more funny responses to math questions

*snicker* here's my favorite:

Dance Around The World

this guy is truly awesome, not just because he has mad dancing skillz, but also because he somehow managed to get to all of these places in what seems to be a relatively short period of time. and there are other videos with other locations, which makes him even more well-traveled (better-traveled?). wow.

edited to add -- from the guy's website (www.wherethehellismatt.com):

"The response to the first video brought Matt to the attention of the nice people at Stride long-lasting gum. They asked Matt if he'd be interested in taking another trip around the world to make a new video. Matt asked if they'd be paying for it. They said yes. Matt thought this sounded like another very good idea.

At the start of 2006, Matt left on a 6 month trip through 39 countries on all 7 continents. In that time, he danced a great deal."

and my favorite line: "Matt dances very badly, but most people don't seem to mind."

oh, and this:

"When Matt was younger, he could hang seven spoons on his face at once. Sadly, puberty made Matt's face less conducive to spoon-hanging.

Matt has a little piece of extra cartilage sticking out on the rim of one ear and a little hole in the same place on the other ear. Matt has no idea why this is the case.

Matt is very good with figures and wishes people asked him to multiply things more often.

Matt has never lost a staring contest."

I swear I'm not obsessed...

...but this shiznit is not to be missed:

too bad the deadline's July 30...

...or we could bring a camera and attempt this over CEDARPOINT OMG weekend:

Just because I happened to think of it

You guys may have seen this before, but it amuses me, so here it is again:



Also, another thing I watched on YouTube today was the pilot (and only produced episode) of Heat Vision and Jack. For those not in the know, this was a show starring Jack Black as Jack Austin, an astronaut who flew too close to the sun and as a result of exposure to its rays is now the smartest man alive (as long as the sun is up). He is accompanied by his motorcycle, Heat Vision (voiced by Owen Wilson), which is able to talk because it is actually the fusion of a motorcycle and Jack's former roommate, Doug, due to an unfortunate ray gun accident. Ah yes, and did I mention that it was directed by Ben Stiller?

It is bizarre, but definitely worth watching if you have half an hour to kill. I recommend intoxication for maximum effect, but you can play it by ear. Here it is:

HELP!

Okay friends, I feel so lost and depressed. Please offer advice:

What should I do with the rest of my life?

There's part of me that almost wants to say, "Tell me what to do and I will commit to it for at least a year and if it's horrible, at least I'll probably be able to write a book about it."

But I'm feeling like everyone is on the path to massive success except me. Help!
st

not terribly interesting, but fairly informative and timely!

list of ways to save gas (and $$) -- most of this is common sense, and a big chunk of it is about rental cars and therefore unnecessary for our CEDARPOINT!!!11! purposes, but it's worth a quick read.

-- erica, happy to see that her preferred parking strategy is, in fact, efficient

all your snakes are belong to us

who doesn't love a montage?

also...

today I was introduced to what is quite possibly the most sickeningly sweet website in the universe. it may lack the variety of cuteoverload.com, but it wins for irresistability and awww-inducing fluffiness. here's a preview:










this is ted. he's adorable, but is he cute enough to take on tabba?










enjoy...

we're really bad at planning.

Every time the ball gets slightly rolling on the proposed cedar point trip, discussions fall off and nothing happens. It's a month away, people! If Ms. SocialTrinity doesn't want her Marriott points, I'll reserve the hotel! I just don't want this not to happen because we suck and can't plan for shit.

Oh, and so this isn't just a crabby rant...

further proof that Helen should have won...

a PUPPY? For serious?

what do you think, kids?

Should we set her up with Jeeebus?

edited to add: hahahahaha, oh, geez. "Hassle the Hoff"? I love it!

uh-oh.

veddy interesting.

feds are double-checking how yale deals with research $$

granted (heh), I know nothing of the research-grant world, being one of the poor suckers who actually pays for her education, but perhaps one of you going-to-school-for-free types can comment -- should yale researchers be worried?

either this guy has done this more than once or there are more of them out there...*shudder*

someone just sent me a link to a story about this guy who went on a date, insisted on paying for dinner, then got all pissy and even threatened to sue the girl for half the original bill when a second date didn't happen...and I *swear* I've heard this story before. ^k^, did I hear it through you? if so, is it the same guy? or is it -- yikes -- someone else entirely who is equally socially awkward?

also, quickie concert review (and I'll let matt fill in the gaps) -- TMBG on saturday was awesome! if I remember correctly, they played "new york city" and "birdhouse in your soul" right off the bat, played all of "fingertips," closed with "istanbul (not constantinople)," and brought out a slew of guest artists, including the "horns of babylon" (not their official name -- yet -- but a trumpet, trombone and saxa-ma-phone) and two women who sang "dinner bell." good, good times. the venue was surprisingly big, and even though it was essentially in the middle of the casino you could hardly hear the slot machines when the band was playing :-) oh, and on the way out I dropped a couple of quarters into a slot machine and won $5. woo.

ouch-a-chaka oucha oucha ouch-a-chaka

How, exactly, does one do this?

hang on...they found WHAT?

is this for real?

scientists may have found noah's ark

I found it through fark.com, but it seems to really be the good morning america website, but...for reals? whoa. huh.

also, hi mel! welcome to the world of rererererererere. congratulations on being our first non-us comment :-)

have you had your daily serving of cheese?

this should hold you for about a week. maybe two. and since I'll be working all the concerts and movies on the green this summer, I'll be hearing it at *least* twice every weekend. woo!

because we haven't had a random comic in awhile

omg don't let it be neville or ginny...

JKR is a cruel person. Don't taunt us like this! askdfghlkjsfl;prhjtbbth

actually

This is Britney from late last week. After all the backlash post-Matt Lauer, she decided to dye her hair f*ck-you black. It would be an improvement if she'd only a) chosen dark brown instead, and b) still remembered to wash/brush her hair on a regular basis.

In an attempt to put this blog back on track, though, I, too, am SUPERPSYCHED for CEDARPOINT OMG, so I think we need to start plannin' and reservin' and stuff. Wasn't there a Fairfield Inn by Marriott around the park someplace? I like staying at those because they have such nice complimentary breakfasts. Most important meal of the day, dontcha know.

For the prosecution....

I present this:







I rest my case.

And, Matt, in case you didn't notice, she doesn't like you. Or any of the rest of us for that matter. Check out the poem on her website if you haven't already.

By the way, where are we staying at CEDAR POINT!
ST

evidence for the defense

Exhibit A:



Exhibit B:



Exhibit C:

you know, I remember seeing this years ago when I didn't know who half these people were.

okay, springsteen on conan seems to be gone (siiiiigh), but this is what comes up if you search youtube for "bruce" and "conan," and it's ALMOST as good (and by "good" I mean "funny, but a little more 'funny painful' than 'funny ha ha'")...btw, can anyone identify the dude in the "I'm made for a better world" t-shirt? I have no clue who he is or why he was deemed worthy of sharing a set with paul reiser AND heavy D. I mean, HONestly...


**update -- the conan video DOES work! for some reason it kept skipping to the "share this video" screen and I couldn't skip backwards or forwards in the video, but let the whole thing load and it should play just fine. and yes, kat, I agree -- WOO. I have a new goal in life: to play in a 30-member band, including a full brass section and jimmy fallon on spoons. (rowr.)

WATCH THIS RIGHT NOW

...before NBC makes YouTube take it down:



AWESOME. Jimmy Fallon on spoons? Thomas Haden Church on random percussion? All of the Max Weinberg 7 + Conan in the mix? I can't get over it. SO MUCH FUN.

I don't care what you girls say

Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson (hello, AdSense) are both still hot.

Note that I did not say they dress well.

I did not say they were intelligent.

I did not say they can sing.

I did not say they have taste.

I did not say they have style.

I did not say their hair bears any resemblance to actual hair.

I did not deny that they are white trash.

I did not suggest in any way that they have any decision-making skills whatsoever.

But nevertheless, their hotness remains. And for this, I salute them.

n.b. to ^kat^: A few ill-chosen Kodak moments does not an unhot woman make. Or need I remind you of some pictures I have of a certain someone posing in furry boots? Or balancing a fake cockroach on her nose? If you like, I could post those photos on the blog -- or better yet, www.hotornot.com -- and we could let the masses decide....

PS to ST: Sorry, no birthday ideas coming to mind.

EMERGENCY HELP!

So guess who forgot to get her mother a birthday present.....Any suggestions for a kick-ass present I can get between 5pm today and 1pm tomorrow?

Also--this shizzle thing is lost on me. What's it supposed to do?

And why can Catherine McPhee read minds because was bulimic? I'm feeling behind the times....
st

lessee if this works.

so apparently the html shizzle which I'm about to paste into this post will let you translate our blog into...well, "izzle" seems to be as good a term for it as any. but for the record, it has been well-documented in this very blog that I am unversed in the ways of html, so I deny any responsibility for this post if it comes out all wonky.

fo' shizzle.

here we go...

Tranzliate this Shiznit to Jive! Click the Spinn'n Rim Beotch! www.myYearbook.com -- Created by 2 high school students to kick myspace's ass Add the Tranzizzle-ata' to Your Site!

did you guys see?

American Idol runner up Katharine McPhee can read minds!

Concert review

All in all, it was an excellent concert evening. I was a little lonely, having gotten the cold shoulder from all my supposed music-loving friends, but it was still totally worth the trip up to Hartford to see Carbon Leaf.

The show was in the Webster Underground, which (as Erica can attest) is kind of a sucky venue, both in terms of size and in terms of ability to attract a crowd. However, the sound system was pretty good, and whoever was choosing the interstitial music gets my thumbs up as well (Stephen Kellogg AND Jump, Little Children! Who'da thought?). Audience-wise, there were probably 100 or so of the hardcore faithful present, and the club was just small enough that that made it feel somewhat fullish even though there was still a fair amount of elbow room to go around.

At any rate, the boys did not take the small crowd as an excuse to put on a half-assed show... no, no, this show was definitely one of the full-assed variety. Good, solid mix of songs from the two latest albums (including "What About Everything?," which I believe was one of ^kat^'s picks from the last album), with a few older and a few brand-spankin'-new cuts from the upcoming album (September, methinks?) thrown in for good measure.

Overall rating: 8.5 out of 10. Definitely worth the $16 ticket-at-the-door price (and even also worth the additional $15 I spent at the bar and the $10 I spent buying the one studio album of theirs I didn't have yet).

SPECIAL BONUS REVIEW: JON MCLAUGHLIN

So, the opener for Carbon Leaf was a guy named Jon McLaughlin and his nameless backup band. At first, I thought they were just a high school band that the Underground had scrounged up somewhere, because the guitarist looked like he was approximately 9 years old. But no, they were a real band, as I soon found out.

JM follows in a long and fortunate tradition of "openers who actually turned out to be really, really good in their own right." This tradition includes Carbon Leaf themselves (whom I believe we saw open for... was it Great Big Sea?) as well as Stephen Kellogg (Kat -- was it Robbie Schaefer we saw him open for?). Jon himself is an (enormous) (throbbing) pianist, which gave the overall band a vaguely Ben Foldsish feel, but with a little more guitar rock sound mixed in than BF has.

As Erica and I discussed at the SK6ers show a week or two ago, I think that there is a certain quality that some bands just have and some never figure out. That is the ability to make a song "pop"... i.e. arrange it and perform it so the sounds play well together and have interesting dynamics and form cool counterpoints and so forth, rather than just forming kind of a mishmash. I think a lot of opening bands, cover bands, bar bands, etc., are of the mishmashy sort, but JM was definitely of the popping variety. They played for almost an hour and there wasn't a dud in the bunch. (This includes their one cover, "Message in a Bottle," which they played just a bit uptempo and which I actually liked better than the original.)

At any rate, they got my highest seal of approval for an opening band: The faith CD purchase. Unfortunately, this had to be online, as they had packed up and headed out by the time I got to the merch table after Carbon Leaf, so I can't offer you a review of that yet. However, I will be sure to do so in 10-14 days when it arrives. Note: It already gets a couple points in my book because the title is "Songs I Wrote and Later Recorded," which I think is a great album name. And almost certainly truthful!

FYI: I think they are based in the general Indiana-Illinois area, and I believe their website (jonmclaughlinmusic.com) listed them as playing in Chicago at various points. So, I highly recommend ^kat^ check them out if she ever has some spare time. The rest of you I will be dragging along to their next CT show, never you fear.

Overall rating: 8 out of 10 on the general scale, 10 out of 10 on the "holy crap, the opening band didn't suck and in fact was quite good" scale.

SUPER-SECRET MEGA BONUS THIRD AND FINAL REVIEW OF THE NIGHT

Unfortunately, this is more of a negative review. Jessica Simpson is on the latest cover of Maxim, which initially made me very happy. However, said happiness was short-lived, as the article/pictorial seems to be following Maxim's recent disturbing trend of putting all the good stuff on the cover, and not really offering much beyond that (in terms of added hotness) on the inside.

Overall rating: 6 out of 10 on the general scale, 2 out of 10 on the dashed-hopes scale, and 9 out of 10 on the "heck, it's still Jessica Simpson, and crappy pictorial or not, she can feel free to have my babies anytime, and hopefully our IQs will average out and said babies will be at least vaguely intelligent, as in maybe not Yale material but presumably able to differentiate chicken from tuna" scale.

I believe it is now time for bed. Away I go!

Notable News

Matt--that was pretty lame until the little green blurb came up and then it got my approval. Here's my attempt at amusing you all:

So in an effort to find my transgendered childhood friend, I found this news article, which, unfortunately, I was unable to open, but it certainly piqued my interest:

Dominatrix Ava Taurel drowns in Mexico

It's been a while...

... since I've posted anything on here. And yet, I have nothing to say. Unless you really like hearing about neural correlates of working memory, mental imagery, and/or the top-down modulation of posterior perceptual regions by signals originating in prefrontal cortex.

So, here's an Ocular Trauma for you:




Side note: Carbon Leaf concert tomorrow! w00t!

Can we say awesome!

Check this out folks! The first female presiding bishop in the Episcopal Church! That's hot,
d

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/75383_76165_ENG_HTM.htm

yo erica!

Did you see this? Vindication!

why is no one else worried?

am I the only person weirded out by this?

horrible, horrible fashion trend is back...and this time it's personal

I mean...it's just...WTF??? did we NOT spend the last 15 years destroying old photographs and laughing at middle-aged moms and otherwise trying to forget that we all once wore these and thought we looked stylin' when in fact we were wearing jeans that, for pete's sake, looked AWFUL on everyone???!1 I laughed when they said leg warmers were back, and I thought they were kidding when the old-school velcro reebok high-tops briefly came back into style, but...TAPERED JEANS?? with ZIPPERS AT THE BOTTOM???1?

I'm too old for this.

neat-o!

Ok, geniuses (geniii?)--if any of you can tell me how this works, I'd really appreciate it. It's pretty darn nifty, though.

edited to add: Check this out if you haven't seen it already. It's pretty amusing, despite all those mentions of the "h"-word. I feel bad that a famous guy like Seth MacFarlane couldn't book a sweeter commencement gig than this.

wow!

This is really freaking cool.

It's hard to look at it without moving your eyes, though, but try--it's SO worth it.

edited to add: This, too, is pretty awesome:

ugh.

we've probably all seen the website with the photo montage, but this one morphs them all together to create a scary, scary video. *shudder* watch this one with the lights on, kids...

Best. Show. Ever.

OK, maybe not literally, but it was definitely the best concert I have attended in the last year or so. Ericat13 and I just returned from an excellent live performance by Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers at the Acoustic Cafe in Bridgeport (and lived to tell about it!). It was touch-and-go for a while -- apparently people get these things called "reservations" when they want to go see a show -- but we managed to slip in at the last possible second and got, we think, the last 2 seats remaining.

Highlights of the show included (Erica will have to help me out if I forget any):

1) A random yet hilarious midshow bridge consisting of merely a background beat, Anchorman [and some other, but mostly Anchorman] quotes, and countoffs. So it sounded something like: "Milk was a bad choice... 2! 3! 4! [pause; new band member steps up to mike] I love scotch! Scotchy scotch scotch! ...2! 3! 4!"

2) An ass-kicking kazoo solo by SK himself.

3) A nice little a cappella rendering of "The Star-Spangled Banner," which SK6ers will apparently perform soon at Fenway Park.

4a) A reenactment of a middle-school dance, complete with the requisite arm-length sway dance, carried out with help from female front-row audience draftees.

4b) At the end of said middle-school dance, a chorus of "If you can't dance in your underpants, then you do not stand a chance" followed by one band member stripping to his boxers and doing something resembling a breakdance on the stage. WAIT! I just found video of a similar performance online! Let me see if this works:



5) A pleasant second encore played acoustically standing in the middle of the crowd.

6a) A FREAKING AMAZING THIRD ENCORE of "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing...

6b) complete with "the lift" at the end of the song to finish off the show.

You know, every once in a while I doubt my taste... I think... "Gee, after I invited people to join me at a concert to see an artist they've never really heard before... what if it sucks?"

But it didn't. It was awesome. And thus, by proxy, I am also awesome.

Mine is pretty sad

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Sorry, Central Time Zone... you don't get much love from me. And Mountain Time Zone... to be honest, I don't really think you actually exist. I'm pretty sure that California is actually directly west of Texas, and when I fly cross-country, the plane just circles for a couple of hours in between the two in order to make me think you exist.

My country map is even simpler: U.S. and Canada. And I think my parents might have taken me to Bermuda or Jamaica or something when I was an infant... fat lot of good it did me.

Am I a bad Yalie for not really being that into travel?

my turn! my turn!

It would probably just be easier to list the countries I've visited: Canada, U.S. (duh), the Bahamas (are they a separate country? I don't even know), Belize, Ireland, England, France, Italy, Germany, Senegal, Morocco, Namibia, South Africa, Mauritius, South Korea, Japan.

And Erica--you drove through Kentucky! I think you're allowed to add it to your map. :D

edited to add: sorry about the wonky sizing. but if we talk enough, we'll have this thing shoved down far enough in no time that it won't interfere with the links to the right anymore.

you know, I've been meaning to do this for ages.

I've just never gotten around to checking off the states I've visited, but now I have it in visual form. fyi, "visited" for me means "left the airport," otherwise my list would include a plethora of midwestern states. (^k^, does the cincinnati airport count as kentucky?)

make your own map! you can also make a map of the countries you've visited, and mine is depressingly empty (sure, there are random splotches in africa and the south pacific thanks to YGC, but europe, asia and central and south america are pretty much bare) or else I would've posted it too.

more tshirts I want

from nataliedee.com:



and my favorite:

will someone call me in 2059 to make sure I'm alive?

morbid, but interesting...I get to live to be 78. thanks, 88-year-old grandpa!

how long will you live?

it was only a matter of time before someone thought of doing this.

I don't know if any of you have been following this -- I've only caught a couple of entries myself -- but slate.com is blogging along with the bible and I think it's an excellent idea.

in other news, I am happy that it's already thursday, but unhappy that the recent rain has triggered a bout of allergy-induced ickiness. yuck.

I think this merits a "wtf??"

uh, mayor (and gubernatorial candidate) destefano has a blog. I think.

http://www.myleftnutmeg.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1461

it's just...I mean, he SWEARS he's the mayor, and I found it via a new haven independent online newspaper, but...does he know what the blog's title means or why it's funny? I just...huh. I won't take a position either way on whether this really is the mayor, but it IS a fairly clever name. hm.

brilliant book swap idea!

So Kat suggested a book swap, and I concur. You know what would be even more fun though--we could choose who we wanted to send a book of ours to (like pulling names out of a hat or a secret santa or something) and then choose a book we think they'd like. What do you all think?

this is, like, probably the worst music video ever.

It at least gives David Hasselhoff a run for his money...
click me!

Summer Reading Recommendation

Dear friends,

I highly, highly, highly recommend Nick Hornby's new book, Long Way Down, and commend it to your summer reading list. It was so hysterical! I was laughing out loud on the beach. Get thee to the bookstore!
SocialTrinity

ARRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!

Alias, if you are out there somewhere, you'd better listen up and listen good. I am GLAD you just ended. There. I said it. I am tired of you jerking me around, playing with my heart. You have now eaten over 60 of my precious hours on this planet. Each time I acquire one of your seasons, I think, "This will be the last one. Finally, last season's enormous cliffhanger will be resolved. At long last, you will mercifully tie up some plotlines and answer my questions. After all this, I will have my life back so that I can establish myself as a cognitive neuroscientist of note while simultaneously pursuing my many interests in the artistic realm. I will be a whole man again."

But NOOOOO. That would be just too darn easy, wouldn't it? EVERY FREAKING TIME, I think it's over, and it's not. I think someone's dead, they're still alive. I finally figure out that someone is a bad guy... oh wait! Just kidding! They're a good guy! No... bad guy! But now they're good again but now their motivation to be good is gone so they've gone back to bad and oh no please let it stop....

At the end of Seasons 1 and 2, I kind of knew what was coming. That was fine. I knew I was in for three seasons, at least. But then at the end of Season 3, you just had to go and throw another damn monkey wrench in the works, didn't you?! But, again, fine. Whatever. No biggie. I could see the end in sight. Season 4 starts, kind of boring at first, and I'm like, "OK, that's cool. Clearly you're almost out of ideas for the big plotline, so you'll just be kind of dull for the first half of the season, and then you'll wrap pretty much everything up at the end of the season for May sweeps, and then Season 5 will be you just kind of limping along until the series ends and I won't have to watch it." And I was mostly right. Boring first half of season, then mid-season comes along, and all of a sudden... interesting again! Here's the plotline I was hoping to see wrapped up! Oh, look, everything's coming to a dramatic climax! For crying out loud, THE WORLD IS ABOUT TO END! I mean, come on! What else can you do with a series after you do THAT story? Nothing, right? Wrong! So you save the world (I expected that), all the prophecies came true, blah blah blah... and I'm like, doctor of philosophy degree, here I come!

BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

AWWWW, COME ON!

WHY DID YOU HAVE TO GO AND DO THAT?

JKPPGLGK;L'ADSJ'FLKDASKJPBF'MKGSD;L'DGA;LKSKFD;SAFK DS;ALLJGKDS;AKF DSA;FKDSA;FKDSA;LFKDL;ASKG L;DSA'JGTA ;LMKLADSFJ KFD;LASKF;LDSKAq!q!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(sound of head hitting keyboard)

(silence)

(then, gentle sobbing)

(longer silence)

Fine.

One more season.

But just remember... you were cancelled. I saw it on the news. You're over. After Season 5, no more. You have aired your last episode. Alias is no more.

So I will watch your little Season 5 like the good little puppety monkey boy that I am. After all, what's another 15 hours of my life pissed away?

But let me tell you one thing: THAT HAD BETTER BE IT.

No spinoffs.

No opportunities for movie tie-ins.

No ambiguous endings.

I demand closure. YOU WILL NOT GIVE ME ANOTHER CLIFFHANGER, YOU HEAR ME?! NO MORE CLIFFHANGERS! CLOSURE!!!!!!!

OK? You got that? Just so we're clear.

All right. Now, I am going to go procure Season 5, and meanwhile I will try to get some work done.

That is all.

End transmission.

well, shucks.

I don't generally advocate links to Fox News websites, but...

An actual snake on an actual plane. Motherf*cker.

HELP!!!!!!!!

Okay friends--I am charging you with finding a mission for my life, becuase I hate it. Not in the I-hate-my-life-and-want-to-throw-in-the-towel kindof way, more in the I-request-a-newer-model kind of way. I am totally ready toconcede grad school is not going to get me anywhere and try something totallydifferent. But what? What on earth is a student with a master's degree in theology and an undergrad major in English to do when she wants to make a majorcareer turn? I am qualified for nothing!
Now, here are my requirements for a job:

1. New climate: I want to move. A lot. Preferably somewhere people would wantto visit me (i.e. Florida, California, New Orleans, etc.)

2. New job climate: Nothing in religion. At all. I am tired of being seriousall the time. Right now all I do is study dying people and people who will dieand what it means to die or experience some sort of massive trauma and it is tiring! It is time for something fun! Or at least different. Dream jobsinclude but are not limited to: an editing gig, barista at starbuck's (thoughnot totally preferable), something in journalism, any job in the world where Ican work for Disney, anything in television or film preferably leading to mysuccess as an A-list star. Don't like suits but would give them a shot! Am open to all suggestions! Kat: Talk to me about entertainment law! Part of the problem is that I feel like I can'treally think out of the box. I don't know what's out there! Any thoughts? Any suggestions? Any idea how to get an income? Preferably one that will make me the next president of the United States or a Nobel prize winner but incomes that allow me to pay off my studentloans are also preferable!

PS. I am making a motion for a trip to Disney World during Gay Day for one of our amusement park ramblings! Opinions on this?

if "stuff on my cat" is odd, this is FREAKING WEIRD.

hey, kids -- now you can make your very own cat clothes! (cat plotting your untimely demise not included.)

is it just me, or do the poor cat-models (which comes from the latin for "misshapen -- but kind of cat-shaped, if you look hard enough -- ball of clay") look drugged?

awesome.

found this on the intarweb and can't get over it:

[insert appropriate zoolander quote here]

too tired to write anything significant, but in my up-past-my-bedtime haze I was scrolling through ^k^'s blog and thought this looked interesting, and I haven't actually read through any of the content but I must commend the author on his (her?) supreme knowledge of the joy that is zoolander. well done, whoever you are. the prime minister of propecia would be proud.

-- e, off to sleep

cha-ching adsense

So, Reuters is reporting that Brangelina had their new baby girl, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, in Swakopmund! Isn't that where we were in Namibia? How were we to know then, almost exactly four years ago, that such an auspicious event as the arrival of Brad and Angelina's child would occur in that quiet little town? Crazy!

I also seem to remember buying a lot of cheap long-sleeved clothing at some kind of Namibian Wal-Mart-esque store. Oh, and sand-dune-boarding. But that's all I remember of Namibia, besides the fantabulous U-Nam Choir.

nice...

...cow tongue in the links section.

Moo, indeed.

OK

I know that blogthings is so several days ago, but this was so off-base I just had to share it:

You Are Likely A Forth Born

At your darkest moments, you feel angry. At work and school, you do best when your analyzing. When you love someone, you tend to be very giving. In friendship, you don't take the initiative in reaching out. Your ideal jobs are: factory jobs, comedy, and dentistry. You will leave your mark on the world with your own personal philosophy.

The Birth Order Predictor

Two things

1) A prize to whomever can find the random reference to an early 90's one-hit wonder ensconced in the comments to this blog post.

2) Also on the subject of Jennifer Garner -- NOT THAT I AM IN ANY WAY OBSESSED WITH HER AND/OR CAMPED OUTSIDE HER HOUSE RIGHT NOW AND WRITING THIS POST BY USING HER WIRELESS CONNECTION WHICH IS SECURED BUT WHICH CAN BE ACCESSED USING THE EASILY-GUESSED WEP KEY "GARFLECK4EVER," AND THAT BY THE WAY IS TOTAL CRAP, I GIVE THEM 3 MORE MONTHS AT THE MOST AND THEN SHE IS MINE ALL MINE MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA -- apparently she wants you to join the CIA.

It's a good year to go to CEDARPOINT OMG!!!!!!

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TRAVEL/05/29/theme.park.pricing.ap/index.html

Whaddaya know... the one time in months that I actually read the news out of sheer boredom, there's something relevant in there for us!

More TV themes that are going in my phone include:

(This is a followup to this comment on the initial TV theme post)

Get Smart (I know at least Kat has my back on this one)

Hawaii Five-O (thank you, Dad, for imprinting me with this)

Hill Street Blues (I never watched this show, but I could play the theme like a champ on my Casio keyboard... that, and "Greensleeves")

The full opening Jeopardy! theme

Knight Rider (I never watched this show, but good theme song)

Police Squad!

Wings (actually a beautiful piano sonata by, I believe, Schubert in its own right)

Here's one for Dani

All of these, by the way, were courtesy of this site.

Oooh! And here are some that might work better in MIDI form:

American Bandstand

Batman

The Flintstones

Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (aka THE BEST SHOW EVER)

(and those would be courtesy of this site)

Icky Helena Bonham Carter cont'd

So I just googled "icky helena bonham carter" and would you know that on January 9, 2005 someone posted a blog with that exact term in it? Hello! I totally thought of it first! And do you know what her ickiness was in reference to? Sleeping with icky Kenneth Branagh and cheating on lovely Emma Thompson! This must be someone I know!

BTW, I think this might be my favorite HBC picture to date. Truly flattering, no?
SocialTrinity

tv theme songs, anyone?

check it.

This seems appropriate

Bet you all wish you were me! I took the test and look how I came out!

But I did have a second favorite which said I was spiritual and very bookish. Seems about right.


Your Personality Profile
You are sexy, powerful, and bold.You're full of passion and energy...Sometimes this passion has a dark side.You feel most alive when you're seducing someone.You never fail to get someone's attention.Quick minded, you're also quick to lose your temper!

And here's my linguistic profile...also seems about right!


Your Linguistic Profile:
45% General American English
35% Yankee
15% Dixie
0% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern

ICKY HELENA BONHAM CARTER!

Yuck! Icky Helena Bonham Carter!

For the record, I do not think it is appropriate for people who have had affairs with sleezy men married to perfectly charming and fantastic women to become idols of little children. This is why society is going down the sewage pipes. Did I spell sewage right? Thank goodness she is at least playing a mean character. I bet she will look spooky with the blonde hair. And is Bellatrix good or evil? Or is she like one of those intriguing unclear types? I vote evil! Bellatrix had better not save the day! However, I still think they should have just changed the filming schedule. Bizarre!

In the meantime....hello! Where is Hugh Grant in the Harry Potter films? I feel as if he is the one great British actor (I can hear Matt saying, "Except for Elizabeth Hurley") not to be included and on his behalf, I am offended. Hugh needs to make an appearance. Maybe Hugh should play Bellatrix!

Kat: Did you listen to NPR this morning? That's how I heard that icky Helena Bonham Carter was turning 40.

Sorry, Dani.

Helen McCrory will no longer play the part of Bellatrix Lestrange in the fifth Harry Potter movie as she is currently pregnant and will be heavily so by the time they film the Ministry scenes. She is set to be replaced by [icky] Helena Bonham Carter.

See the rest of the info here.

awesome.

Proof that all you really need is a hot soundtrack and Samuel L. Jackson to make a hit teen film:

sweet.

http://www.honda.co.uk/civic/

at first it looks like your average car commercial, but once you click on "watch civic" in the upper left-hand corner it becomes freaking awesome. I didn't think they were for real until I watched the making-of video. whoa.

c-raaazy.

***You Are Likely an Only Child***


At your darkest moments, you feel frustrated.
At work and school, you do best when you're organizing.
When you love someone, you tend to worry about them.

In friendship, you are emotional and sympathetic.
Your ideal careers are: radio announcer, finance, teaching, ministry, and management.
You will leave your mark on the world with organizational leadership, maybe as the author of self-help books.


The Birth Order Predictor
http://www.blogthings.com/birthorderpredictorquiz/

Aaaah! It's worse than crack!

Your Personality Profile

You are elegant, withdrawn, and brilliant. Your mind is a weapon, able to solve any puzzle. You are also great at poking holes in arguments and common beliefs. For you, comfort and calm are very important. You tend to thrive on your own and shrug off most affection. You prefer to protect your emotions and stay strong.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

From the same site

This is actually oddly accurate:

Your Love Life Secrets Are

Looking back on your life, you will only have one true love. You're a little scarred from your past relationships, but who isn't? You expect a lot from your lover - you want the full package. You tend to be very picky. In fights, you love to debate and defend yourself. You logic prevails - or at least you'd like to think so. Getting over a break-up doesn't take long. Easy come, easy go.

Your Love Life Secrets, Revealed

I make sense too

Your Linguistic Profile::

65% General American English

20% Yankee

5% Dixie

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Washington, D.C.: First 2.5 years of life
North Carolina: Next 16 years of life
Connecticut: Next 7 years of life

Mother from N.C., father from Michigan.

I must say, though, I was rather ambivalent about several (where ambivalence wasn't an option)... e.g., I will readily say "kitty corner," "catty corner," OR "diagonal" depending on my wont. What can I say? I'm a man of the people. I do as they do, say as they say. When in Rome.

well, good heavens. I'm just all over the place.

I tried to post this in a comment on the last post, but the HTML wouldn't work...

Your Linguistic Profile::

65% General American English

10% Dixie

10% Yankee

5% Midwestern

5% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

I grew up in CA, have lived in CT for 7 years and my mom's from TX. makes sense, no?

Your Linguistic Profile:

65% General American English

20% Yankee

10% Dixie

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

goldurnit.

You know, my Teacup shirt JUST arrived last week, and already there's another SGR t-shirt that I want...

An Open Letter to Jennifer Garner

Dear Jennifer Garner,

Please have my babies.

Love,
Matt

prepare to be dazzled.

it's a bit long (6ish minutes), but worth every second. my favorite part is where he rides the pony.

dance dance evolution

it's about freaking time.

Go Fug Yourself rips Brandon Davis a new one

this makes me so happy. why am I thrilled, you ask? because I had the misfortune of sitting through two years of high school french with this greasy, slobbery man, and it pleases me to no end to know that the rest of the world (excluding paris hilton, apparently, and mischa barton for a while...what was she THINKING?) has discovered his ickiness. my high school friends and I have spent the afternoon trading "brandon is so gross/annoying/dumb..." stories, which include his paying a classmate to write his term paper and paying another classmate for sexual favors. (he's really, really rich.)

brava, GFY. brava.

oh, and here's the video referenced in the GFY post. I actually stopped watching a few seconds in because my brain cells threatened to kill themselves en masse if I continued to expose them to his tirade, but I hear it's pretty amusing.

to alleviate Matt's boredom

try this:

I'm bored

Entertain me!

I'll see your random comic...

...and raise you one:

hahahaha

Ok, so a late-night burst of nostalgia prompted me to see what was up with WYBC these days, if I could. I couldn't get the station webpage to load, so I went to ydn.com to see what I could find. And lo and behold, check it out: some freshman with a YDN article named Nick David has a radio show called... Cafe Eclectic. No joke.

And here I thought I was being original. (I wonder if HE thinks he's being original...)

Today's Ocular Trauma plus new icon part deux

OK, this one I actually thought was really funny. I don't know what that says about me.

Also, I think the icon issue was due to some hotlinking problem... I stole it off of a website which I think disapproved of blogger.com linking to it. I guess it worked for me because it was already in my cache or something.

This is the icon (I am mainly just posting this so then I can put the uploaded version of it in my profile, but I will probably be too lazy to go back and remove it):


PS Dani, are you alive? Has AdSense approved our blog? If so, we should activate it so we can start raking in the big bucks.

Additional Ocular Trauma for your viewing pleasure

The above is one of the cleaner ones. Perhaps as days go by I'll work you up to the truly bizarre.

I just wanted to note 2 things today:

A) I did my first day of sprint exercising yesterday, and it hurts like the proverbial mofo. Both during and after... my legs were quite sore today. Which means I think it is working.

2) I just wanted to share a bit of nerdery all around and didn't know where better to share it. Today, I installed a web server on my laptop and am now running a wiki site (a la Wikipedia) that only I can access, because I think it will help me organize my thoughts better than I can on paper.

Oh, and, one more thing, actually:


Paris Hilton, American Idol, Pamela Anderson. Our Googleability soars!

WOO.

I just wanted to announce that I just printed out my project, which was a FINAL project, which was the FINAL thing I had to complete in order to finish my first year of business school. woo. woo, I say. WOO.


carry on.



--ericat13, starting to like this capital-letters-for-emphasis thing. it's COOL.


WOO.

trying to up our AdSense points

from Salon.com's The Fix:

No wedding dress for Katie? If you're wondering how the strange saga of the Katie Holmes/Tom Cruise affair is going to play itself out, the Awful Truth says it has confirmation of one of the many possible endings: amicable separation. A Cruise camp insider says that Holmes and Cruise are currently just hashing out what would be a reasonable amount of time for them to stay together for appearances' sake, but then will call it quits (in which case, Holmes will still reportedly get $19 million). "They are not getting married," the snitch says. "Won't happen." (The Awful Truth)

awesome.

think about it. no, YOU think about it.

The More You Know...

Cake frontman John McCrea interviewed on NPR

For those who (like me) missed it about a year ago, a very intelligent interview with John McCrea of Cake is to be found here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4482730

He gets 10,000 bonus points from me for using the words "mercurially" and "boobies" in the same interview. It's about 20min, however, so block some time for it.

There's also another interview linked from the same page, but I have not yet listened due to time constraints. Later tonight, mayhaps.

He stands for things. More importantly, he stands ON things.

I know I'm about a week behind (EXAMS, remember), but in case you haven't yet seen Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, I suggest you do so immediately. Why don't I ever remember to watch his show or the Daily Show?

Also, the Kentucky Derby is going off in a matter of moments. I don't know much about the horsies, but I'll admit to having a little space in my heart for the one called Lawyer Ron.

(edited to add this link, too.)

Exercise regimen meets mix concept

This is inspired by an exercise regimen which I originally heard about on the Bob and Sheri Show (best morning radio EVAR, podcast it at www.bobandsheri.com or via iTunes) and which was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology (98:1985-1990, 2005, if anyone cares). The basic point is that sprint training can be just as, or nearly as, effective as endurance training for things like muscle tone, metabolic rate, etc. So, although conventional logic suggests that you should do endurance training for endurance events and general cardiovascular health, this study concludes that this is not necessarily true; you can get benefits in endurance and so forth from sprint training.

The advantage, of course, is that sprint training takes MUCH less time than endurance training. The regimen the sprinters followed was (this was on exercise bikes but you should be able to do it running as well):

30 seconds ALL-OUT sprint (you have to perform at your absolute max or it doesn't count)
4 minutes rest
30 seconds sprint
4 minutes rest
30 seconds sprint
4 minutes rest
30 seconds sprint

So, a total of only about 15min spent doing this procedure, out of which only about 2min is actual exercise (although you FEEL like you are still running for like an hour after you finish, which is kind of the point). People who did this 3x a week got essentially the same benefits as people who trained at a moderate pace for like 2 HOURS A DAY, the same number of times per week.

At any rate, I am planning on taking up this regimen at least a couple of times per week. To facilitate this, I am making several iPod mixes with fast/slow alternations (30 sec "sprinty" clips, intermixed with 4min "resty" songs) that should help motivate me. It is fun.

Anyway, I think the fast/slow mix idea could be fun to do in just the general mix-CD sense... kind of like when ^kat^ did the Up/Down concept a couple of years ago. But the catch here is finding "fast" and "slow" songs (I use quotes because I am not really just going by BPM here... some of my "slow" songs are really rather uptempo... I guess it would be more "arousing" vs "soothing" to be more accurate... or "sympathetic" and "parasympathetic" if you are a neuroscience dork) that you can play in alternation without the whole mix sounding too weird. If an added constraint is desired, you could stipulate that each fast/slow pair must come from the same artist (or album, if you wish to draw from compilations). I may do this at some point, in which case I will be happy to share my labor-fruits.

And, BTW, Kat, I still have not forgotten my own take on the track-numbers mix... general busy-ness and the death of my first iPod this semester set back my hobbyish endeavors a bit, but I am very happy to announce that in terms of workload, my summer has arrived. So hopefully a bit more hobbying soon.

Back to track-picking....

Two questions

Okay friends, two questions for you:

A. What is AdSense and should we try to get it on our blog to make pennies?

B. I just found, hidden deep in a box, 35 dollars from my grandma (who has passed away) that was a birthday present either for my fifteenth or sixteenth birthday. On what should I spend it?
SocialTrinity

I'M BAAAAACK!!!!!!!!!!! I just returned from the most horrible retreat, the highlight of which was the drunken homeless woman who awoke me at 1:30 in the morning screaming, "Open the door! Let me in you a*^(&*#s!" It went on for half an hour!

So to update:

1. I have not had time to practice my alphabet speed skills, and it seems like you've all surpassed me, but I have taken up Latin as a summer enterprise: Sine philosophia non valemus. You get bonus points for translation.

2. I was supposed to move my furniture on Saturday because a friend wanted it. She now has decided to move into a furnished apartment, leaving my furniture homeless. I do not need my furniture. What do I do? Throw it away? Donate it to the salvation army? I just can't be bothered with it!

3. Kat B. and I were hoping to housesit for this woman next year, but I think it the furnished place taken my the friends who were supposed to take my furniture might have snatched the housesitting opportunity. This is so ironic because I sent my friend the e-mail saying, "Hey, look at this housesitting thing...maybe you're interested?" Ugh, I totally doomed myself!

4. I hate my life. I think we need to move up our Cedar Point trip. How does June work for everyone?

SocailTrinity

I really need help

Things I can do:

1) Type the English alphabet in order far faster than any human being should ever really need to
2) Waste time in general

Things I cannot do:

1) Get my ass to bed at a reasonable hour so that I can get up at 7:30 and go see a talk by a Nobel-Prize-winning neuroscientist.

who knew the streets of Cincinnati were so mean?

from my rollingstone.com daily digest:

FOUR IN T.I.'s POSSE SHOT, ONE DEAD

Four members of Atlanta rapper T.I.'s posse were shot in a gun battle on Cincinnati's Interstate 75 early this morning that left one person dead and three injured. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, the feud began at the city's Club Ritz during an after-party for rappers T.I. and YUNG JOC -- who performed earlier that evening at the club Bogart's -- and moved outside, where shots were fired into two vans transporting T.I.'s crew. The identities of the shooting victims (three men, one woman) have yet to be released. T.I.'s latest album, "King," has sold 996,000 copies in its five weeks out, putting it just shy of platinum. The rapper also recently made his movie debut, co-starring in "ATL" with OUTKAST's BIG BOI.

I would like to point out that though I've never attended anything at Club Ritz, I've been to Bogart's often, and this is just beyond bizarre. It's in a crap part of town, though, that's gotten steadily worse over the years, so maybe I shouldn't be so surprised.

Oh! in other news, I think I'm going to download my last test in a half-hour! then, 8 hrs later (guh), I'll be done done done with my first year o'law school...

Last one tonight, I swear

OK, now I REALLY have to 1) get a life and B) go to bed.

Booyah part twa

This is not French for "three," aka "trois," but rather one of the noises the incredulous masses will make when they gaze upon my awesome alphabet typing speed. As in, "Buh... wha... twaaaaaa?!" Just thought I'd leave you with a little amazement before heading off to bed.

And if anyone out there is looking for a ridiculously good-looking neuroscientist with almost freakishly nimble fingers... you know where I live.

a follow-up...

...to an earlier post, from cnn.com:

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- A Harvard University student's "chick lit" novel has been permanently withdrawn and her two-book deal canceled, publisher Little, Brown and Co. announced Tuesday, as allegations of literary borrowing proliferated against Kaavya Viswanathan's "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life."

"Little, Brown and Company will not be publishing a revised edition of 'How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life' by Kaavya Viswanathan, nor will we publish the second book under contract," Michael Pietsch, Little Brown's senior vice president and publisher, said in a statement.

Little, Brown, which had initially said the book would be revised, declined to comment on whether Viswanathan would have to return her reported six-figure advance. Tuesday's decision caps a stunning downfall for the 19-year-old Viswanathan, a Harvard sophomore whose novel came out in March to widespread attention.

read the rest of it here, if you haven't already. There's an entirely new section that they quote and compare to a different author from before. Tee hee. SAFETY SCHOOL. *thumbs nose*

Booyah part deux

Mwuhahaha. A modest improvement, I know, but I'm sure I can do better with time.

BTW, you lefties totally have an advantage at this game if we are all using QWERTY keyboards... the QRST and VWX are by far the hardest segments to hit reliably. Kat can use this as her excuse for why she is not beating you. The reason she (and Erica, for the moment) is not beating me is because I am awesome.

I also beat Dungeonman 3.

game on.

I have to stop for a while, though. my brain hurts, and my keyboard would probably like a little break.

Booyah

I found this game really difficult yesterday. Then again, I was going on 4 hours of sleep at the time (with preceding days featuring 6, 2, and 3 hours of sleep per night). Today, after 11 hours of sleep, I found things much easier. (The first-years in my program were busy writing, filming, and editing films and skits for our annual retreat, which occurred Saturday, and we couldn't really begin until our ginormous final was over on Tuesday. Hence no sleep. Although things went over well in the end, particularly our neuroscience edition of Celebrity Jeopardy! and our trailer for Postdoc Mountain.)

I bet the people with ridiculous times have remapped their keyboards somehow... I mean, maybe they are just freaky-good typists, but you could potentially change things so your keys were all in alphabetical order, and just run your fingers down each row.