With a nod to Tobias Funke...

click this link that matt forgot to put in properly("thanks, kat!" "oh, you're welcome.")

I'm still at work and can't watch the video with the sound up [begin rant](why can't CNN.com provide a text version of every video story? It's faster to read than to watch the video anyway)[end rant], but I got the gist of it. Now, if only there were some avenue of support for this man... I dunno, some kind of... group...

yeah, yeah...

... the Yale Record may be chock full o' douchebags, but at least they are douchebags that are sanctioned by the Establishment... I don't think any administrator will be allowing Rumpus to co-host any Master's Teas anytime soon.

At any rate, I did in fact go to said JoCo seminar and I did quite enjoy it, even though I felt a little pervy being (I assume) the only grad student there and not really having any idea who any of the young'uns around me were. No giant revelations or anything, but it was pretty cool to have a semi-private (audience of maybe 30-40) concert. I did have to step out and miss a few minutes because a certain someone -- we'll just call her Tanielle Dumminio -- called me on the phone approximately 5 times in quick succession and I wanted to make sure no one was dying or anything, but the rest of it was quite nice.

In other Rump-related news, I just received this link from one Jared LeBoff on the newly-invented Rump Alums' email list:

http://www.bestweekever.tv/2007/12/13/greatest-headline-in-ny-post-history/

hey matt...

...you need to give your Rumpus people a stern talking-to. How is it that the freaking Yale RECORD got this honor?

how not to outsmart airport security

I'm going to assume that this guy had already knocked back a few if he seriously thought this was the best way to transport his vodka home:

New airport rules prohibit passengers from carrying larger quantities of liquid onto planes, and he was told at a security check he would have to either throw out the bottle of vodka or pay a fee to have his carry-on bag checked as cargo.

Instead, he chugged the bottle down -- and was quickly unable to stand or otherwise function, police said.

*exasperated sigh*

In reference to previous posts...

... the latest from xkcd:

*claps hands ecstatically*

Video for Lacrosse's "You Can't Say No Forever":



YAY. It makes me happy.

EXTREME eating

Matt, maybe you want to try these next?

(Be sure to click on the caption under the photo for full effect.)

Attention all UHF Fans

I just wanted you all to know that I have crossed an item off my life's to-do list: I have just consumed my first Twinkie Wiener Sandwich (and, actually, my second as well), replete with hot dog, Twinkie, and spray cheese.

Review: OK. Not great, but not terrible. The tastes don't really mesh, so they're just kind of rolling around in your mouth together. And the Twinkie taste kind of dominates... I used more spray cheese in the second one to try to counteract this, but the Twinkie was still by far the most powerful taste. Really interesting texture though. Overall, I have no regrets, although I'll probably be eating the rest of the ingredients separately, since I think in this case I'd prefer each of the parts to the combination of all three.

Just thought you all should know... and for Dani... you know, it's just too much to explain. Chalk it up to one of those wacky pop culture references the others of us all know for no particularly good reason, and my propensity to abuse my digestive system.

PS, I tried to get an image of a Twinkie Wiener Sandwich to accompany this post, but Google Image Search failed me... sigh.

Kat and Matt do IKEA

Just some oak, some pine, some Norsemen, two Yale alums with a little extra time on their hands, a round bed, and a touch of Photoshop, and we have... Vitruvian Kat.

videos, take two

okay, since some of us were good little students and waited too long to watch the videos referenced in the previous post (procrastinating to procrastinate...that's a new one :-P), here's a quickie update with links that are available at this writing:

ok go

super mario

numa numa (which honestly isn't that exciting -- I originally included this to contribute to the buildup to weird al, but feel free to watch it anyway. just don't say I didn't warn you about the song getting stuck in your head.)

weird al

aaaaaaand -- because I'm feeling generous -- a bonus clip! what if ken burns' next PBS documentary explored a more recent conflict in our nation's history? I wonder...

more lego awesomeness

okay, people who should be in bed right now = me, but I stupidly went to youtube (just for one video! I swear!) and now I have several to share with you. join me in procrastinating, won't you?

I'll start you off with more OK Go:


super mario bros! ah, childhood.


the numa numa song (with a pop culture reference for dani). I apologize in advance for getting this stuck in your collective heads...it'll go away in a couple of weeks, really it will:


aaaaaand -- the piece de resistance -- some weird al goodness. note the itty-bitty segway.

Halloween party pictures...

... if'n anyone is interested.

Halloween 2007

David Chase pulls a JK Rowling

Apparently it's all the rage these days for people to wait a few months and then give people extra dirt on what happens to their characters after the story is supposedly over:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/23/tv.sopranos.davidchase.ap/index.html

A little bit of randomness for you

I'll just copy the description as it was sent to me: "This music video tells the story of an albino man training for a prestigious hot dog eating contest (complete with Rocky-style montage). It is set to the music of Molotov, a Mexican rap-metal band who are apparently covering 'Rock Me, Amadeus.'"



This was sent to me in response to my invite to a Buffalo-chicken-wing-eating contest that a friend and I are having later today. I will let you know if I am the victor or not.

I need your help

this is very, very important, more so than the presentation I have yet to finish for a HUGE meeting tomorrow:

which way is the dancer turning?

I don't want to ruin the trick by saying too much before you click over, but first: I definitely see it the right-brain way (yaaaaaaay lefties), but for the life of me I can't see how the left-brain way could possibly be right. do any of you bori--I mean, logical right-handers see it the left-brain way? can you (and now I'm pointing at *you*, neuroscientist) explain why this happens and why it's so hard to see it both ways?

More Bad News for Brit...

Ouch.

more misdirection, but this time it's all inside my head

I knew it was too good to be true, but just for a microsecond, I saw this article's headline and thought I would not be the lone defender of the Rembrandts anymore. Sigh.

Very bad news for Britney

And we thought things just couldn't get any worse....we were wrong!

Care to revise your opinion of Brit's still hot, Matt?

*crickets*

what? still nothing? well maybe you just need to watch this AWESOME VIDEO!

last published Sept 1??!

what's going on, people? entertain me!

Anyway, this should spice things up...

mmm...brains...

we've all seen this, correct? well, the brain-eating fun doesn't end there! we've got plastic zombies (O.M.G. this is amazing):



secondlife zombies (note how only a female avatar could fill in for michael jackson):


and your chance to join in what can only be called a zombie revolution. I've heard talk of a chapter forming in seattle, and I encourage you all to monitor the aforementioned link for news of a group forming near you...or at least learn the dance.

want more zombies? of course you do. here's bollywood thriller (again, O.M.G.)...and, uh, the original, juuuuust in case someone needs context.

hopeful rembrandt vindication

BTW, before I jump in -- Erica, did you mean Toad the Wet Sprocket for the one-hit wonder award, or the belongs-in-the-pile-of-shame-inducing-albums award? I certainly HOPE it's not the latter... and if you meant the former, they totally had at least two songs ("Walk on the Ocean" and "All I Want"... and I seem to remember "Good Intentions" getting a fair bit of airplay, although Wikipedia claims it didn't chart very well...).

Anyway, here are some Rembrandt trackses for your enjoyment. Blah blah blah fair use, blah blah blah I'll take them down if anyone complains... but seriously, the guys can probably use the publicity. I'm also assuming there will not suddenly be a rash of piracy of a 2001 album that no one's ever heard of.

Links to some favorites:

Track 01: Lost Together
Track 02: St Paul
Track 10: Big Plans

If they are interested, the truly clever amongst us may be able to discern from these links where the rest of the album might be found (coughhintcough), but I shall say no more.

The only other thing I'll say about this band is I think they do the two-man John/Paul type harmony thing quite well... how come nobody does that anymore?

An example of my non-hipsterity

All right, I'll just come right out and say it: I like the Rembrandts. (hops deftly onto soapbox)

What's that, you say? The guys who did the Friends song? The one they played 800 times an hour on every radio station in America during the summer of 1995? What the hell is wrong with you???

Well, I'm here (or herre, as Nelly and my sausage fingers would say) (Nelly and the Sausage Fingers would be a great band name) to tell you that the Rembrandts are about way more than "I'll Be There For You" (which, as I just learned from a little all-knowing oracle I like to call Wikipedia, was originally offered to They Might Be Giants, of all people). In fact, they didn't even really want to put it on their album coming out that year, but there was so much pressure from fans and the label that they eventually had to tack it on as a bonus track.

Anyway, this now comes up because I recently re-discovered them... after my 14-year-old self bought the album with the Friends song on it solely for said song and discovered that I actually liked the other songs on it OK, I went back and bought their first two albums and liked them OK too. Unfortunately, then they split up for a bit and one of the guys released a TERRIBLE album as "Danny Wilde + The Rembrandts" which ruined the franchise for me forever... at least, so I thought at the time. But I just learned the other day (also via Wikipedia) that they in fact reunited and released another studio album in 2001 called Lost Together. I was dubious, but a sense of nostalgia and a few amazon.com reviews swearing up and down that this album was a true return to form, much better than that "Danny Wilde + The Rembrandts" crap, were enough to convince me. I ordered a copy, and you know what?

... It ain't half bad. No Pet Sounds or Sgt. Pepper, perhaps, but it's pretty good. The first two tracks are very catchy, as is another located somewhere in the middle. The production throughout is excellent... very crisp, so all the parts stand out from each other *just* enough to create a nice, nuanced polyphony. But not overproduced, no no... there's still a bit of rawness there. And there's not a droner in the bunch... even the non-standout tracks are perfectly acceptable examples of 2-man singer/songwriter type acoustic rock.

At any rate, I know these guys are going to be another Chumbawamba (not just one-hit wonders! not just one-hit wonders!) for me, but I wanted to take a second to recognize these guys for writing some decent songs in their time, even if they were overshadowed by one enormous (and admittedly, insanely catchy the first 12,000 times) hit. Next time, I will not be so quick as to drop a band from my radar the first time they stumble.

And if a hipster thinks he's too cool to ever like the Rembrandts, you know what? His loss.

(hops off soapbox, nearly stumbles over point-undermining pile of albums including selections from Matchbox 20, Hootie and the Blowfish, Avril Lavigne, and the Spice Girls, but manages to catch balance by grabbing onto a nearby copy of a hipster-envy-inspiring Corn Mo CD and sticks the landing)

1337

man, what a great shirt. so nerdy!

edited to add: hipster olympics!!

Scars, etc.

Tonight, Dani and I were discussing the fact that the last word of the series was not "scar" as originally foretold. For anyone interested, here's the scoop:

http://allday.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/07/28/295678.aspx

Also, in searching for that answer, I also came across a fanpage where people were invited to write their own endings to the series, with the only provision being that the last word was "scar" (this was before news to the contrary came out). Naturally most of them were terribly written, but I loved the following:

...and then Harry fulfilled his new dream, of becoming a driver for NASCAR.

Posted by Steven Evangelista from new york, ny on June 22, 2007 12:30 AM

Oh, Steven Evangelista from new york, ny. You are quite the wit.

PS, most of the people on that forum seem to have had the same idea I did... that if the last word WERE scar, then it would be somehow indicating that the scar disappeared when Harry ceased to be a Horcrux (although my way... with someone asking "Harry... where's your scar?" or somesuch... was way more subtle than most of them).

And regarding my recent foray into Potterhood... I still maintain my position that they are good-not-great as literature (as I have mentioned before, it reminds me of the situation in Stranger than Fiction wherein Karen Eiffel is poised to write a GREAT work of literature but doesn't have the stones, and in the end it is just OK). And I still think that Lord of the Rings is far better epic, and Chronicles of Narnia is far better allegory. But now that I have invested the time to read them all (which I have to admit was worth it, if only to be part of the pop-culture phenom that was the last-book frenzy), I may as well put my long-dormant obsessive-analysis English major skills to work.

Anyone want to read Finnegans Wake next and we can analyze THAT?

STOP THE PRESSES

I hate to interrupt all this Harry Potter stuff (which I will respond to in a moment, and which makes me happy to talk about, yay) to announce that Owen Wilson tried to kill himself!!! NOOOO HANSEL--there's so much more to live for! Like being really really ridiculously good looking!

The Boy speculates that drug use might be behind it. I feel bad for the guy--so much success but still so unhappy? Yikes.

welcome to the (hot pink!) social

w00t!

sure, they're giving them out like candy here, but hey -- it's a 30GB mp3 player that I got for FREE just for being part of this new-MBA-in-a-marketing-position program at work. I'll probably switch back and forth between zune and my 2GB nano until one comes out the clear winner, but at this point the FM tuner, ginormous memory and video capabilities (zune 3, nano 0) are starting to outweigh the bulkiness factor (zune -- slightly bigger than ipod video -- 3, nano 1). I'll keep you posted...

comments on HP continued

This was going to continue being a comment to the earlier post, but it got so long I figured I'd turn it into a new thread. Here goes...

Sorry to steal Kat's thunder... I guess it wasn't so much that Harry-as-Horcrux was patently obvious... but if you went on the Intarwebs and read the speculation after HBP, the idea had spread like wildfire by the time I got around to reading the book. So I still give you credit for coming up with the idea on your own before reading other people's conjectures.

I would have liked to see either 1) Neville kill Voldemort, 2) Neville kill Bellatrix (as k mentioned), OR (as I have mentioned to Dani) 3) Prof. McGonagall kill Bellatrix. The latter being because I think she is the female second-in-command foil to Dumbledore as Bellatrix is to Voldemort, and though the scene with Mrs. Weasley is nice enough, I think in terms of literary structure it would be better poetic justice if either McG or Neville did her in.

I did think the action was great starting around page 500 with the beginning of the Battle of Hogwarts, and that had better look awesome in the movie or I'm demanding my money back. I was less enthralled with the 300 pages of camping scenes. Those will be sharply reduced in my remix edition of the books. (Somewhere in here there is a joke about parallels between the Harry Potter books and the Ernest movies... Prisoner of Azkaban = Ernest Goes to Jail, this one = Ernest Goes to Camp... I'm sure there are more.)

I'm OK with Tonks and Lupin dying, but I don't think it was really necessary either way. As Dani noted, it would probably be too big a blow to the Weasley clan if both Arthur and Fred (I think it was Fred who died and George who lost an ear, right?) died. So if Arthur died, I think we'd have to get back Fred... and literarily I kind of like the idea of having the twins get split up (I can't really express why) and Teddy (who even in the phonetic similarity of his name, I think is pretty intentionally supposed to mirror Harry) orphaned. One nice thing about the latter is that it provides nice parallels/resolutions to the fact that Harry was orphaned in the first place, and that his own godfather was killed, simultaneously by virtue of having him become the godfather to the orphaned Teddy.

Re: Dani's question as to Snape: I agree with Cassie Clare that IF the only two choices are really 1) Snape was always good or 2) Snape was always bad, then you have to have it be #1. No question. However, again I would have preferred something with a little more surprise/subtlety, such as 1) Snape was always bad, but redeems himself at the last second (a la Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi) or 2) Snape was always good, but nearly ruins it all in a moment of temptation. (Example imagined scene: He temporarily gets ahold of the Resurrection Stone somehow, perhaps through Voldemort, and is given the opportunity to bring Lily back [just like the character in the legend] if he kills Harry or acts as accessory to such. He turns the stone over and sees her, and nearly gives in, but seeing her causes him to remember her sacrifice and allows him to overcome temptation at the last second. THEN Voldemort kills him.) Or some sort of trickery such as when Snape killed Dumbledore, they really had their roles reversed via Polyjuice Potion or some crap like that, although maybe that would be hokey unless you could figure out a really great way of pulling it off.

BTW, enjoyed Cassie's review... I particularly agreed with her that the quest for the Horcruxes and Hallows should have been folded into the narrative much earlier, even if it wasn't revealed until book 6 or so what the full story was behind these objects. And it would have been much better structurally... as they are now, books 1 through all but the end of 4 are basically like, "Hey, kids! It's another wacky year at Magic Camp!" and the real myth/epic is all crammed into (mostly the last 100 pages of each of) books 5-7.

And in answer to Cassie's question about why it was that Lily's sacrifice was the only one to protect from the A-K curse, when certainly other people had died for their loved ones before... I always assumed it was something like the light side of the Horcrux creation (i.e. a kind of magic that can only be invoked when you voluntarily sacrifice your life), in the same vein as the deeper, older magic of which the White Witch was unaware in Lion/Witch/Wardrobe, that which allowed Aslan to return to life. Is this in keeping with others' thoughts? But it would have been nice if there had been something in HP7 that explicitly revealed that she used this magic or knew about it.

Finally, for those who didn't get it the first time, I'll recopy my complaints and revisions of the finishing-off of Voldemort for your consideration:

"I had forgotten this, but Wikipedia has thoughtfully reminded me that Harry didn't really kill Voldemort... the A-K curse rebounded on him b/c the Elder Wand was loyal to Harry. Now, even if we are accepting the fact that Harry came back from the dead [which I still think is a cop-out, though I think it would sit better with me if it were presented in a dreamier, fuzzier, more out-of-body-experience-was-that-even-real? sort of way that cut out some of those pages of dialogue], this does not satisfy me.

"Anyway, this is what I propose. Harry comes in, more or less as written, except that he has managed to grab the ring with the Resurrection Stone back as he comes out of the forest, thereby tying up that plot hole (as anyone familiar with the Lord of the Rings or Wagner's Ring Cycle knows, a powerful ring, if lost but not destroyed, will always be found again). Voldemort still has the Elder Wand at this point. So Harry gets it somehow... let's say Voldemort points the wand at him and tries the A-K curse, but instead of the way it's written in the book (hits Harry's spell, bounces back, and kills him), the spell just fizzles. He refuses to believe Harry was right (in the needlessly long number of pages of dialogue between him and Harry that have just transpired), and tries again. Again, the curse refuses to fly out of the wand. Harry (with Draco's wand) then casts an Expelliarmus (so we still get this, which happened in the book, and I think is a nice touch as we mentioned). The Elder Wand flies out of V's hand and goes directly to Harry, smashing the wand he won from Draco in the process (I think this is kind of nice as it has symmetry -- Harry became the master of the wand by disarming Draco but did not actually get the Elder Wand, and now as it returns to him it destroys the wand he actually got from Malfoy) (also nice as if you assume Malfoy to be an evil foil to Harry, it parallels the damage to Harry's own wand earlier in the book).

"At any rate, however it plays out, Harry is now carrying all three of the Hallows -- thus he is presumably truly the master of death now if you buy the legend and/or if you assume he deserves this from sacrificing his life previously (I think this is also a nice touch -- that SOMEONE gets all three Hallows at some point). Voldemort, now desperate, either gets another wand from somewhere or uses his own original wand (I forget if he still has it at this point) and tries one more time (a third time, which I think is a nice magical number) with the A-K curse. Now the curse rebounds (I like the idea that the Elder Wand acts half on its own and Harry casts an unknown protective charm without actually speaking, but this point is negotiable), and Voldemort is knocked down, disarmed, and weakened, but not killed. Thus, to some extent it mirrors their first encounter -- but this time V is defenseless and Harry is at the height of his power. Harry expresses regret that it has to be this way, but knows that neither can live while the other survives, etc. He raises the Elder Wand and says "Avada-" (I think this would be the only time Harry uses the killing curse, right?) -- but before he finishes, the wand again acts on its own and completes the curse for him. I sort of like this b/c it adds some ambiguity to Harry's character -- i.e., he is willing to use the A-K curse (which is nice with all the symbolism of part of him being in Voldemort and vice versa) -- and he is more active in killing Voldemort than is written, but in some sense he is not fully responsible, as he never actually completes the curse, thus symbolizing how fate has to some extent forced his hand in this regard.

"Subsequently, Harry uses the Elder Wand to destroy the Resurrection Stone (I think this is allowed according to the rest of the myth in the book), and as already written, he also uses it to fix his own wand, then re-buries the Elder Wand with Dumbledore and keeps only the Invisibility Cloak. Thus (wow, I only just realized this parallel and have officially just blown myself away), just as at the end of the very first book where he got the Sorceror's/Philosopher's Stone from the mirror (i.e., he got the stone because he needed it but had no desire to use it), he proves himself to be the worthy master of all three Deathly Hallows solely by virtue of his willingness to give up the title.

"Much tidier, I think..."

Can't Stop the Rock?

In reference to the title of ^kat^'s last post, I give you:

http://jonesrock.ytmnd.com/

voldemort can't stop the rock

Though I made note of it at That Other Blog, I figured I'd let y'all know that I have vanquished HP7, and lo, it was good.

And I want to talk about it. Pretty please? Erica? Matt? Dani, did you finish it yet? hooray for wizards!

"boo google" and other computer-related things

more fun, unbloggable-from-work things:

microsoft tries its hand at package design (the unconfirmed rumor is that this video was actually created by MS employees)


a parody of an awfully cool but downright impractical new MS product (the real commercial's here)


also, I'm not purposely ignoring your comments to my previous post (or dani's phone call -- hi, dani!) -- the "boo google" part refers to the fact that Google Reader, which I use to compile the blogs I follow, doesn't display comments, so I've been missing out on entire comment conversations. (what? read the actual post? bah!) and dani, one of these days I'll call you back, but I've realized that I will never be available for a social phone call during your weekday waking hours, unless you want me to call at 10pm EDT, which is about when I return from work. there must be a way around this...

the internet is for craziness

...wait, have *any* of you seen "avenue q"? 'cause otherwise the subject line's not going to make any sense. see it today! now! *whip cracking*

anywho, I've been running across interesting articles at work, but since blogging about non-work things at work (and using the competition's blogging service, even) would probably be ill-advised, I've been collecting them to post from home. prepare to be...well, maybe not wowed, but at least mildly amused:

AT&T bills suck for all phones, but I prefer to blame this craziness on the awesomely awesome but way too expensive iPhone, and

thanks to an ingenious hacker, wikipedians (and, by extension, the rest of us) can now tell when you edit your own entry (and add poop jokes to others). whoopsies.

A quick shout-out...

... to my Canadian homeys for making some high-quality music. As probably none of you know, I'm going to a wedding in Toronto this weekend, and in honor of the trip, those riding in my car are going to be listening to an all-Canadian playlist on the way there and back.

For all those interested, all the Canadian music I either own or have stolen juuuust barely fits on my 2GB iPod Nano (after I threw out most of the live stuff, since that tended to duplicate studio material, but before tossing a few podcasts I hadn't listened to yet). So I put it all on there, both the artists we love (BNL, Moxy Fruvous, the New Pornographers, etc.) as well as some that most of us probably don't care for much but I still had lying around (Nickelback, Avril Lavigne) and a little stuff that I didn't really know anything about but was still there (Rush).

All that is over 24 hours' worth of music, but I took some time (probably more than I should have) to cull out the good stuff and put it into a "Best of Canadia" playlist... ~100 songs out of ~500 all told. I'll let you know how it's received.

Interesting fact: Corey Hart, a Canadian of "Sunglasses at Night" fame, was offered the role of Marty McFly in Back to the Future but turned it down.

Also, if you're ever bored, feel free to mosey over to Wikipedia's list of Canadian bands and the accompanying list of Canadian (individual) musicians, and find out which of your own favo(u)rite artists are actually secretly from our frigid neighbo(u)r to the no(u)rth. Or just read the band names... there are some doozies in there. Perchance I shall go through again and list some of my favo(u)rites when I get some more time.

Hmm, that wasn't such a quick shout-out after all. Oh well... off to bed with me.

PS to Dani: I have finished two Harry Potter movies and have the other two here at home waiting to watch as I work out... so hopefully I will indeed be prepared if you are planning to see #5 sometime soon.

Enormous P*nis

I'd just like to note that somehow, in all these years of listening to Da Vinci's Notebook, I only just recently noticed that one of the little throwaway lines at the end is Bernie singing, "My meat is murder." Which I think is awesome.

Also, I like the fact that, as Wikipedia notes, the fans of Paul and Storm are called Paul and Storm Troopers.

Dani, to save you the effort of saying it, I'll go ahead and say: ... huh? So here's something for you (and you, and you, and you), once you've finished HPVII: More on what happens after the final book.

this one goes out to my pedantic friend Matt

keep it up, and you could be president...

more iPhone fun, via the Boy

The question everyone's dying to ask... Does it blend?

uh oh...

sorry, Dani, but there will be a little more ickiness in the world come December:

Tim Burton and [Icky] Helena Bonham Carter Expecting Second Child

Just a quickie...

... to prove that I still exist. So much to blog, but so many other things that are theoretically a higher priority...

sooner or later, you're gonna use some math

YAY! It's online, at LAST:



I seriously, seriously love this song. I just wish it were longer. Larry Cedar is my hero.

Bonus cut:

if it's the space needle, it must be...

seattle! quickie update: I'm here, my apartment is great but not yet photo-ready, work starts tomorrow (eep), etc. etc. for a longer update, go here.

I miss you guys!

har!

I know many of us are regular readers of the Onion, but just in case you missed it...

Activision Reports Sluggish Sales for Sousaphone Hero

harry potter and the cheap chinese knock-off

didn't get enough harry potter in book 7? well, a whole bunch of chinese authors are doing their bestest to earn money publishing their own (totally unlicensed) installments...

no spoilers, I promise

weird al should be very offended

what? an entire article about the intricacies of being "white" and "nerdy" without even a shout-out to weird al? that's just wrong.

done!

done done done. I won't share my impressions so as not to spoil anything for the unread, but let us know when you've finished and we'll discuss. dani, no rush -- I really think it'll make the most sense if you reread book 6 first.

...now what? entertain me!

*tweak*

think you can't visit all 171 starbucks in Manhattan in one day?

think again:

just finished book 6...

...and, after a bathroom/food break, about to start book 7. haven't checked news or facebook in days in an attempt to avoid spoilers (the other day I had my mom scan cnn.com for me, just in case). should have it read by tomorrow afternoon, at which time I will respond to long-neglected emails, post pictures of the new apartment and be available for discussion.

in the meantime, start researching other awesomely awesome book series so I'll have something to cheer me up when I finish this one, okay?

edited to add: matt, whatever happened with the pirated HP7? I heard there were some pretty convincing phonies floating around the internet -- was the one you found real?

one two three four-ever

OMG OMG OMG

I may admit to watching "Army Wives" on Lifetime. [There is not much else on TV in the summertime.] And I may have left the tv on afterward for some white noise while I finished my clerkship application spreadsheet, even if that white noise was the truly unbearable new show "Side Order of Life."

And following that show was ANOTHER new show, "State of Mind." And who do I see within a minute of the opening credits? LARRY FUCKING CEDAR. And he is playing a very... ah... Neil Patrick Harris-in-Harold-and-Kumar-esque character. I have no idea if he's a regular character or a one-off (I'm kind of guessing the latter), but still, it was kind of insane.

The show looks terrible, though it does appear to take place in New Haven. For what that's worth. Good to see our boy Cassius still getting acting gigs, though.

Anyway, I have yet to start HP (I KNOW--I spent much of the weekend w/ the HP-averse Boy), but I'm hoping to make it through one more day w/o being spoiled. Wish me luck.

Done!

And I have mixed feelings about the way everything panned out... you all need to finish now, so we can discuss.

MJ, who figures the fine folks at the Hamden Panera, where he was reading the last several hundred pages, are probably glad to finally be rid of him

Page 650 update

OK, things REALLY start to heat up around page 600. I am still a ways from the end, but I can already tell you that the last couple hundred pages are, IMHO, what make reading the rest of the series worthwhile.

Back to reading as fast as I can...

HPVII update

Around page 550... things finally starting to pick up. Body count rising... I shall say no more.

About halfway through Deathly Hallows...

... and to be honest, nothing terribly earth-shattering has happened yet. IMHO.

I'll keep the spoilers to myself, but it looks like JK's habit of not really getting the story going until the last part of the book continues to hold. I have no idea how she's going to finish everything off in just 400 more pages...

Harry Potter VII update

I just obtained a copy of one of the pirate editions floating around the Intarwebs... who wants it?

we interrupt this week of packing...

...to announce a new blog:

http://wheel-of-fish.blogspot.com/

it remains to be seen how regularly and/or thoroughly I will keep up this blog, but right now I have very high hopes. I also have very high hopes that one day the mountain of boxes in my bedroom will disappear, so these hopes may or may not be grounded in reality.

in case you were worried, the creation of a me-only blog will not cause me to shirk my group-blogging responsibilities. rest assured that any craziness I find on the internets will be announced here first.

I'm sleepy, so that's it for now. see some of you tomorrow --

ericat13, ohsotempted to stay up and watch conan's interview of hermione/emma watson, but probably heading to bed instead

This is cracktastic...

... but I love it:

In honor of Botticelli...

The last line is my favorite part.

This is a picture of a baby duct-taped to a wall...

... and this is a list of the sixteen ugliest men in rock and roll.

That is all for now.

there are a zillion things I should be doing right now...

but instead I found this on youtube, and it's made me SO HAPPY:

mmm...alan rickman...

yes, he was probably a fair bit hotter a decade or two ago, but even as a potentially evil, stringy-haired potions professor he's awfully attractive.

plus this is just funny:

iPhone fun

Because it's been a while since anyone's posted anything... here are a couple of iPhone-related goodies.

Conan O'Brien's iPhone ad:



Mad TV unveils the iRack:

I don't know why this is so funny.

but it's taking all of my willpower not to play it over and over again.

"Stanley, I have something to tell you.

The baby...

It's not yours!" (okay, hit play.)

who's happy to be done with grad school?

ooh

ooh

pick me

but seriously, have we seen this?


I'm highly amused, and also a little sad for those of us who are/may be pursuing a phd...but these comics are funny because they're *exaggerations* of reality, no?

edit: apologies for the wonkiness of the picture in the first version of this post -- I did some photoshopping and hopefully the text is actually readable now. if not...might I suggest sucking it?

I should be in bed

... but I'm not.

re-donk-ulous

this is amazing. I kind of really want to go on this game show. who's up for a trip to japan?

"birthplace of aviation," indeed

I see what Daytonites really spend their time researching:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4174519.stm

PS: I realize this article is two years old, but apparently it has recently experienced a resurgence of interest in the blogosphere. Which, conveniently, we are in.

RIP, mr. wizard

mr. wizard died! sad...

and I can't think of mr. wizard without recalling one of my favorite gags on "dinosaurs". I didn't have any luck finding a clip on youtube, so this sound bite will have to do...

An Adult Operation!

I commend this game to you. I managed to get out Karl Rove's brain, but the bomb exploded on Donald Rumseld. I only scored 40, but you all should try. Bush definitely needs the help!

Extreme...ly short videos

These are all videos that I took by accident, but I think they have a certain charm. Picasa doesn't do them justice, so here are the full versions:

http://pantheon.yale.edu/~mrj9/extreme/

There is something oddly hypnotic about setting Windows Media Player (or whatever) to loop the video when it's played and watching it over and over again. Sort of like ytmnd.com.

In related news, who is going to create the first "lolkat" out of this picture?

Finally: Harry Potter gossip. Warning: possible spoiler for the whole series if it is real. But it is quite possible that it is not. Someone claims to have posted a page from the last book here:

http://rolloffle.blogspot.com/

I won't even tell you what it claims, in case you don't want to look. I myself suspect it is fake.

PS: Congrats to Dani for surviving today!

don't smother your kids

you know, it's about time someone took a stand on this.



here's a bonus video -- fyi, miss piggy isn't the best extra.

Guess who I just saw...

... on an episode of the second season of Lois and Clark? That would be none other than David Bowe (NOT David Bowie), star of UHF, playing an evil opthamologist that blinds Superman. I'm watching as I post, so I can't tell you how it turns out... but I am on the edge of my seat.

This one's my favorite

And I'm embarrassed by how long it took for me to figure out "hobowned."

LOLCoulton

your daily dose of randomness, and by "randomness" I mean "awesomeness":


it's just...it's...so many geek references in one photo. mind exploding.

more here.

--ericat13, trying to get some conversation going

im in ur webzine, becomin legit

...okay, that was a weak one. but look! slate.com has discovered the coolness of random photos with nonsensical captions!

in other bizarro-land news, you can buy your own fake sleeping, snoring pet for the low, low price of $45!

is anyone as creeped out as I am?

in keeping with tradition

I've officially finished my MBA. what do I expect to be your reaction?



and my response:


ARRRRRRRR

--ericat13, off to celebrate by...going to bed

Archduke the time-traveling pimp

This video makes very little sense to me, but it also cracks me up. I'm not sure if the HTML is going to work or not. Let's see:

I'd just like to note...

... that I have been to the White Castle that is a block away from my NYC hotel no less than three times in the past day and a half. I might go again tomorrow, if I can squeeze it in.

Mmmm. White Castle.

im in ur webcomic...

...makin fun of ur meme.

is it stealing if you can't keep it?

I've been hearing rumblings about this for months now, but it looks like congress has officially managed to screw over internet radio stations. for those of us who like, say, pandora.com and other awesome internet-only stations (my guilty pleasure is sky.fm, which basically plays classical music's greatest hits...hey, it helps me study), we could find ourselves very unhappy after may 15, when the new regulations take effect and a lot of these stations will no longer be able to afford to function. I don't know much about the details of the legislation, but I thought I'd post this funky little banner and encourage you guys to pass the word along, if nothing else.



hey, ^k^, when you're a lawyer, you're going to keep stuff like this from happening, right?

here's mine

Still don't know how I feel about this concept... but here is my daemon, for what it's worth:



When I get a little more time I will have to see about transmogrifying the rest of you....

okay.

I'm still not entirely clear on the "daemon" concept (honestly, every time I read it I think of the automated message that shames you when you try to email a nonexistent address, mail-daemon or whatever), but here's mine:



I like that it's a spider (JE sux!), but I don't really know if it describes me...

it's exam time...

...and therefore I'd rather be reading anything but what I'm supposed to. sigh.

but have we all checked out stuff on my cat today...?

Here's mine!

daemons!

I'm posting this EVERYwhere, but I think you should all make your own to see what you get. You take a short quiz at the Golden Compass Movie website and then you get your daemon! And then we can vote on whether it suits you, which changes its shape (they only last 12 days, though). Here's mine:



Did anyone else read the His Dark Materials trilogy? I remember really liking this first one, but the other two didn't thrill me as much. I still kind of want to reread them, though. After, um, finals. Sigh.

(Also, I hear there's a new OotP trailer out--has anyone seen it?)

NU Law in the news!

well! good to see one of our graduates is already making a name for himself in the political sphere.

did you know...

...that our blog is a year old today? hooray for us!

And, for old time's sake:

this horse has better rhythm than I do.

it's a horse

being ridden by a man in (I assume) formal riding gear

dancing to "lady marmalade."

*head asplodes*

uh...yeah. enjoy.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

for me this time -- the yearbook is DONE.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

happy weekend --

ericat13, running outside to catch the tail end of the first day of spring

a couple of things

A) Do we all subscribe to Jonathan Coulton's RSS feed? If not, go here to download his cover of Alanis's "You Oughta Know." Hee.

B) Do we all know that I am a crazy insane person who loves to overcommit herself? Yes? Then it should come as no surprise that I'm going to be the vocal director of Wigmore Follies next year.

:D

To say I'm excited is an understatement. you should all clear your calendars for the last weekend in March 2008 and come see next year's show! :D :D :D

Qualifying rocks

OK, maybe that's going a bit far. But it's over, and I passed, so I am at least neutral towards the concept of qualifying once again. Sure, we lost Billy and Fred, but I'm sure Jane and Sarah and I will all be very happy here together in the Oregon Territory.

Off to sleep, drink, play poker, sleep, and get back to work again tomorrow.

oh crap

oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap

2 hours and 15 minutes left to go

oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap

we interrupt the previously scheduled qualifying update...

...to give you this story from my tax prof this morning:

So, we're studying about deductions for casualty losses. And there was a taxpayer who was raking and burning leaves when he found a live trap for a mouse, with a mouse in it. He was so startled he dropped the trap into the pile of burning leaves, which melted the trap and set the mouse free--but the mouse wasn't dead, just mildly flaming. So the little fiery mouse ran back into the man's house, catching the house on fire and burning it down.

And all I could think about were the peasants from the Trogdor game, and how it's not entirely clear whether they would get a casualty loss deduction for their thatched-roof cottage, because was the presence of Trogdor really all that sudden, unexpected and unusual? I mean, Trogdor lives around there, doesn't he? Wouldn't they be on their guard?

*throws metal sign and shrieks, "AND THE TROGDOR COMES IN THE NIIIIIIIIGHT!"*

(oh, and the flaming mouse dude couldn't take his deduction, because burning leaves was illegal at that time of year. heh.)

Now back to qualifying, already in progress...

Qualifying studying update

Still blows. I am incredibly not ready for this exam. Hopefully I will be by tomorrow, but at the rate they are moving the exam up (it was initially at 3:00, then 2:45, then 2:00, and now phrases like "I'm free anytime after noon" are beginning to fly), it may be touch and go.

OK. Back to studying/making frantic crib sheets. Which, as I may have mentioned, blows.

15 hours (ish, maybe) left to go! Some of which might get devoted to sleep!

and so it begins...

I've never been one to thoroughly scour the NY times wedding announcements, but it was brought to my attention that one of my current classmates was in last weekend's edition, *and* her qualifications were impressive enough to win a celebrity blog's announcement-ranking game. ick.

Qualifying addendum

You know what else blows? Taxes. Still need to send those off.

Qualifying update #3

Monday morning, approximately 3:15 am. It is finished. Sort of. Still need to proofread one last time and send off, but no new significant amount of information is coming, for better or for worse. Mental state: surprisingly chipper. Caffeine and sugar intake this evening has been much more evenly distributed. Peaks and valleys are all well and good when one is crossing the rugged terrain of the Oregon Territory; not so much for blood sugar.

At this point, approximately 39 hours used; 9 remain. Even allowing another half an hour to proofread and send it in, and eight hours (ha!) for sleep if that were really the physiological necessity everyone claims it is, I would just like to note that this still leaves me a full half an hour of buffer time. A.k.a. more buffer time than I have had for any assignment I have ever been given in my entire life. There must be something wrong with me. I must have gotten weirdly responsible in my old age. Or, more likely, screwed something up. Something like hearing "you only have to answer three of the questions," when in reality the assignment was "answer all eight, or you will be summarily castrated."

Pace: still steady. Rations: adequate. (Tomorrow and for several days thereafter, rations are going to have to become meager, as I am beginning to have trouble carrying my own fat ass back to the wagon, much less all the bison I am shooting.)

Sucked the snake venom out of Jane's wound; she is improving. Billy's typhoid took a sudden turn for the worse; he died. Also, Jane is pregnant. Apparently venom-sucking proved to be an unexpected aphrodesiac.

Until I find out tomorrow that I did everything OK, Matt has a case of Schroedinger's Testicles.

Qualifying still blows. For about 2.5 more days. At which point, qualifying will be awesome, since I will be done with it and most of my friends will still have to do it. Ha. Losers. Then, it will be paper revisions and conference preparations which will blow.

Qualifying update #2

Sunday morning, approximately 2:30 am. The night is still, as are my thoughts. Second question of 3 is about 60% completed. Nonlinear properties of visual system neurons have been partially characterized. 14 hours used, 34 hours remain. Mental state: sleepy. Will soon retire for the evening.

Taco Bell was an excellent choice. As was breaking during Taco Bell consumption to watch episodes of Family Guy ("You have AIDS" song was prominently featured in tonight's selection). Pace: steady. Rations: filling. Heath: Good, but fat. May have a tough time floating the wagon across the next river if I continue eating at this pace. Billy's typhoid is improving. However, Jane got a snake bite.

Random trivia fact of the moment: The guy who plays Creed on the American version of The Office was once a member of the rock band The Grass Roots. Singers of oldie classics like "Midnight Confessions," "Temptation Eyes," and "Sooner or Later."

Random trivia fact of the moment immediately following that one: The theme song of the American version of The Office is my current ringtone.

Qualifying still blows, though I can almost see the beginning of the end in sight. If I squint. A lot.

Qualifying update #1

Saturday, approximately 8:15 pm. First question of 3 (mostly) completed. 8 hours used, 40 hours remain. Blood levels of sugar and caffeine running high. Mental state: twitchy, but coherent. Billy has typhoid. A thief came in the night and stole 2 of my oxen.

The next question after this one will be harder to answer; the last question should be easiest. Must pace myself (current pace: strenuous, but not grueling). Time for Taco Bell break as I plan my next move.

Qualifying still blows.

I wandered lonely as a cloud, y0.

Hey Erica, how come your New Haven promotional video didn't look like this?

Also, a good story about copyright, fair use, and Green Eggs and Ham, from Salon. (Sadly, no reference to fruvous, though.)

Finally, who wants to see Buster Bluth in a Switchfoot video? Well, not me, really, but it turned out surprisingly well.

Qualifying bloooooooows

That's really all I wanted to say

from the friend who brought us alanis and her humps

nelly or grrrl rocker? you decide. (check out the first track.)

well, shoot.

turns out handel's "messiah" isn't so much "yay jebus" as "boo jews." even the guy who wrote "amazing grace" (about whom a movie proclaiming his awesomeness was just released) was in on it. yeesh.

...uh, happy easter?

alanis morissette's...lovely lady lumps?

hee.



edited to add: here's the original song/video, just in case any of us (*nudge* hi, dani!) miss the reference :-P

also, can I just point out (again) that this is a HORRENDOUS song? thank you, alanis (and india, and terror, and disillusionment) for continuing to poke fun at it.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

july = so soon!

YouTube Award results

Sooooo... mixed feelings on the outcome of the first ever YouTube award results. OK Go won for Most Creative, which was deserved, methinks. I was not thrilled by most of the winners for the other categories, though. But, the winner for Best Series, "Ask a Ninja," is pretty funny. First episode below.



The winner for Most Inspirational was OK too... it was a neat idea, at least.



Finally, to complete the YouTube trifecta, this wasn't a winner of anything, but I found it recently and it amused me:

YouTube awards

Just thought I'd post the link so you can check out the nominees (and, as of Friday [I think], the winners):

http://www.youtube.com/ytawards

I haven't looked at everything yet... but I was not that blown away by the entries I've looked at so far in the comedy category (though "Ben takes a photo of himself everyday" is pretty decent if you get the reference of the parody). Several old standbys are there, including the Chad Vader videos and of course the original OK Go treadmill video.

On the one hand, I have to say that, with how incredibly easy it is to make cool movies on a Mac these days, I'm a little disappointed that all of the entries aren't spectacular. On the other hand, this gives me hope that I could do at least as well as these people. If only I had a little more spare time....

more OK Go-related awesomeness

I heard a passing reference to this online

but was underwhelmed, so when this



came up as a "related" video, I thought I'd check it out.

my faith in today's youth has been (mostly) restored. but how on earth did they get the gym teacher to let them rearrange the treadmills?

it's oh so quiet

so I was trying to find ways to waste time so I could look up at 4:30 and say, "hey! it's time to leave for st. patrick's day festivities!" and I decided to see when exactly we started this blog. for the record, our blogiversary is april 23 (mark your calendars!), and for an additional part of the record, we were WAY more prolific in our early days. what happened? not much has changed since last april -- we're all still students, and matt may have some qualifying thingy to worry about this year, but he didn't let something small like a neuroanatomy final get in the way of his blogging last spring so I see no reason to cut him some slack now. I will do whatever it takes to restore our early levels of irreverance and lively debate, but I need your help!

here's your first topic. wedding cake festooned with twinkies: awesome or hideous?

I am way on the side of awesome: chocolate frosting (hopefully surrounding chocolate cake) -- good! happy little decorations which will probably last longer than the marriage -- even better! what do you guys think?

By the way...

... I just wanted you all to know that, over the weekend, at extreme peril to my chances of passing my qualifying exam, I finished Harry Potter book 6, thus bringing me fully up to speed. And at some point, I think a full conversation is in order regarding what we think is going to happen in book 7. I have read much speculation on the Intarwebs, and have some of my own as well.

I will not begin this conversation quite yet because I still have reading to finish for tomorrow. But soon. Very soon.

PS: I am too cheap to actually buy the book this summer, but I call first dibs on borrowing it from whomever finishes it first.

I'm in song love

I stumbled across this song in a totally unrelated podcast about an hour ago, and between replaying it in the podcast, looking for videos of it on youtube and finally downloading the mp3, I've heard it at least ten times since then...and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. so yeah, in true me style, it's taken me months to realize that a musician who was recommended to me (by you, matt?) is truly awesome, and now I'm seriously considering canceling my existing plans for march 30 so I can go see him (with paul and storm!) in NYC. who wants to join? (^k^, don't you need to look for apartments/drink at mory's sometime this spring? hm...)

the object of my obsession:

c'mon c'mon

have we all seen this?



My verdict? AWESOME.

either the world keeps getting funnier or my standards are lower than I thought

neuroscientists rock out

*snort* oh, I tried so hard to say that with a straight face.

this is fairly amusing, too

it doesn't beat a hilarious almost-war, but it's still worth checking out...

only in europe

I am highly amused.

swiss accidentally almost start itty-bitty war

Chad Vader, Day Shift Manager

If you think this one is funny, there are 5 more episodes... I spent half an hour today watching them when I probably had better things to do.

a public service announcement

to all men worldwide:

when one's hairline begins to recede, one has several options. one can

(a) grin and bear it

(b) grin and, uh, bare it (that's jack nicholson, btw)

or


(c) glue in some extra hair and hope no one notices.










for the love of God, don't pick (b) or (c). (b) scares the children, and (c) just makes everyone laugh.

you're welcome.

for a livelier discussion of britney-related stuffs...

...check out the results of Stereogum's Photoshop Britney contest. ha!

huh.

maybe she *did* have a compelling reason for shaving her head. a stupid reason, and one which only serves to prove why she needed drug testing in the first place, but still a reason. there's hope yet!

Belated story to share

... even though I have many other things I should be doing, and this is old news by now, I figured I'd let you all know I was alive and blogging by relating the following dialogue from the recent recruitment weekend for my neuroscience program.

I am pretty sure this constitutes the absolute high point of my life thus far. It occurred last Saturday night at Barcelona between me and a female recruit whose name I never learned, but whom we shall call Reasonably Attractive Asian Recruit (RAAR) for the sake of the dialogue:

Me: So, then there was the summer that I spent in Winston-Salem working for the Hanes underwear catalogue...
RAAR: (COMPLETELY SERIOUS) So, were you, like, an underwear model?

This actually happened. I have witnesses.

...what?

"the mathematics of love" was stuck in my head and it made me happy, so I thought I'd share the happy, but I couldn't find it on youtube and had to settle for this instead. meh. it's almost as good.





update: OMG. I LOVED THIS SONG. I STILL DO.

uh, matt, care to comment?

can you *honestly* say she's still hot? yes, the ratty uncombed hair is gone, but...it's GONE. as is she. completely gone. she also threw up in her car last weekend and then WENT OUT TO PARTY SOME MORE. if guys can look at that and still find the vomiter (and then partier) even remotely attractive, there is no f-ing way I should be single.


PS -- I am totally digging this post-label thingy.

update: cnn.com has the whole sordid head-shaving story here.

the internets have created and/or codified a number of new interjections

to which I say:

meh.

or possibly feh. I'm not sure.

also...

this has been a ridiculous news week. when will it end???

is anyone else following this?

I just think this is the perfect blend of tragic and awesome. people are CRAZY...and so creative about it!

astronaut flips out, voluntarily wears diaper

OMG squee!

FINAL Harry Potter coming July 21!

ahh, cat washing

It amuses me:

OK...

... per the request of ^kat^, we have switched to the new Blogger. I have yet to really investigate what the benefits of this might be, but I assume they are legion.

Donny Osmond rocks hardcore

The first take of Weird Al and Donny Osmond dancing together for the "White and Nerdy" video:



I, for one, am rather impressed with the level of Mr. Osmond's (presumably) improvisational dancing skills.

crossposted from my other blog for matt's benefit

It's official. Music class = the best law school class ever.

Why? Because my reading for tomorrow (portions of Rockonomics) contains an extended quote from (Semisonic drummer) Jake Slichter's masterpiece, So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star.

Coincidentally, I read that book nearly two years ago, while visiting the law school for Admitted Students Weekend. It's a phenomenal piece of work about the music industry and you should all read it yourselves, if you haven't already.

And *I* should finish my reading for tomorrow. But seriously? I LOVE THIS CLASS. It's like getting class credit for doing the stuff I do normally.

I'm totally pulling one over on the administration. (Shhh, don't tell.)

I'm in ur manatees, stealin ur buckets...?

pix from last night

A selection of photographs from last night's Bible trivia extravaganza. Sorry for the lame captions; trying to do this quickly and surreptitiously at work, so no time for cleverness...

The brain cake

Some elderly gentleman holding said brain cake

Remainder of the casserole

The Bible trivia game board

Dani is amused by her email

I play with the "everything black and white but one color" feature of my camera