I am definitely here.

procrastination loop, anyone? (click to enlarge. see? you got to waste a good 2 seconds just reading this line.)

Only in Dubai...

Evidently we can now have the joy of all being perpetually seasick in our homes!

But hey, at least it's green energy, right?

well...

here's a video recap of the Cardo cell phone stuff. I really would like to see that banana video, though. A cursory search of Youtube was fruitless. *rimshot*

In other news, everybody round up your felines and set your tivos!

some truly awful songs make me twitch, but this is ridiculous

hey, brainman, want to weigh in?

woman cured of seizures caused by reggae

yeah, so this woman really likes sean paul (pre-wikipedia'ed for your convenience...you're welcome, dani :-P), but when she started having mad seizures whenever she listened to his songs, she started getting suspicious. I don't know if it's more ridiculous that she thought her seizures were caused by this one particular singer or that it actually turned out to be true.

I guess this just goes to show that one day, if you're not careful, the rhythm *is* eventually gonna get you. be careful, kids.

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?

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)

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...

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.

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...

did you know...

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

And, for old time's sake:

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...

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?

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.