pillar carvings are dominated not by edible prey like deer and cattle but by menacing creatures such as lions, spiders, snakes and scorpions. "It's a scary, fantastic world of nasty-looking beasts,"
What did I write back in June...hmmm thinkin' thinkin'...umm, can't remember exactly what I...ummm (opens new browser window, searches...ahhh yes, here it is!)
One of the great things about pre-history is that there is so very little to find out. What you see is what you get. The stuff that anyone finds in these places, regardless of sophisticated technological analysis, has been so reduced by time, that it's practically like analyzin' nature.
I find myself fascinated by the discovery of something super-ancient. But deep in my heart, I know most of the interpretations of said discoveries is total crap. I respect those who have a chunk of my (above) statement to heart when they're dealing with stuff from 11,000 B.C.
The gulf that separates us from Gobekli Tepe's builders is almost unimaginable. Indeed, though I stood among the looming megaliths eager to take in their meaning, they didn't speak to me. They were utterly foreign, placed there by people who saw the world in a way I will never comprehend. There are no sources to explain what the symbols might mean. Schmidt agrees. "We're 6,000 years before the invention of writing here," he says.
That's pretty good!
Hodder is fascinated that Gobekli Tepe's pillar carvings are dominated not by edible prey like deer and cattle but by menacing creatures such as lions, spiders, snakes and scorpions. "It's a scary, fantastic world of nasty-looking beasts,"
What did I write back in June...hmmm thinkin' thinkin'...umm, can't remember exactly what I...ummm (opens new browser window, searches...ahhh yes, here it is!)
One of the great things about pre-history is that there is so very little to find out. What you see is what you get. The stuff that anyone finds in these places, regardless of sophisticated technological analysis, has been so reduced by time, that it's practically like analyzin' nature.
I find myself fascinated by the discovery of something super-ancient. But deep in my heart, I know most of the interpretations of said discoveries is total crap. I respect those who have a chunk of my (above) statement to heart when they're dealing with stuff from 11,000 B.C.
The gulf that separates us from Gobekli Tepe's builders is almost unimaginable. Indeed, though I stood among the looming megaliths eager to take in their meaning, they didn't speak to me. They were utterly foreign, placed there by people who saw the world in a way I will never comprehend. There are no sources to explain what the symbols might mean. Schmidt agrees. "We're 6,000 years before the invention of writing here," he says.
That's pretty good!
-anyhoo-
I have the impression that humans have a really, really, bad sense of scale when it comes to time. As an example, I'll give you this further quote to wrap your brain around.
"There's more time between Gobekli Tepe and the Sumerian clay tablets [etched in 3300 B.C.] than from Sumer to today,"
I have the impression that humans have a really, really, bad sense of scale when it comes to time. As an example, I'll give you this further quote to wrap your brain around.
"There's more time between Gobekli Tepe and the Sumerian clay tablets [etched in 3300 B.C.] than from Sumer to today,"
Got that?
Okay, cool. Now lemme give you another example. Good 'ole Shakespeare...yaknow, English playwright, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth...possibly the greatest storyteller in the English language...that guy. When was the last time you saw a play of his performed? I say this because what tends to happen is the language is so foreign at first that it's nearly incomprehensible. However, the language becomes understandable in context with the situation and inflection and action, and by the end of a performance the resolution is totally comprehensible...perhaps even evoking an emotional response.
Yet, read the text of an actual Shakespeare play, and without the context of actors preforming them, and it's obvious the language has mutated and changed so much over the last 400 years that it's really hard for someone in the 21st Century to understand. Still, there is an institutional memory in the theater that perpetuates the context into comprehensibility for a current audience.
(actually, it would be interesting to compare the institutional memories of theater and government and determine which is more powerful...hmmm, potential doctoral thesis?)
Anyhoo - the idea I'm getting at is time and context. Using Shakespeare as a baseline for the change of words and meaning, 400 years...is practically a different world. It's not just the change in language, it's a change in everything. From kings to democracy, cavalry to fighter jets, Gutenberg's bible to the internet, that's what's changed in 400 years, everything.
The distance between now and 11,000 B.C. measured in 400 year increments is 32.5. A single 400 years pushes our understanding to the limit, and there's still another 31.5 to work back through to get to this place, where somebody found some carved rocks. See, scale.
Super Fjuckin' Rad
(Vid is :35 seconds long)
According to the yootube poster giantaaron, the arms are 35 feet long, and the video was taken by a ROV from an oil platform at 7800 feet below the surface.
According to the yootube poster giantaaron, the arms are 35 feet long, and the video was taken by a ROV from an oil platform at 7800 feet below the surface.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Working on something...
It goes like this.
In the course of human affairs, eventually - and in no uncertain terms - each individual must realize that the totality of their existence can be defined down to one fact. They are simply, a super dumb organism.
In the course of human affairs, eventually - and in no uncertain terms - each individual must realize that the totality of their existence can be defined down to one fact. They are simply, a super dumb organism.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
There is a problem with being a writer and sitting at a computer
The problem is it's super-duper easy to not actually write.
(I hear your snickerings and choose to ignore them for the moment)
There's also a problem being a master web-surfer and a writer.
(I also hear those snickerings and also choose to ignore them for the moment)
There is nearly always something to be gained by reading the internets. Sometimes it's a few factoids or some amazing story that will make you the hit of the next party, sometimes it's an idea or concept that will drive your next post/essay/screenplay/novel. Most of the time it's random page flipping in a gargantuan magazine full of shit, that leaves you with practically nothing more than you began with...except a creeping feeling that the Snorg Tee's-T-shirt models(tm) might be a little too overexposed for just a small-time-internet T-shirt company's ad buy.
(who the fjuck owns them!?! Haynes? Calvin Clein!?! Fruit of the Loom?!? TELL MEEEEE!!!)
Anyhoo - Over the last two days I've been writing some stuff longhand on yellow pads, and I've noticed two things.
1) I can't click over to something that might be more interesting or better than what I'm doing.
2) My handwriting has really degenerated in the last year, and using an actual pen on wood-pulp-paper actually makes my fingers hurt.
But, I get a lot more written down that way. It's hard to stay on target when you can click over whenever you want to some fascinating post (like this one that boggled me on imaginary security.) Seriously, why not choose to let everybody else (at least somebody else) do it?
Answer - If you did that, you wouldn't be a person who made anything, ever. At the very worst, you'd just be a consumer, capable of only commenting on the pros and cons of the product you just/recently consumed. And seriously, where's the tombstone that has that carved in it?
P.S. I would like you to try and think of a landmass on the planet that beats a Fjord.
(I hear your snickerings and choose to ignore them for the moment)
There's also a problem being a master web-surfer and a writer.
(I also hear those snickerings and also choose to ignore them for the moment)
There is nearly always something to be gained by reading the internets. Sometimes it's a few factoids or some amazing story that will make you the hit of the next party, sometimes it's an idea or concept that will drive your next post/essay/screenplay/novel. Most of the time it's random page flipping in a gargantuan magazine full of shit, that leaves you with practically nothing more than you began with...except a creeping feeling that the Snorg Tee's-T-shirt models(tm) might be a little too overexposed for just a small-time-internet T-shirt company's ad buy.
(who the fjuck owns them!?! Haynes? Calvin Clein!?! Fruit of the Loom?!? TELL MEEEEE!!!)
Anyhoo - Over the last two days I've been writing some stuff longhand on yellow pads, and I've noticed two things.
1) I can't click over to something that might be more interesting or better than what I'm doing.
2) My handwriting has really degenerated in the last year, and using an actual pen on wood-pulp-paper actually makes my fingers hurt.
But, I get a lot more written down that way. It's hard to stay on target when you can click over whenever you want to some fascinating post (like this one that boggled me on imaginary security.) Seriously, why not choose to let everybody else (at least somebody else) do it?
Answer - If you did that, you wouldn't be a person who made anything, ever. At the very worst, you'd just be a consumer, capable of only commenting on the pros and cons of the product you just/recently consumed. And seriously, where's the tombstone that has that carved in it?
P.S. I would like you to try and think of a landmass on the planet that beats a Fjord.
Here...have some words!
Strangle, gouge, club, sear, flay, slice, smack, shiv, grease, rend, fry, whip, impale, decapitate, slash, slap, punch, pierce.
There ya go!
There ya go!
Monday, October 13, 2008
William Gibson
"The limitation to what you can find on Youtube is basically your own imagination. When I think of something, if I don’t automatically think of searching for it on Youtube, I will never see it. When something comes to mind, I try to train myself to google it and then look on Youtube, often with the most amazing results. I think, in the end, if we just kind of run this technology out to its logical conclusion, we will end up with something like a single retina that covers the entire inner surface of a sphere, looking at itself, being quite self-sufficient, and made completely of Youtube videos."
(From here.)
I have a youtube channel, which is sadly void of any original content. It is my dream that it will be full of creative/astounding/hilarious/insightful things that people will crave. But I've yet to get off my ass and produce one single thing of my own.
Of course the important thing is I have a youtube channel.
(From here.)
I have a youtube channel, which is sadly void of any original content. It is my dream that it will be full of creative/astounding/hilarious/insightful things that people will crave. But I've yet to get off my ass and produce one single thing of my own.
Of course the important thing is I have a youtube channel.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Here's something
Read this totally mundane article about microbes or something, and then read the comment thread. It gets pretty funny.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Vaguely distracting
Finally found something!!!!
Course, you gots to sit thru a buncha stuff to see it.
Check in with 8:24 if you ain't got the time.
Course, you gots to sit thru a buncha stuff to see it.
Check in with 8:24 if you ain't got the time.
Bleg.
Ya. Was lookin' thru the innernets to find something vaguely distracting that would be super innerestin' and also bury the post below so I don't look like some kind of nutty-crackpot...but not one single thing showed up to fit the bill.
Sigh
Anyhoo -
A fella could sit around blaming everything on the lack of cool shit today on the internets, or he could man-up, and try his best to concoct something.
It's hot in L.A. - like stupid hot. I went out to run some errands a while ago and was like, "DANG, that shit is motherfuckin' hot!" In fact, it was the primary conversation starter to the five conversations I had today. In return I was given this bueno line...
"I wouldn't want to meet this heat in a dark alley."
Nope, you wouldn't. It's the kind of heat that would hit you over the head with a baseball bat, take your wallet, cell, and shoes, and then leave your walletless, cellless, shoeless body to sizzle on the alley blacktop until the coyotes were lured down in broad (heh-broad) daylight to feast at your own frikken Bar-B-Que!
I know! Gross!
Anywise, after I had discovered how brutally hot it was, I had to go to a job-fair where I was encouraged to "dress professionally." My Gjod, professionally, in 137 degree heat!?! Who the hell does that? I dressed appropriately, meaning by the time I got to said job-fair I hoped I hadn't sweated thru my (very light) dress pants and thru my t-shirt that was under my acceptably nice dress shirt.
The "Job Fair," as it turns out, was something resembling a horrible waste of time...and something I sure didn't need to change out of short-pants for. In fact, it was very much like this post. Then again, it's not like I ask you to make yourself presentable for my blog, nor do I ask you to leave the house in ungjodly heat!
Fjord 1,122
Job Fair 0
Sigh
Anyhoo -
A fella could sit around blaming everything on the lack of cool shit today on the internets, or he could man-up, and try his best to concoct something.
It's hot in L.A. - like stupid hot. I went out to run some errands a while ago and was like, "DANG, that shit is motherfuckin' hot!" In fact, it was the primary conversation starter to the five conversations I had today. In return I was given this bueno line...
"I wouldn't want to meet this heat in a dark alley."
Nope, you wouldn't. It's the kind of heat that would hit you over the head with a baseball bat, take your wallet, cell, and shoes, and then leave your walletless, cellless, shoeless body to sizzle on the alley blacktop until the coyotes were lured down in broad (heh-broad) daylight to feast at your own frikken Bar-B-Que!
I know! Gross!
Anywise, after I had discovered how brutally hot it was, I had to go to a job-fair where I was encouraged to "dress professionally." My Gjod, professionally, in 137 degree heat!?! Who the hell does that? I dressed appropriately, meaning by the time I got to said job-fair I hoped I hadn't sweated thru my (very light) dress pants and thru my t-shirt that was under my acceptably nice dress shirt.
The "Job Fair," as it turns out, was something resembling a horrible waste of time...and something I sure didn't need to change out of short-pants for. In fact, it was very much like this post. Then again, it's not like I ask you to make yourself presentable for my blog, nor do I ask you to leave the house in ungjodly heat!
Fjord 1,122
Job Fair 0
Monday, October 06, 2008
I wuz hopin'
***Update***
Bleg Here's another nice link to make you hate your world. End update!
That the last post would do the trick!
Serious...Fjord is about the most beautiful people on the internet having a good time and killing mummies, with death.
Sadly, I saw this and gots to drop it on yas.
(video is 29 min long...and not nice...but might be important.)
(Fortunately, the vids below this post will still make you feel better.)
Bleg Here's another nice link to make you hate your world. End update!
That the last post would do the trick!
Serious...Fjord is about the most beautiful people on the internet having a good time and killing mummies, with death.
Sadly, I saw this and gots to drop it on yas.
(video is 29 min long...and not nice...but might be important.)
(Fortunately, the vids below this post will still make you feel better.)
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