Eyes Clean?

Good...cause this'll put a little dirt back into 'em.

I dunno if it's really that impressive, or if it just seems like it is. However, this is a little presentation that had some ideas worth pondering.

"

Something to clean your eyes with

From the Fjordstyle Files

Look at this car.



It's the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato



I'm not a guy who desires much, but this thing makes me drool. If there is a design
that can ooze "things happen around this object," it's right here, in this car. You'd pretty much have to shower, shave, and put on your tux, just to drive this thing to the store for milk. Of course at the store, you'd somehow stumble across a fantastically attractive superspy chased by evil-doers, which would lead to an action-packed chase scene. Obviously you'd get away - I mean, look at this Gjoddang car!



At which point you'd get a nice thank-yoo smooch, and the thanks of a grateful government. Unfortunately, you'd still need milk.

Pics from Jalopnik - where there's a ton of info if you like this thing.

The future we live in

There's a good quote by William Gibson that goes something like this...

"The future is already here, it's just unvevenly distributed"

Which is absolutely perfect for what it says. But how can someone compare the quality (and I guess I should add "meaning") of the future-now, with that of the the stuff built in the past that's lasted up till now?

Obviously this question is too huge to have a real "answer" but I'll tap dance on it for a bit. Take buildings as exhibit "A."

Here's a fine example of some new residential construction in L.A. that sums up a whole lot of new development here.

Now, I won't nitpick too much on the asthetics here (even though I should) but I'll add, these things are probably super-duper energy efficient, wired for hi-speed innernet, and up-to-code for being able to withstand a pretty potent earthquake. Regardless, someone somewhere thought that this was what people wanted, and spent a fortune to build it. Maybe they're right. Maybe people will call this home. But the problem is this isn't just one new development that has this look - it's one of thousands.

Now - I know this is apples and oranges, but have a look at Venice Italy here for a second.

Now here we have some charming exteriors, but there have to be some issues right? I mean, these things probly have bugs and rats and mold, all of which are gross. Wired for broadband? Dunno, but I'll bet the electrical wiring isn't up to 21st century standards. Still, it's nice to look at.

Speakin of nice to look at, here's a recent addition to L.A.

Futuristic? Check. This thing will look futuristic for a long time, which is a good thing. Like when someone built this one...

I guess I'll just finish this by wondering, how many people who have the money to develop new construction consider they are building something that will be there for sixty, or eighty, or two hundred years. Of course, it costs a lot of money to build something, and it costs way more to build something ornate. But after a while, your expensive new building is just an old building...and who wants to live or work in an old ugly building?

Sunday Style

Here's a deck of cards with vintage pin-up girls on em. I found this set at yeeeeee where you can see a whole buch more.

Okey...here's a couple

English Military History (for dummies)



An here's a stroke of genius from the Onion.



Police Slog Through 40,000 Insipid Party Pics To Find Cause Of Dorm Fire

Ya, Somtimes You Go Thru Time...

and suffer.

Like this here video, that basically sums up the last couple weeks. Let's just say the ram is life...and I am the Toyota.

(seriously, this is pretty fun)



(Found by these guys)

Here's some neat space footage

Lookin' at the news for the last three weeks

and it's hard to go anywhere without seeing "Torture!" "Gitmo!" "Enhanced Interrogations Techniques," and "My God If We Didn't Torture We Would All Be In A Smoking 9-11 Crater!"

I was gonna add my two cents, but after writing something, it made me feel dirty, and it made Fjord feel dirty...and besides, you can find people's opinions about it everywhere.


Instead, I'll tell ya the funny thing I thought about today. Remember Marky-Mark and the Funky Bunch? How funny would it be if you met a musician and their biggest accomplishment was being in "the Funky Bunch."

Question...

You've got a team of five writers at your disposal for 3 hours - what do you have them write?

Me...I'd be going for a story about cannibal robot zombies.

But that's just how I'm feeling right now.

Buggin Me

So there's this idea that mass transportation will be the solution and salvation of society. Build trains, and development will spring up around it...and everyone will use it, and it'll be great! We'll stop global warming, and utopia will follow.

But there is never a real discussion about what goes down on the street level of this kind of people mover. I've used public transportation in a bunch of cities, and love it. Sometimes it was out of necessity (like um, 5 years of no car, and building up capital here in L.A.) sometimes it was more practical. (beat downtown parking prices by 90% in Minneapolis) But all of this was also while I was a non-family man, just doing my thing. Most of the time, public transportation is nothing more than blank-space...like being at the laundra-mat. But sometimes public transportation drops you into a confined space with a super crazy person...like the dude in the wheelchair that had a knife and was pissed as fjuck and lashing around with it (I wrote about in '05 and I'm too lazy to look it up now.)

Anyways, as a fellow who can appreciate "the crazy" because it happens in cities everywhere, and for the most part, it's kind-of-free urban entertainment. I wonder how someone not versed in this particular human interaction (like the new train line just got to the suburb where a father and mother are excited about taking their newly turned 5-year-old to the new Disney movie) would be shaped by their first (or first family) mass transit experience.

Then what? Then they never ride the train again. The SUV is just safer for the family.

Not saying this is right...but literally all talk about mass-transportation, and all it's advantages ignores the problem of "human-mass." At least 1% of all humans are totally crazy.

2,000 Posts on this dinky landmass!

(9 years too late - but now we're Fjord2000!)

I been thinking about musicians and athletes - successful ones (of course) and wondering, why do they bother? Like, make enough money and be smart with it - why strive to be better? If you got 15 million bucks in the bank, and the bills are all paid, why not spend the rest of you life in the jacuzzi?

I guess there's something to be said about a person with financial means being more productive than people with less. Some sort of responsibility that leads them to keep going, and pressing the edge of the envelope. Maybe it's related to something else, like the desire to be the best, and has nothing to do with money at all.

Maybe it's got nothing to do with any of those reasons. I'm broke as fjuck, unfamous as hell, and still troglodyte'in around in the backwaters of blogger world. And yet, what would I be doing if I was rich as fjuck, famous as hell, and getting 370,000 hits a day...

Probly doing what I do every day...wondering what I should post about, wondering if it was entertaining enough. Altho I'd be happy to switch places with my opposite, in order to find out.

Yers,
Tsunami

What I would like right now

1) maid (preferrably not French, but dressed like one)
2) sweet, sweet income.
3) Off-street parking.
4) About 10 times the inspiration I have now.
5) That's it. I mean, I could go on about how I want to pilot the Goodyear blimp, or be travelling via flying boat through the tropical islands of the Coral Sea, or be smuggling illicit goods with a speedboat, or be planning my next cat-burglar heist, or be preparing to duel Dick Cheney over a matter of honor. But really, for now...right now, that's it.

It's Been A Long Time Coming

But I've finally taken this FJORD

thing

MULTI-MEDIA!!!

For our first (and likely the last - at least for the near future) piece of original programming,

I give you

TANGENT!

(and thanks for watching Channel Fjord)

For no apparent reason

I was thinking about the D.C. Madam and why that story was so fishy. I mean, she was going to jail...okay - but suicide? That was waaaay to fishy, especially when she was basically threatening to reveal a buncha' govmt types who used her girls. All she had to do was last a couple years in the slammer - and she's got enough fame (or notoriety) that she's doing fine. I mean, are you under the impression that Heidi Fleiss was totally ruined after going to prison? Anyways...no apparent reason for thinking about this now.

Wolverine?

Nope - haven't seen it, and probably won't. From the trailers...I suspect it looks a lot like
this...(wolverine in 30 seconds)

The Continuing...

Continues...visit here for an amazing kangaroo clip.

Gahhh! Finally Something Cool

It's almost like my innernet thingie has been broken as of late. I haven't found anything really cool in days...maybee weeks. However, here's a link to a flickr page that has an awesome movie of a ship going down a river. Really good.

Emu Flu, Hawk Flu...

Lemur Flu, Toad Flu, Sushi Flu...on and on it goes, until people just get bored and move on. Of course, nobody cares until the next outbreak!

Anyhoo - let's move on.

I ended up at the JPL's open house yesterday, and walked around looking at robot landers and space probes and tons of super-duper hi-tech space gear. The best part about this event is there are a whole mess of JPL people standing around by their mock-ups or whatever, and you can just walk right up and ask, 'What do you do?" Of course, they're all rocket-scientists who are like, "I operate the robot arm on the Phoenix Lander...finding water-ice was pretty cool." Or "I design sensor arrays for satellites that will find and analyze extra-solar planets."

The thing that stands out when you're talking to these people, is their job satisfaction is through the roof. I suppose it's not really surprising, when most of us go to work and someone's like, "You! File this stack of crap!" These people design spacecraft, build them, and shoot 'em off to distant planets. I'm envious...but I'm also bad at math.

Swine...you swine!

I've noticed the pork industry has switched the "swine flu" to Nu1U or somesuch "official" rebranding, but it's too late. How could anyone not call it "swine flu?" You can't help it, it's too great a title. I mean, I'm sure there was a N2IOB4 designation for avian bird flu, but nobody remembers anything but Bird Flu. Anyhoo - I've been playing a little game to try and come up with the next source of flu...I think the best one is Octopus Flu, but I know there are others.