Kilrothi's Stuff

"No, I'm Reading It From Your Book, Dude!"

2009-12-09T22:04:00.004-05:00

OMG, Rachel Maddow is my hero and lifts me up where I belong, and so on and so forth. The video below is kind of long, but at the very least, skip to 10:21 and watch it for a minute. Around 11:05, you will hear my favorite quote of the whole video.

I don't think I even need to tell any of you that I wholeheartedly agree with Rachel, and that everything Richard Cohen says is patently ridiculous. Still... "dude!"

Sharing on Google Reader

2009-12-08T23:50:00.002-05:00

I've taken to sharing a lot of stuff on Google Reader rather than posting it here. You can follow me here, if you'd like. It's much like what you'd expect to see on the blog, but it takes two key strokes instead of the effort required to make a whole blog post. :)

Examples of shared items:
[Mobius strip bagel]
[Sarah Palin is hot] -- good criteria for President, amirite?
[Zombie Disney]
[Mr. Roger's Nightmare]
[Putin on Facebook]
[World Flag]

I was actually planning on making a post on that last one (because it's so cool!) but I forgot/didn't have time. And that, my friends, is why you should follow me on Google reader. Or something.

I <3 Colbert

2009-12-06T11:21:00.001-05:00

Stephen Colbert just wants you to admit that nuclear explosions are awesome.

[via TDW]

Personal Terrorism

2009-12-03T00:18:00.007-05:00

In Pakistan, women are the victims of "acid attacks, which are commonly used to terrorize and subjugate women and girls in a swath of Asia from Afghanistan through Cambodia (men are almost never attacked with acid). Because women usually don’t matter in this part of the world, their attackers are rarely prosecuted and acid sales are usually not controlled. It’s a kind of terrorism that becomes accepted as part of the background noise in the region." [--Nicholas D. Kristof, NYTimes]

This is absolutely horrifying, and I had no idea whatsoever that this was happening. Read the news story on the NYTimes site, and see more commentary and images here. I have to warn you, the images on both pages are graphic, especially so on the latter page. (If you have a weak stomach, I suggest you load up the second page, read the story, then hit 'end' to go to the bottom of the page, and scroll up to see the last picture, which (sadly) really hit it home for me.)

I really can't emphasize how incredibly awful this is, and how incredibly heartbreaking. One woman had acid thrown in her face by a young man when she was TWELVE, after she rejected him for marriage. Could you imagine having acid thrown in your face as you entered middle school? Can you even imagine having to contemplate marriage in middle school? (And taking the possibility of possibly dying from acid burns into account when making that decision?) Jeez, I just feel like crying.

[via Shakesville]

Edit: Oh god, I'm not sure I have the strength to peruse the page of the organization working to stop this and help the women affected. Now I am crying.

Rock, Paper, Cynic

2009-11-30T10:30:00.000-05:00

Rock, Paper, Cynic is an amazing comic. Few people can manage to be both inspirational, suicide-preventing, and hilarious at the same time:

[amazing alt text:
Everyone is the human half of a minotaur,
though some people are arguably 100% bull]

I've mentioned RPC before, but I would also like to draw your attention to this particular RPC comic, which is probably one of the wittiest (gaming) comics I've ever laid eyes on.

Rammstein Loves Cookies, Apparently

2009-11-29T22:12:00.001-05:00

[via b3ta]

And I Thought Threadless Was Smart...

2009-11-25T02:39:00.005-05:00

I have to wonder why they even bothered to print this shirt in a womens version. I mean... no woman is ever going to wear this, because we have a hard enough time keeping the creeps away as it is. Could you imagine walking around outside with this on? Geez.

(In case the picture is too small for you to see, the shirt reads "feel free to feel me," and the available size menu is pulled down to the right. All the mens shirts are sold out, from small to 3XLarge. The womens are all available, with the exception of 2XLarge... my guess is that some desperate guys bought the 2XL thinking it might fit and look halfway decent.)

Click the image to be taken to the shirt's page... and feel free to let me know if it ever gets sold out of womens sizes.

Sexy Twilight?

2009-11-21T01:09:00.002-05:00

Haha, just kidding, Twilight is creepy as hell. (And so, so bad.) Given all that, I would totally watch the movies a million times if they went anything like this:

Trains!!!

2009-11-19T23:57:00.003-05:00

I don't care if this is fake or not. Just wait for it...

Holy crap, amirite?

Cash for Gold?

2009-11-18T21:31:00.003-05:00

No, CATS FOR GOLD. I love the use of invisible bike and other classic LOLcats.

Also, I demand someone try this out and report back here ASAP.

One Year Later...

2009-11-04T00:24:00.003-05:00

And this still sums it all up for me...

Although this is nearly as good.

This, this, and this don't do a bad job either.

So Nerdy!

2009-10-19T01:12:00.005-04:00

OMG, this is like the cutest thing I've seen all week!

[via TDW]

Not a Democracy

2009-10-15T10:53:00.005-04:00

From Crazy Things Parents Say:

"This family is not a democracy. It’s a dictatorship. If it were a democracy, you’d pay me taxes."

Also, an update: school has been slaughtering me this semester, which is why I haven't been updating this blog that much. However, I take in a bento nearly every day, so my bento blog is seeing a lot of posts. I'm behind right now, but I'm slowly catching up to the current lunch. Go check it out!

The Marshmallow Test

2009-09-15T22:35:00.003-04:00

We all know the marshmallow test, although I heard it was done with M&M's ... basically, you give a kid some kind of candy, then tell them that they can eat it now, or wait a while and they'll get double the amount. The kids in this video are adorable, I couldn't stop laughing!

[via TDW.]

Things Like This Make Me Smile

2009-08-29T13:14:00.003-04:00

This reminds me of Where the Hell is Matt? You just can't help but sit there and smile. :) Also, who doesn't love Dame Julie Andrews to death?

[via Shakesville]

Zac Efron = Light Yagami

2009-08-28T22:19:00.003-04:00

If you've seen Death Note, then the following is pretty hilarious. It's a Zac Efron doll (that guy from HSM) that some awesome person turned into Light/Kira from Death Note.

Also of interest.

[via TDW].

If you made a sandwich from these animals it would be a BLT. YES.

2009-08-19T23:28:00.001-04:00

Steafed wholesale from RPC.

"Ben, Your Mind Has Been Transported Back in Time!"

2009-08-16T16:50:00.002-04:00

In case you were ever wondering exactly how Lincoln got to Mars...

... well, now you know. How he traveled back in time though, remains to be seen.

[via PiU]

"I Want Pie!" "I Want Beef Jerky!"

2009-08-15T17:16:00.001-04:00

This is the cutest and funniest thing I have seen in a while.

I Care About This

2009-08-07T15:13:00.002-04:00

This guy has a great explanation on the correct usage, complete with the phrase "O RLY" in response to the incorrect version... but this graphic is much more succinct:

[via TDW]

WAT

2009-08-02T00:48:00.002-04:00

Of all the PostSecret secrets I've read, this is the first one where my immediate response was "Not cool..."

Seriously! Not. Cool.

Centipedes!?

2009-07-31T11:20:00.003-04:00

Here's a funny entry from Not Always Right (previously blogged here)... it's even funnier if you know about the "X... in my Y?" meme. ;)

(I walk up to an older man playing with an iPhone in our electronics store.)

Me: “Hello sir, do you need any help?”

Customer: “Naw, but I was wondering…why does this darn thing work with my finger, but not my fingernails?”

Me: “Well, your body has electricity running through it, but your fingernails don’t conduct–”

Customer: “Electricity in my body? My body?”

Me: “Yes, sir. We all have electricity running through our bodies.”

Customer: “This is outrageous! D*** technology! We didn’t have that s*** prancin’ around our bodies in back in my day!”

Me: “Sir, we’ve always–”

Customer: “Forget it! What’s the d*** world coming to?” *walks away mumbling*

Amazing

2009-07-30T12:46:00.001-04:00

This is fantabulous on so many levels.

Ooooh, SNAP!

2009-07-29T14:50:00.005-04:00

Awesome comeback I read the other day, from the comments here (I have qualms with the article, but that's beside the point).

comment:

the article above just made the author seem jealous of pretty girls

and the scathing response:

Maybe the author is just tired of pretty girls talking about how pretty they are.

Ooooooh, buuuuuurn!!

Cloudy with a Guarantee of Patriarchy

2009-07-28T13:38:00.007-04:00

The new movie, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" (trailer below) is based off that beloved children's book of the same name... with one ENORMOUS difference.

There's no scientist in the book that makes the food fall from the sky... it just happens. Fine. Okay. But... butbutbutbutbutbutbut... if we're going to just create a main character out of nowhere, with no canon to base them off of... does it have to be a guy? Seriously? Every time? Especially when it's not like we have a dearth of male inventors/scientists... it's in the damn trailer!

Other problem: everyone with a speaking part in the trailer is white (omg, so white) with the exception of a black policeman who roughly handles the (white, able-bodied, 20-something, heterosexual, cis, male) lead while doing a halfway-decent impression of Mr T... and his son, whose only line is "Sup?"

My only consolation is that this movie, as with many CG-animated movies nowadays, will be absolute and utter garbage, and hopefully will bomb at the box office.

The Only News You Need Has a Bass Line

2009-07-13T14:32:00.006-04:00

I don't know why it took me so long to catch onto this. I've seen it blogged for about a month now, but it's difficult to interrupt my RSS-feed-reading to watch a 3 or 4 minute YouTube video, so I was skipping it. It's called "Auto-Tune the News," and it's absolutely amazing. Here's the sixth installment, the first one I watched:

The video's page on YouTube has the full lyrics, plus links to download the mp3 and to the iTunes store. This is some seriously funny stuff, and it's incredibly smart and well done, too. There's also the first five installments, for your ATTN needs. Fabulous.

[via Warming Glow]

The BMI is Bogus!

2009-07-06T17:33:00.004-04:00

Turns out, the BMI is pretty freaking useless! All I have to say is...

Uh, duuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

Still, thanks go to NPR for pointing it out... my doctor's office still has a BMI chart prominently displayed, and the BMI is used practically everywhere. Realize that the BMI claims that I am pushing overweight (I'm not, this is what I'm supposed to weigh), but that if I lost 20 pounds and went back to what I weighed freshman year of highschool, (age 14, when I didn't have boobs or hips), I would still be at normal weight. Riiiiiiiight. (Omigosh, the fact that this weight would be completely unhealthy for me, yet is normal for other people of the same height... it's almost like everybody's different! With different bone mass and muscle and fat and tons of other things! Again, duuuurrrrrrrrrr...) Bottom line? The BMI is stupid.

This reminds me of this post from last summer.

[via Shakesville.]

Oh the Banananananamity

2009-06-21T23:44:00.002-04:00

Racism. Sexism. Religious Intolerance. These are as nothing compared to the tragedy that is Antifruitarianism.

[via Picture is Unrelated]

Babies are Adorable ... y Evil

2009-06-18T11:47:00.001-04:00

Just like many of the other videos I've posted here, watching this always makes me feel better.

The (best?) creepiest part is with the quadruplets around 0:37. I wanna hear these kids' laughs when they're mid 20s, and see if they sound like this at all. :)

Full of Life!

2009-06-15T14:56:00.004-04:00

I've never seen any of the Saw movies (of which there are now... what, five? six?) for the same reason I never saw Hostel or any of the so-called movies that have no plot, no progression, and no reason beyond "omg, that's so gross! oh dude, look, he's cutting off his leg! ! ahaha, she's got needles stuck in her arms!!!" ... but I digress. Regardless of my distaste for the Saw franchise, the following is sheer genius (partly due to its refusal to actually show anything):

12.4% That's it!?

2009-06-14T13:06:00.021-04:00

So one of the three people I follow on Twitter posted this absolutely gorgeous promo shot for a game that was announced at E3 called The Last Guardian. This prompted me to go looking for the trailer, which I found. You can watch it below.

At the beginning, when we first meet the human character of the game as they're running along a hallway, it's kind of ambiguous what their gender is. It could feasibly be a girl or a boy. However, it eventually becomes clear that it's a boy, although there are other scenes in the trailer where the gender is ambiguous. (How do I know it's a boy, when there are no spoken lines, no gender identifiers, he's wearing a shapeless tunic, and he's prepubescent? I dunno, ask the human brain, yours will give you the same answer, I'm sure.) The question is, why isn't the character gender ambiguous? Or even better, a girl? Why, when the gender doesn't "matter" (the character doesn't "need" upper body strength, or the "ability" to play with cars instead of dolls) are we handed a male character? (It's nice that the creature is, for now, an "it," although even if it was female, it would largely be mistaken for a male, much as the main character of Okami was in the American version of the game.)

I then decided to take a look at the other games that were presented at E3 2009, according to Wikipedia. What I found there is really, really disheartening. The table is presented below, with some clarification following it.

The columns are as follows: game title, column for if the game is an ensemble or "cast" game, the fraction of girls for the ensemble games, a column for if the game is a racing game, a column for if the main character is a guy, a column for if the main character is a girl, a column for if the main character has no gender, a column for games where the main characters gender is unknown at this time, and a column for Women in Fridges (more about that later).

First, let me explain everything highlighted in red. To anyone who knows anything about gaming, Metroid should automatically denote a female character just as Tomb Raider would, and just as a Mario game would denote a male character with a high possibility of princess rescue. Unfortunately, in this case, you would be wrong. From Metroid: Other M's Wikipedia page:

Other M will involve Samus's commanding officer, Adam Malkovich, who dies sometime prior to Fusion. Malkovich was seen briefly in the trailer released for the game at E3 2009, speaking the line "Any objections, Lady?". The woman at the end of the trailer is not Samus, but a "very, very important character."

So, instead of getting a default female main character game, we get a game that doesn't seem to involve Samus at all. Hence why, among all the other games that have male leads, Metroid: Other M is marked in red.

Also of note is the entirely red column on the far right, denoting games that use Women in Refrigerators. There is a whole website devoted to the phenomena of Women in Refrigerators, but suffice it to say that it's when a female character is killed, maimed, or removed from action as a motivation for the (male) main character to act. Out of 25 games, (28 total minus 3 racing), four use WIF as motivation. Though The Last Guardian technically doesn't, both its predecessors do:

Ico: Ico encounters Yorda, the daughter of the castle's Queen. The Queen plans to use Yorda's body to extend her own lifespan, so Ico seeks to escape the castle with Yorda to prevent this fate from occurring, keeping her safe from the shadow-like creatures that attempt to draw her back.

Shadow of the Colossus: The game focuses on a young man named Wander who must travel across a vast expanse on horseback and defeat sixteen beings, simply known as colossi, to restore the life of a girl named Mono.

and so it receives a check mark in that column. We also have three more games that use Women in Refrigerators:

Splinter Cell: Conviction: [Sam Fisher] is now investigating the death of his daughter, Sarah Fisher, who was killed in a drunk driving accident during the events of Splinter Cell: Double Agent. Sam soon discovers that his daughter's death was no accident, and must now uncover why his daughter was murdered[.]

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: The main character, Gabriel, is a member of an elite group known as the "Brotherhood of Light". The group are holy knights who protect and defend innocent people against the supernatural. Gabriel's wife was brutally murdered by the evil creatures, and her soul has been "trapped for eternity".

Nier: Nier puts players in the role of the title character, an "unyielding protagonist" trying to find a cure for a disease that has infected his daughter.

That's fucking pathetic. It seems like anytime a character needs a reason to do something beyond "kill the aliens that are threatening Earth/humanity/the universe" or "your boss/superior/commanding officer told you to do it, so you probably should," some female in their life is dead/maimed/sick/missing. How about the son being sick? Or maybe they're doing it for treasure/personal gain (thanks, Drake!), or just for the hell of it?

The rest of the chart is mostly just numbers... we've got 6 ensemble games, which at most could give us a full 6 "points" for female characters. Out of 27 ensemble characters, we get a whopping 7. And not all of them are any good... from SMT: Persona: (emphasis added)

Maki is "a frail girl who has been sick all of her life. More recently, she has been suffering from dementia which has left her bedridden. ... Unable to interact with the outside world, Maki retreats to a fantasy world of her own imagination."

Ellen is "a gorgeous student who aspires to become a fashion model or clothing designer. Though she is bright, she fails to take life-or-death situations very seriously."

Yuka is "a temptress with pigtails." (That's all the info we get.)

Yukino is (seemingly the only worthwhile female character in the game, and) "a reformed street punk who polices her fellow students. She credits her teacher Ms. Smith for saving her from a self-destructive life."

Additionally, in Persona, you get to name the main character, and control their actions, but this character is male, with no option to make them female. So you can see that even in ensemble casts, the inclusion of female characters isn't necessarily worth anything.

Going back to the numbers, 3 of the 28 games are racing games, 12 star male leads, 1 stars a female lead (this game being a port of 2000's Perfect Dark to Xbox LIVE arcade; as you can see, I'm being generous with these numbers), 1 game where the main character has no gender (Supreme Commander 2, a real-time strategy game), and 5 games in which the main character's gender has not yet been revealed.

To sum up, we've got 6 ensemble games, 12 male leads, and 1 female lead, for 19 games where the main character has a gender. Taking the percentage for each of the ensemble games (.33, .44, .33, 0, 0, .25) we reach a sum of 1.36 for 6 games (again, pathetic). So out of 19 games, we have a total of 2.36 female leads, which gives us a grand total of...

12.4%

That's it. Of the games announced at E3 2009, given the largest benefit of the doubt possible, we still barely manage to top 10% of the games having a female lead. If I hadn't included the port of Perfect Dark to the Xbox LIVE Arcade, and had I decided not to count ensemble games (or only to count the main character) we would have a whopping 0%, even in a year with a Metroid game. I reiterate: pathetic.

Edit: You know what else is sad? It took us until FFXIII, the 12th (not MMO) RPG in the Final Fantasy series, to get a female lead... who was specifically created to be a female version of Cloud from FFVII, the most popular FF title.

So Anyway

2009-06-07T00:39:00.002-04:00

originally posted by Laser Bread

STOP.

2009-06-06T22:38:00.002-04:00

Hammertime.

This is apparently a viral ad campaign to promote a reality show starring (involving?) MC Hammer. It's almost something that Improv Everywhere would do, except they disturb the customers, which Improv never does. Regardless, it's good times. :)

I <3 Cracked

2009-06-04T13:05:00.005-04:00

This video is freaking hilarious.

[via Cracked]

It Was Delicious

2009-06-04T11:58:00.003-04:00

I know that I've already professed my undying love for Cowbirds in Love, but today's comic was soooooooooo good that I had to post again. Go read it!

Racist Camera

2009-06-01T21:53:00.002-04:00

This is hilarious, in a horrible way.

Tim Gunn + Iron Man = It Works

2009-05-22T16:12:00.003-04:00

From the New York Times, May 20th 2009 (emphasis added):

Dressed for Action
By GEORGE GENE GUSTINES

THE heroes of Marvel Entertainment have foiled everything from bank robberies to alien invasions — usually with their fists. But when a young set designer is murdered during New York Fashion Week, solving the crime falls to more delicate hands.

On Aug. 26, Marvel will release the first issue of “Models Inc.,” a sartorially minded mini-series that unites some of its fashion-friendly supporting characters and pushes them into new starring roles.

The runway divas include Millicent Collins (a k a Millie the Model), Patsy Walker, also known as the superheroine Hellcat, and Mary Jane, the model-turned actress who is the sometimes wife of Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man.

The women team up to clear Millicent, who is the prime suspect in the murder of the set designer. Think of it as “Charlie’s Angels” set in the fashion world.

But what would the angels be without someone to guide them? Enter Tim Gunn of “Project Runway.” In the debut issue’s second story, Mr. Gunn becomes an action figure — jumping into Iron Man’s suit of armor to save a fashion exhibition from evildoers.

It’s certainly a departure from Mr. Gunn’s usual role as a mentor to aspiring designers, but there is a connection. Mr. Gunn said he remembered comic books with Millicent, who first appeared in 1945. She was a comic romantic figure, who worked as a model for the Hanover agency.

Mr. Gunn will grace one version of the first cover of “Models Inc.,” drawn by Phil Jimenez, a popular comic book artist who also illustrated the cover of “Amazing Spider-Man” No. 583, which paired Spidey with President Obama. A sales analysis on the Beat, the comic blog of Publishers Weekly, estimated that more than 520,000 copies of the issue were sold.

Can Mr. Gunn persuade fashionistas that these comic books are as valuable as the September issue of Vogue?

Mr. Gunn doesn’t claim to know, but he is as surprised as your average Hulk reader that he is now a Marvel action figure.

“I’m not certain of the particulars of how I’ll be portrayed, but I’m really excited about it,” Mr. Gunn said. “To say I’m a character in a comic book is wild!”

Whack a Kitty!

2009-05-20T11:11:00.000-04:00

Freaking adorable:

Fuck You Very Very Muuuuuch

2009-05-06T23:56:00.001-04:00

Have I ever mentioned that I love Lily Allen? Well, I do. :) On her new album, there's a song called "Fuck You" (lyrics here) that was targeted at George Bush, but with the right atmosphere can be targeted at just about anyone. Including those who hate the gays:

(my favorite part is at 0:42)

This is an amazing video, and I love it! Everyone in it is amazing, and I was going to list my favorites... but watching it again, they all are :)

via [Shakesville]

"That's What's Up There -- Married GAY People!"

2009-05-03T01:13:00.003-04:00

This video is in response to the stupid NOM ad (om nom nom) you may have seen, and it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen on funnyordie.com ... watch and enjoy! Oh, the memes that can be made from this video are great. :)

A Gaythering Storm from Jane Lynch

Additional Pylons

2009-04-30T16:01:00.002-04:00

Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
haahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahaahahahahahaahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahah
ahahahahahahahahaha!

Glorified Apathy == WIN

2009-04-27T23:38:00.010-04:00

Hey all. School has been killing me (and my wrist, sadly) which is why I haven't been updating. I have, however, been reading comics. :)

It should come as no surprise to anyone that knows me that I loathe the comic Least I Could Do. I fucking hate it. I read the first 10 comics 2 years ago, decided it was badly written, trite, unfunny, sexist shit, and promptly dropped it. I was encouraged by someone (don't remember who) sometime last fall to try it again, with the promise "that it got better." I read it all the way about to sometime in Fall of 2008, all the way from the first comic from February 2003. Guess what? It didn't. Get. Better. To be fair, the art did, but unfortunately the comic itself only turned into slightly more sophisticated unfunny, trite, sexist shit. Some examples:

Rayne is ever the gentleman
...and again
Women aren't human beings, especially when they're twins
Women in LICD find sexist comments hilarious (and if they don't, it's because they're just a huge bitch who won't sleep with Rayne)

The writer also likes to make up ridiculous storylines, like the main character (Mary Sue, is that you?) going back in time, killing Hitler (always a bad idea), freeing the Jews, the gays, the mentally handicapped (and giving them all tanks), paving France and killing Steve Jobs' parents. I'm surprised the man can leave his house, since you'd think an ego that size would swell his head so much he'd be physically incapable of using a door.

It would honestly be difficult to find a single strip in this collection that wasn't offensive in some way, whether it's to women in general, men, fat people, small-breasted women specifically, "ugly" women, disabled people, Jamaicans, secretaries, virgins, women who have sex, women who don't have sex, children, and the world at large. I mean, for fuck's sake, we have an unnecessary stereotypical depiction of a Chinese girl in the first panel of yesterdays' comic, so you know this shit is recent. And why? Because racism, along with sexism, etc. is fucking hilarious you guys!

Which is why I am so happy that Overcompensating, a great comic in and of itself, decided to take a single panel and perfectly nail the entire premise of LICD:

Best thing I've seen on the web this week. (The Overcompensating comic in its entirety also alludes to the Mary Sue aspect.) Finally, the small amount of "research" I did for this explains why I never found LFG (Looking For Group) funny either.

On the Tea Parties

2009-04-17T12:53:00.002-04:00

From this post containing some incredibly disturbing (and stupid) videos and quotes from the right wing, there's a comment by Nolittlelolita that just makes my day:

I think we should all bask in the fact that 4chan, an anonymous board with no identies and posts that disappear in less than an hour and no loyalty to any cause at all, can raise and organize a better protest movement than the entire right wing.

Dalai Lama

2009-04-16T10:36:00.002-04:00

Everything Adds Up To 37, Don't You See?

2009-04-05T01:15:00.002-04:00

I totally forgot about this when I made my post on 37, but it's still awesome.

Updating My Other Blog!

2009-04-04T19:24:00.002-04:00

As you may or may not remember, I have a second blog. I abandoned it for a while for various reasons, but since I've started making bentos again, I got it back up to date. My recent bentos (the ones from this year) are also much more interesting than the ones from this summer, or at least I think so. Check it out! :)

Hamster in a Wok

2009-04-04T09:57:00.002-04:00

Along the same vein as Hamster on a Piano, here's Hamster in a Wok. Enjoy.

Amazing First Lady :)

2009-04-03T16:43:00.004-04:00

I don't know why, exactly, but this video made me cry:

via [Shakesville]

Ada Lovelace Day

2009-03-24T18:26:00.002-04:00

It's Ada Lovelace Day! Ada Lovelace, in case you didn't know, was the first programmer. Period. Not the first female programmer... the first programmer. So there! Haha! ;)

You can read more about Ada Lovelace Day here, or look at a map of all the posts here. I am an atrocious procrastinator, and so I have nothing (of substance) to post for today. However, I would like to thank all of the amazing female faculty at UMBC, where I received my undergraduate degree last Spring. I felt so loved and special when I walked for graduation, and at the end of the steps, of the 4 people there, 3 were there for me. :) And thanks also to the amazing staff who run CWIT, a scholarship program (and a family). And also thanks to many of my fellow CWITers! I don't know what I would have done without you guys!

You can be anything!

Watchmen Was Amazing!!!

2009-03-23T13:36:00.001-04:00

The Watchmen movie was amazing. Did reading the comic book help? Yes. Was it the most R-Rated R-Rated movie I've ever seen? Yes. Was Dr. Manhattan's penis distracting? No. Could Silk Spectre have fought in those heels? Maybe (according to my TKD friends). Could she have dropped from Archie, through a roof, and onto the floor below with breaking a leg? Fuck no. Did they subtly play a karaoke version of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" when Ozymandias/Adrian Veidt is talking about how he could buy and sell the energy companies three times over? Yes! Was the attempted rape scene disturbing? Oh. my. god. yes. (As a rape scene should be.) Was the movie still good? Yes.

Anyway, if you haven't seen the movie yet (and even if you have), some dude over at Eisentower30, with far too much time on his hands (he says so himself), put together a 17 minute clip the day before it came out, using all the trailer footage that had come out so far. (Meaning the opening isn't in there, but you can go find that yourself.) I've embedded it below, so enjoy. :)

Tally Hoooooooooooo!

2009-03-22T10:43:00.001-04:00

This is an amazing video, for both the criticism of racism and for the Bollywood aspect. I want to say that no one could ever be so stupid as to act like the white guys in this video do at the beginning, but then again I live in a country where, when we elected a black president, a lot of people thought "Hey, that means racism is over, right?" ... so in all likelihood, this whole Slumdog == win for Indian people conversation probably occurred a lot.

Saturday Morning Watchmen

2009-03-21T09:33:00.001-04:00

I'm sure everyone has seen the "Saturday Morning Watchmen" cartoon. But, thanks to the ignorant masses of the Internet, chances are you saw it on YouTube, in all its shitty YouTube quality. Granted, the actual creator put it up on YouTube, but still... why would you watch YouTube quality when you can have glorious, beautiful swf? I mean, he basically said as much himself:

[Description from the YouTube video:]

Classic cartoon intro ripped from an old VHS, enjoy!!

Watch the digitally remastered swf here: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view...

Go watch it here, on Newgrounds... where nearly every decent thing on the Internet resides. Enjoy your seemingly newfound ability to watch it in perfect clarity.

Is This What Androids Dream Of?

2009-03-20T15:36:00.002-04:00

Brought to you by "BaaaStuds," Extreme Sheep LED Art. I don't care if this is just viral trickery like Bike Hero, it's still pretty damn cool... I mean, they hooked up sheep with LED vests. And the dogs are soooo cute. :)

And if it is real, that just makes it all the more impressive. Enjoy.

Announcement

2009-03-18T00:46:00.003-04:00

So... this has to stop. It already has, but it's official now. I managed to post once a day, every day, from February 1st until March 12th... that's 40 days. (Huh... it's kinda like anti-Lent!) I realized a couple things, though:

Blogging is by far not the most important thing in my life, especially right now.
Posting every day does not equate to quality every day.
I don't have any readers to disappoint, just friends (who understand that I have more important things to do).
I feel like I have to blog every day, which makes it a chore, which makes it not fun.

So I won't be posting daily anymore... I managed it this summer because I had a job I disliked (didn't hate it, though!) and blogging was a way to waste time away. I'll be going back to the end of last year, where I would just post when I find something cute, or cool, or timely. I hope you'll stick around.

I leave you with this, which is just adorable, and made me smile the biggest smile ever:

Coraline

2009-03-12T10:59:00.000-04:00

I'm in a pissy mood and I'm trying to pack before I head up to Philadelphia tomorrow. So all you get today is that I saw Coraline yesterday, and that it was really really good.

Here, have a bunch of posters, too. The cat was probably my favorite character.

Made By a Man

2009-03-11T09:26:00.005-04:00

You know how I can tell that this (also shown above) was made by a guy?

Go on, guess....

They neglected to include tampons.

Photo Week+ Ends! - Ducks and Cats

2009-03-10T10:20:00.003-04:00

Here you can see my two lucky cats, one little and one small. I'm supposed to be getting another one soon, I want black and red and gold eventually. :)

You can also see three of my devil ducks... there's a purple one to the left of the blue. I had a green and a red, but I gave them to two of my friends that I made last last summer ('07)... I was going to give -- I think blue? -- to the third, but he already had one, so I kept it because I'm a horrible greedy person. I also have a zombie duck, a pirate duck, and a tiny little tech duck, but perhaps I'll show those later.

And so concludes Photo Week+ ... see you tomorrow for your regularly scheduled dose of blog.

Photo Week+ Day 9 - Tower of Tastiness

2009-03-09T12:42:00.001-04:00

This, my friends, is yet another example of the proper use of a camera flash. This is my (small) soda can tower that I created while I worked at Microsoft. (I made a bigger one later on in the summer.)

You can see I drank of lot of MD, Cherry Coke, and Barq's (and a little Sprite too). They didn't actually have Barq's at the MS buildings, but I bought five 12 packs at the beginning of the summer, and I would bring a can in to work with me sometimes. (I don't think I drank more than 3 of those packs over 3 months... and they were on sale. Don't judge me!)

Photo Week+ Day 8 - Sackboy

2009-03-08T11:34:00.001-04:00

This is my little sackboy in Little Big Planet. I don't even know what coor he is under all of those tuxedo sticker applications, but I know that his tongue is blue and he's freaking adorable.

Anyway, my friends are amazing, and one of them created vector art out of him, and then stuck him on a shirt for my Christmas present. He had to make the tongue red (it didn't show up well otherwise) but he's still pretty cute! :)

Photo Week+ Day 7 - Tiny Tree

2009-03-07T10:17:00.001-05:00

This is a little potted tree that I saw every morning when I went to work in my office at Microsoft Bldg 50.

It doesn't look that cute, but please take note of the EXPO markers sitting next to it. (For those who aren't familiar with EXPO markers, they're about 5 inches long.) It's a tiny tree! And it was so cute every morning soaking up the sunshine. Poor thing is probably dead now that it's February up there in Seattle. :(

Photo Week+ Day 6 - Presents!

2009-03-06T08:25:00.001-05:00

These are two of the things that one of my (awesome!) friends got me when he went to Japan. The big white thing is a Kodoma, and is specifically one of the ones from Mononoke Hime. He's got a little string attached to his head, and a little pull cord that comes out his back, and if you hang him by the string and pull the cord, he vibrates and his head jingles, like in the movie. (If you just pull the cord while holding him, it doesn't jingle as loud.)

The little black dude is a soot sprite (picture here), specifically one of the ones from My Neighbor Totoro (because Spirited Away is the worst Ghibli film ever made). He doesn't do anything but be a keychain, but he's awfully cute.

Bonus points if you can guess what book is to the left of them!

Photo Week+ Day 5 - Macro

2009-03-05T09:21:00.001-05:00

This is what I get when I finally discover (after nearly a year) that my camera has a macro setting (I discovered it trying to take pictures of my thumb). This is a Philly roll that I made myself, and yes, it was super tasty. :) Doesn't it look good? Om nom nom.

Photo Week+ Day 4 - Drunken Stupor?

2009-03-04T11:17:00.002-05:00

This is a "bud vase" in the same way that shot glasses are called "toothpick holders" in college campus bookstores. I bought it when I had a summer internship in the IC, and the joke here is that if you fill it up with something strong, at each bulletpoint on the glass, that's the classification level of information that you'd drunkenly spill. So if you drink all the way to the bottom, you'll be giving away national secrets! (Not that I even know any, they way overclassify stuff... the names of TS programs are classified TS as well, like "Ghost Whale" would tell you anything about anything.)

I've never used it, it just collects dust on my bookshelf and looks cool. :)

Photo Week+ Day 3 - Gross

2009-03-03T10:47:00.002-05:00

Warning... kind of gross. (scroll down)

This, my friends, is what happens when you run your thumb against the blade of your three-blade razor, and not with it. Also, it helps to shower after you've gotten more than 5 hours of sleep (going to bed at 5 AM). Funnily enough, this didn't hurt as much as I expected it to. (Cutting your leg shaving is much worse, since it stings like hell as soon as you stick it under the water... the thumb, not so much.) I did, however, realize how much I use my left thumb. It's still a little messed up over a week later, but it's mostly better. I had to cut off those flaps of skin though, they wouldn't heal back down. It's stupid, but I'm kind of hoping my thumb print will be messed up... it'll make it a cool and stupid story, instead of just a stupid one.

Photo Week+ Day 2 - Shiny

2009-03-02T09:14:00.002-05:00

I like to make cupcakes, and I have a lot of sprinkles. Like... 8 different jar/tube things of sprinkles split into 4 compartments each. I've got Christmas, Easter, Halloween, spring, sea animals, dinosaurs and stuff, and a couple more. Anyway, this is what my sink looks like after a sprinkle decorating session. So pretty! (Also, notice how the use of the flash is complementary in this photo!)

Photo Week+ Begins! - Todai

2009-03-01T11:45:00.002-05:00

This week coming up is the Week From Hell in terms of classes and such (it's the week before Spring Break, what do you expect?) so all you're getting for 10 days is 10 photos. Please click to view them bigger. :)

(I'm calling it Photo Week+ ... it's a week of photos, plus three more days.)

This is my little water bottle dude from Todai. I never actually drink out of him (it tastes like plastic) but he's pretty freakin' cute. I also have one of those awesome bottles with the little glass ball in the bottle.

Wooooh!

2009-02-28T10:16:00.000-05:00

I managed to get rid of the virus I had... in addition to spawning pop ups (in Internet Explorer, which I don't even use, ever), it caused explorer.exe (the process that allows you to view your desktop and navigate through folders) to hog up to 98% of the CPU. Also, it prevented me from being able to save anything from the internet, whether it was right-click and save as, or downloading attachments in GMail.

So I got on a friend's computer and downloaded a couple Virtumonde removal tools to a USB stick, then brought it up and installed some on my laptop. First one I installed, it worked. I'm still going to do a clean reinstall of Windows in about a week, but at least now I can actually do work on my laptop and not have to worry too much about viruses.

Woooooh!

Someone Else Steafed?

2009-02-27T09:16:00.000-05:00

On Questionable Content, Faye has had this shirt since comic #1345, which appeared last Friday, the 20th of February.

On the other hand, this sad squid first appeared in pictures for sad children's new storyline about abandoned marine animals (or something) in comic #239, which came out around Friday, the 13th of February.

I always credit my steafs, but I couldn't find any credit for this squid on the QC website. Am I missing something?

That's Not Really What I Meant

2009-02-26T11:29:00.003-05:00

Still have a virus. Still doing steafs.

Today's steaf comes from What Would Tyler Durden Do?, aka WWTDD. (Which, despite its name, is not related to WWJDFAKB?)

Rarely politically correct, never nice, and torn between having the most amazing dick in the world and never getting laid, WWTDD is fucking hilarious. But please, don't expect to go in and not be offended, unless you're prepared to realize that this is just a celebrity gossip blog, and it's not that big of a deal.

Anyway, on the subject of Chris Brown's alleged beating(s) of his now ex-girlfriend Rihanna, WWTDD had this commentary to offer:

I called Chris to ask him about this, and of course my first question was, how can you beat up a girl. And he said, well you have to aim lower because they’re short. And I said that’s not really what I meant.

I laughed.

A Religious Mexican Food

2009-02-25T09:51:00.005-05:00

Also known as Holy Taco. I... I don't think I can even do a description for this, except to warn that it is sometimes NSFW, as they like to feature hot girls like... twice a day? I dunno, I just skip through those posts. You may have seen their post about the Greatest Snack Food Stadium Ever Built, since it got over a thousand diggs around Super Bowl time.

Anyway, today I am (partially) steafing a recent post entitled "The Dumbest Show in the Entire World," although if you really want to fully experience you should just click on the link, since it comes with pictures.

For the last five days or so, there’s been a TV pilot shooting in the lobby of where our offices are. I never asked anyone what it was about, because the first day of shooting someone said “James Vanderbeek is in it,” then didn’t immediately follow that statement with “and he’s partnered with a bear,” which is the only way I’d give a shit about a James Vanderbeek show.

But then yesterday, we were in the elevator with what was clearly a producer of the show, and my friend who sits behind me at work goes “Hey, what’s this show about.” And the producer guy looks at him and goes “Well. It’s a show about a sports agent, played by Mr. James Vanderbeek, who’s a big time womanizer. Then one day a witch casts a spell on him and he wakes up… and he’s a woman.”

And that was it. Not, “and he wakes up… and he’s a woman” followed by him staring at me seriously for five seconds and then bursting into laughter and throwing some playful punches at my arm and going “I’m just fuggin kidding you MAN! It’s not about that at all! What am I retarded? Turns him into a woman? Hahaha!”

Also, why a steaf on this glorious Wednesday? Because I have a fucking spyware/virus/trojan, namely Virtumonde. Oh well, a clean reinstall of Windows was a long time coming anyway.

Sank Yu ... Academy

2009-02-24T22:54:00.001-05:00

Best part of the Academy Awards, hands down:

"It is done. Please eat this."

2009-02-23T09:27:00.006-05:00

Found this on the Japanese version of msn.com. (Maybe Microsoft is good for something after all?) I don't speak Japanese, so it was just a little hard to figure out the context here, but apparently there was a "thick rolled sushi" festival, and this guy (Ken Kawasumi) won. Or something, I'm really not sure.

Regardless, I'm super jealous... I fail half the time just rolling something simple like a Philly roll, so the fact that he can make these is pretty damn awesome. I'm also jealous of his knife... I have to use my bread knife, because the serrated blades pull on the nori, instead of squishing the crap out of it like my other knives. :(

Also, I love that he couldn't put ears on the Obama roll, so he had to add them in later. And look at how cute those cars are! Yes you can! Ahahahahaha.

If you want to see all the pictures and text, it's on these two pages (I've linked to the translated versions, just click 'View Original Web Page' to see the actual text). I suggest you read through them, there's some hilarious (mis)translated quotes, like "I want to make a fun decorative rolled sushi at home with the children, many mothers said they [...] eat rolled sushi and some do not like fun."

It Was a Prescription Number, That's All

2009-02-22T11:08:00.000-05:00

There's this company, the Monticello Drug Company, which makes a product with an... usual choice of name. It's called 666 Cold Preparation. (They also make Nullo, a product that should be sent as a free sample to anyone planning to attend a con, with instructions to start taking it a couple of days in advance.) Back in the mid 90s, some guy happened to find it at his local drug store, and called the company (acting like a super idiot) to get more info. The company responded, then the super cool CEO responded, and then they got swag. But it all started with this phone call, transcribed below:

Naturally, I had to find out why in the name of Madison Avenue anyone would name their product after one of the most enduring prophecies of evil in all the Western world. Stuffing the sides of my mouth with bunched up Glad baggies and affecting a hick-ish weedbender accent, I called the maker of 666 cough syrup, a tiny company down in Florida. It turned out to be a hapless receptionist's initiation into the secret history of the Beast...

Hi! I was wondering, do you have a comment line?

Uh, well, not really, but...[laughs nervously] do you, uh, wish to make a comment?

Well, I have a question about one of your cough syrups.

Great!

I wanted to know what the name of it was. I just picked it up off the shelf today, and I wanted to know what the name of it was.

Well, there is...actual cough syrup should not be on the shelves...I think it's called a "666 Cough Syrup," and I think that what was out there, um, has, is outdated. We are reformulating that, but I think it will still be "666 Cough Syrup" when it comes back on the market. But we also have other "666" cold preparations, one is a 3-oz. liquid and one is a 6-oz. liquid.

Yeah, that's what this is, it says "Cold Preparation."

Yeah.

But that's the name of it? It's "666?"

I'll get the bottle. Hold on.

Okay.

[I cough horribly while she hunts around.]

Yep. Um, "666 Cold Preparation," analgesic decongestant, and then there's also a [reading] "666 Preparation, with quinine, for relief of headaches, body aches and pains, and fever due to colds."

I see. Now, what I was wondering is, why is it called that?

Excuse me?

Why is it called "666?" That's what I'm wondering.

Why is it called "666?"

Yeah. I mean, that's kind of a WEIRD—

Oh, well, it's been around for years, and, uh, that's what it was years ago and they've kept the name.

When did that start? Do you know?

When did it start...?

When did they name it that?

Gee, I don't know for sure, I'm really fairly new to the company, but I know that it's been around for a long time.

'Cos I mean, did you ever, I was just curious, you know, 'cos I used to live next door to a minister—

Uh-huh.

—and uh, did you ever read the Bible about that? Have you ever heard of that?

[Long pause]

What, you mean like, the devil or something to ward off evil, or something?

Yeah, it's like, you know, I mean it's the mark of the beast, you know, and I was wondering why—

Oh, I don't, that has, that doesn't have anything to do with this.

Well, it's just kind of WEIRD, I never—

Yeah...

I never knew of a cough syrup that was named after a number.

Yeah, no...

It's just kind of WEIRD.

No, it's been around like that, and I think maybe, um, oh, I'm trying to think how far it goes back.

[More coughing as she asks other employees: "How far back does `666' go? Who thought of the name? Why was that? Fifty years ago? Sixty years ago? When was that? What year was that?"]

Sir?

Yeah?

Uh, it was actually, uh, probably around the early 1900s, and, uh, one of the founders of the company, apparently they used to write a number of prescriptions at that time, for quinine in Florida for malaria and things, and it was a prescription number, that's all.

It was just a, you know, 'cos I, like I say, I used to live next door to a minister. He hardly ever got sick! And you know, I was in the store and there was just one box of it up on the shelf, you know, and I didn't pay much attention to it, but when I got it home I was looking at it and I says to my wife, you know, what woulda possessed, possessed somebody to, I mean, you know—

It..it...it has nothing to do with that, I mean I guess I've heard that story, too, but this was a prescription number and it goes back like to the early 1900s, and so they just picked up that name for it.

I was thinking, it was funny, you know, I was saying "what possessed them." I was thinking it was a bad pun.

Right.

You're not affiliated with Proctor & Gamble?

No, no, no. This is a very small drug company. It's a locally...privately-owned company, and it's been around for...oh, for a long time. And I think that, uh, one of the original stores was in Monticello, Florida, and so that's the name, Monticello Drug Company.

You mean...but I'm all the way in Arizona! And I got it all the way out here.

Oh, well, they ship all over.

Yeah?

Yeah. But it's been around a long, long time. And that was it, it was just a prescription number, and so when they were writing up, you know, prescriptions for, you know, something with quinine for malaria, and um, but they just picked that name.

I mean, 'cos, you know they had that thing with Proctor & Gamble, and Liz Claiborne? Did you hear about that? Where they said that she was involved in Satanism?

Well yeah, no, I...I...I don't, uh, now this is, nope, we're just a small private drug company, and uh...there's a number of "666" products.

And they're ALL called "666?!?"

Yeah, there's, um, yep, there's a "666" preparation with quinine, and a couple of cold preparations, and some cold tablets.

'Cos I never heard of it before. And I thought that was—

Yeah, it's, yes, probably, if you had lived in Florida maybe you would have, but living elsewhere I don't think maybe you would have.

I never been to Florida. But did you ever read that in the Bible, though?

Uh, no, I didn't.

Let me—I'll just read you this one verse here. It says, it's in the Book of Revelation, and it says, "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six."

No. No, never—

Threescore is sixty, you know, like in "Fourscore and seven years ago."

Yeah, yeah.

I just think that's kinda WEIRD. It's kinda like bad PR. I was thinking, you know, it's not like every day you see the Mark of the Beast in the supermarket.

Well, I guess you could, you know, make what you wanted out of any number of things, but this certainly was not the intent. I mean, I guess I have heard of that but I had not read it myself, and, uh, this was not the origin of the, this is not the reason—

Even your phone number is "666!"

Right, exactly, exactly.

I thought, man! Is this like...you know, I'm just trying to play devil's advocate, here, you know, no pun intended.

Yeah. Right.

It just seemed like a WEIRD coincidence. Like I say, I used to live next door to a minister. And he hardly ever got sick! I just thought that was kind of WEIRD. You know. Kinda strange.

Well...

Don't you think maybe you could—

One of those strange coincidences, I guess.

I think you should probably change the name, though.

I guess you could look at it as a cold being bad, something you don't want to have until you have—

I mean, I'm not like paranoid or nothing, but you know I got kids, and they're listening to heavy metal and stuff, and they got "666" on the album covers, and Satan, and demons, and all this whole thing, and like I say, you don't every day see the Mark of the Beast.

Well, you know, a lot of people, though, have been buying it for years, and they're, you know, then if you change the name, they don't like that either, so.

Yeah, but then at least it wouldn't be Satanic. Like I say, I'm not trying to be paranoid, but—

No...well—

I used to live next door to a minister, you know?

It really has nothing to do with that at all, so you can rest assured that it does not.

Do you think you could send me some information maybe on your products?

Gee, we don't have any booklets or anything. As I said, we're, you know, a very small private company, and there's very, you know, we just have—

[More coughing]

'Scuse me. I'm sick.

[I really was, in fact.]

So we don't have like a booklet or anything.

So you couldn't send me no information or nothin'?

No. I don't have anything like that to send.

Well, do you think I could maybe like—I mean, I'm not, I'm not paranoid, but I'm just, I'm a little concerned—do you think I could maybe have my minister call you? To straighten this out?

Just a minute.

[Long pause. Long, long pause. Much coughing.]

Sir?

Yeah?

[Long coughing fit from me.]

Excuse me. Uh, it really, I mean, I guess if he wanted to, but it really, the people here, as I talked to them upstairs, really, they do know what that symbol stands for, but everyone here is a Christian, God-fearing people—

Is that right?

—and, uh, it really has nothing to do with that, and, you know, as I said, it was from prescription, so, um, it's—

You got Christians, you say, working there? Well, they could talk to a minister, yeah?

[Now she's flustered]

Well, I mean, if, if, if you feel it would be necessary, but it's not, I mean, you can tell him it isn't that at all, and you can tell him, explain to him, it was simply a prescription number, um—

But I mean it's not, like, "665" or "667." It's "666."

Right...?

They don't put "665" on the heavy-metal albums.

Well, as I say, you know, back in 1900s they certainly probably were not thinking of that, and as I say, they had the prescription number and they thought it might probably be the thing that they would name, you know, their cold preparation. And that's what they did.

It was written, like, 2,000 years ago, though, in the Bible.

Well—

It's been around a long time.

—you know, a lot of people, you know, I-I-I don't, I certainly don't associate it with that. At all. I think maybe it's what you make of it.

'Cos you know how they had that Proctor & Gamble, their trademark symbol on the soap, there? It was like some Satanic thing, and they had to change it? You remember that?

Uh, no I don't.

It was maybe two years ago.

No.

And then Liz Claiborne, she's supposed to be some...Satan thing?

No, I don't...I guess I don't pay much attention to that kind of stuff.

It's scary stuff. Like I say, I'm not trying to be paranoid, but it's just that—

Yeah, well—

I used to live next door to a minister.

You should certainly disregard this.

He hardly ever got sick! So you say it should be okay then?

I certainly think so.

'Cos I haven't even taken any of it. You know, I'm a little concerned.

Well, um, you might want to check the expiration date, if it says "Cough Syrup."

Says, uh, well, no, it says "Cold Preparation."

Uh-huh. Hold on a minute, sir.

[Another long pause.]

Excuse me, I had other phones to answer and...whatever...but if you have the "Cold Preparation," I would just check the expiration date, but other than that, I mean, some people swear by it, and, you know everybody has their own, you know, cold preparation that they take, that they like, and, you know—

It says "11/94." So that's—

That would be good until, right, November of 1994.

I haven't even taken any of it yet.

Right.

'Cos, you know, I'm just a little concerned.

There are some people, I had a man call me the other day and we, uh, he uh, was looking for stores that we ship to in...where he lived, I think he lived in Texas, because he's been buying it forever, and you know, he swore by it, but you know, everybody has their own—

Well, it's not like addictive or nothing, is it?

Excuse me?

It ain't addictive or nothing, is it?

Oh god no!

If I take it, I'll be stuck having to, like, I'll have to have just this one—

No. No, no no...

—brand all the time?

Lord, no!

'Cos I usually take the Coricidin. They were just out of it.

Uh-huh. Well, I mean, you can give it a try, if it works, good. If it doesn't, well then, try something else.

I wasn't really concerned so much about the medical so much as I was thinking if I was drinking this stuff and not knowing what it is, it could be some Satan thing, I don't know...with that "666" on there.

No.

I don't know if you was raised in a church, but I used to live next door to a minister, and uh—

Uh-huh.

—he hardly ever got sick!

Yeah, well...

It was WEIRD!

What can I say? I know. Listen, I have got another line here going....

Okay. But there's nothing you could send to me, though?

No. We really don't.

Well, I'll contact my minister. The guy who used to live next door to me? And I'll have him call you.

Alright-ee.

I'll feel better.

Alright-ee. Bye.

Thanks for your time.

Eating Popcorn on a Piano!

2009-02-21T19:03:00.003-05:00

I know this isn't the original video (which is located here), but it's the one I saw first, and it's got the song. So there. Plus, isn't this adorable no matter what?

57 Seconds

2009-02-20T10:52:00.003-05:00

Damn, I'm screwed.

57 seconds

Build a Wall of Memory!

2009-02-19T12:29:00.000-05:00

This is a really cool DIY project: make a USB stick out of some LEGO bricks! This guy saw a picture of a LEGO brick USB drive on the Internet (haven't we all?) and thought he could do it himself... so he did. And he was kind enough to take pictures and put up a tutorial.

The hilarious thing to me is that I actually have the exact USB stick he took the drive out of, although I think mine is at least 512 MB. It also looks pretty cool while in use, although it wouldn't look nearly as cool with a red brick (my personal favorite).

He didn't put up pictures or very clear instructions on how to sand down the USB drive or the inside of the LEGO brick, but if you're a real do-it-yourself-er, you should be able to figure it out. :)

Sad Snape is Sad

2009-02-18T11:07:00.006-05:00

I think this is the most adorable thing Katie Cook has ever drawn. I was going to just cut out the one on the bottom right (which literally made me go "aaaaaaaaaaaaaawwww" out loud when I was alone in my apartment) but the other 3 were adorable too. Look at little Harry! And Dumbledore being all "alas," haha.

I feel bad for not sharing Katie with you guys, she's amazing and her art is adorable. She's also super dorky, so there's tons of Star Wars and comic book stuff. She's a professional artist who does an official Star Wars comic, has her own website, and does sketch cards for everything (Star Wars, LOTR, Heroes, Indiana Jones, as well as Marvel and DC). Also, she likes Venture Bros. and Shaun of the Dead, so she has to be cool. And finally, teeny tiny itty bitty polka dot bikini hearts... tons of them.

Is It Wrong That I Love His Hair?

2009-02-17T10:32:00.002-05:00

In 1998, a comedian nicknamed Nasubi (literally "eggplant" in Japanese) won the audition to be on a new show called "Denpa Shonen." What he didn't realize was the nature of the game: he was stripped naked and locked in a room with magazines and postcards, and told that he would have to win contests to survive. There's a Wikipedia page, but even better, there's a Hulu page. That's right... now you can watch the episodes for yourselves, and decide if they're horrible or hilarious or both.

via [TokyoMango]

Titanic 2

2009-02-16T17:03:00.000-05:00

Everyone has seen Titanic, right? And nobody actually liked it, right? Well, you'll like this:

Sometimes, the sequel is better.

Spam Steaf

2009-02-15T13:51:00.002-05:00

I get a good amount of spam, and some of them have amusing titles. My favorite for the longest time was "flowerpot breast," because it was so utterly random and so concisely hilarious. I think I've found a new favorite, since it's not only the title, but also the body of the email that is absolutely priceless.

SUBJECT: Your woman said that you are a no longer man! It is a not true!
MESSAGE: Your love is eternal! But it is necessary to take care about a health!

Those extra "a"s stuck in there make it sound like it's Mario that wants my non-existent penis to be bigger. But I'm glad he realizes my love is eternal. <3

Extreme PBJs

2009-02-14T12:52:00.001-05:00

This video is so stupid it's funny. I love at the end, when he tries to continue screaming while chewing. Priceless.

Presidential Cupcakes

2009-02-13T15:46:00.006-05:00

On November 6, 2008, Zilly Rosen of ZILLYCAKES created a cupcake mosaic portrait of then president-elect Obama.

Today, February 13, 2009, she's doing it again, this time with both Obama and Lincoln, both Presidents who previously served as Illinois representatives. Why today? I don't know. But they started at 2, and there is live streaming video! Go watch it, it's so cool! (picture from ~3:40 PM)

Edit: Ahaha, I just realized that not only are they both from Illinois (politically) they both also have big ears! :D

Edit2: It's done! You can see the girl on the left, sitting on the floor, clapping. Hopefully someone will put up a time-lapse.

found via [Cake Wrecks]

Pokemon?

2009-02-13T09:24:00.000-05:00

They do exist!

Better than the H-Bomb OR the F-Bomb

2009-02-12T11:19:00.001-05:00

Everybody loves Obama... but soon, they will run in fear! Behold... the O-Bomb! Ahaha, I love our new president. Also, a comic featuring our new president and a man who can never become president.

Both are from Core Dump, a webcomic that's not always funny, but is better than anything I could come up with.

Cowbirds in Love

2009-02-11T11:53:00.000-05:00

Today, my friends, is truly a great day. Behold....

Cowbirds in Love

If you don't like puns, you may as well leave now, because nearly every comic involves amazingly intricate, hilariously obvious puns. I can't explain to you how amazing this comic is, how funny, how unexpectedly good. I can just hope that you will believe me. (Pretty please?) Maybe it's how unashamed the author is of the jokes, I don't know. I just love it. Also, he respects feminism... sometimes?

And just like many comics nowadays, it is really important that you read the mouse-over text (as well as the text at the bottom of the page) to get the joke, or for an additional one. I suggest you read through the archives, but if you want a taste of some of my favorites, I have bulleted them out below (in no particular order). Prepare for link immersion.

Much better than "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo"

Thirty Seven

2009-02-10T09:34:00.002-05:00

37 is my lucky number. I think everyone should have one, and that it's really important to not pick a single digit or common number... so, nothing below 10, and no 16, 18, 21, 42, 69, 101, etc. Be original! Once you've got one, you'll be surprised how often it pops up. And every time it does, you can't help but smile (as cheesy as that may sound).

Examples for my lucky number from Wikipedia:

37 is the first irregular prime
37 is a star number
37 is the result when the number 666 is divided by its digits added together [666/(6+6+6)=37]
37 is the normal human body temperature in degrees Celsius

And on my own, I've noticed these:
In the movie Hoodwinked, Japeth the goat claims that 37 years ago a witch cast a spell on him causing him to sing everything he says.
In the movie Clerks, Veronica has blown 37 guys.
In the movie Men in Black, the twins keep MIB on Centaurian time. It's a 37 hour day.
In Season 5 of Project Runway, the designer with the silliest name (Suede) is 37.
On PostSecret, there was a postcard where someone confesses to living at home until they were 37.
In Brave New World, John's mother has her soma holiday on floor 37.
In Scrapped Princess, a code to stop attacking is "Crimson 0037."
The apartment building I live in has 37 different room floor plans.
On the cover of the book, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America, the subtitle is "(And Al Franken is #37)".
It's used in the example for XKCD's Geohashing.

Someone else also likes the number 37, though for less cool reasons, IMO. He has a lot of factoids, but for the most part they honestly don't interest me that much... it doesn't matter if someone says it in a movie I've never seen, or if people who died years ago were 37. It's much more interesting (and fun) to find these random things on my own.

So go ahead, pick yourself a lucky number. Post it in the comments! And every time it pops up randomly, it'll bring a smile to your face. :)

Japan is OFFICIALLY the Weirdest Country Ever

2009-02-09T15:26:00.000-05:00

I have to warn everyone that this is NSFW, but only because your boss will think you are really weird.

Now, I have to point out, that if we girls allow this to happen, then nevermore will boys be adorably fumbling with your bra strap. Instead, they'll be like "wow, it's hard to take it off from this angle" ... and you will be thoroughly creeped out.

Steafity Steaf Steaf.

2009-02-08T10:13:00.000-05:00

What follows is an exceedingly dorky steaf, though I believe it is explained sufficiently well that even non-dorks can understand it. It's taken from The Jargon File, version 4.4.7, a self-described "comprehensive compendium of hacker slang" that's been around online since 1990.

A Story About 'Magic'

Some years ago, I (GLS) was snooping around in the cabinets that housed the MIT AI Lab's PDP-10, and noticed a little switch glued to the frame of one cabinet. It was obviously a homebrew job, added by one of the lab's hardware hackers (no one knows who).

You don't touch an unknown switch on a computer without knowing what it does, because you might crash the computer. The switch was labeled in a most unhelpful way. It had two positions, and scrawled in pencil on the metal switch body were the words ‘magic' and ‘more magic'. The switch was in the ‘more magic' position.

I called another hacker over to look at it. He had never seen the switch before either. Closer examination revealed that the switch had only one wire running to it! The other end of the wire did disappear into the maze of wires inside the computer, but it's a basic fact of electricity that a switch can't do anything unless there are two wires connected to it. This switch had a wire connected on one side and no wire on its other side.

It was clear that this switch was someone's idea of a silly joke. Convinced by our reasoning that the switch was inoperative, we flipped it. The computer instantly crashed.

Imagine our utter astonishment. We wrote it off as coincidence, but nevertheless restored the switch to the ‘more magic’ position before reviving the computer.

A year later, I told this story to yet another hacker, David Moon as I recall. He clearly doubted my sanity, or suspected me of a supernatural belief in the power of this switch, or perhaps thought I was fooling him with a bogus saga. To prove it to him, I showed him the very switch, still glued to the cabinet frame with only one wire connected to it, still in the ‘more magic’ position. We scrutinized the switch and its lone connection, and found that the other end of the wire, though connected to the computer wiring, was connected to a ground pin. That clearly made the switch doubly useless: not only was it electrically nonoperative, but it was connected to a place that couldn't affect anything anyway. So we flipped the switch.

The computer promptly crashed.

This time we ran for Richard Greenblatt, a long-time MIT hacker, who was close at hand. He had never noticed the switch before, either. He inspected it, concluded it was useless, got some diagonal cutters and diked it out. We then revived the computer and it has run fine ever since.

We still don't know how the switch crashed the machine. There is a theory that some circuit near the ground pin was marginal, and flipping the switch changed the electrical capacitance enough to upset the circuit as millionth-of-a-second pulses went through it. But we'll never know for sure; all we can really say is that the switch was magic.

I still have that switch in my basement. Maybe I'm silly, but I usually keep it set on ‘more magic’.

1994: Another explanation of this story has since been offered. Note that the switch body was metal. Suppose that the non-connected side of the switch was connected to the switch body (usually the body is connected to a separate earth lug, but there are exceptions). The body is connected to the computer case, which is, presumably, grounded. Now the circuit ground within the machine isn't necessarily at the same potential as the case ground, so flipping the switch connected the circuit ground to the case ground, causing a voltage drop/jump which reset the machine. This was probably discovered by someone who found out the hard way that there was a potential difference between the two, and who then wired in the switch as a joke.

Nothing?

2009-02-07T11:22:00.001-05:00

Nothing.

XKCD comes to life

2009-02-06T12:36:00.006-05:00

This XKCD comic about your YouTube comment being read back to you is now real. The only difference between this and the comic is that you actually have to click the 'Audio Preview' button, it's not just read back to you automatically.

Apparently, I am a little late noticing this, but I guess that's because, despite how much I use YouTube, I never post comments.

Go try it out!

Weird

2009-02-05T10:30:00.002-05:00

Sometimes, you're just way too different.

Tiny Bottles of Alcohol.

2009-02-04T16:20:00.001-05:00

Over the holiday, I partook of the amazingness that is Anthon Berg's Chocolate Liquers, also know as tiny-chocolate-bottles-filled-with-alcohol-that-taste-better-than-they-should-because-they've-been-exposed-to-chocolate-for-God-knows-how-long. Seriously, even the Jack Daniel's was delicious, although my favorite was the Cointrea Brandy, by far. They were so good, and so much fun to eat. Plus: alcohol!

Anyway, I found a comic called pictures for sad children, and they also like tiny alcohol bottles, though there is no chocolate, only alcohol. Behold:

The comic, despite looking similar to XKCD and C&H, actually has a fairly regular storyline, with interspersed one shots and mini arcs in between. Great quotes (and great comics): this is me / this is exactly how shitty i feel, you are not special / not even in a bad way, hey pilot / hey / i promise not to terror you, you threw up a tiny doctor, getting old is terrible / avoid it if you can, it is like if cancer took its weekends off, OH HELLO THERE FROM RUSSIA, "thanks for living" / "we value your feedback", we are each a beautiful snowflake that will melt in hell, you are not even dead yet, you do not get to haunt me, it's like prayer, except you can hear us, i don't want to die, it sounds confusing, and on and on. Also: great drink. And finally:

Dude, They Win So Hard

2009-02-03T09:14:00.003-05:00

Following from yesterday's post, we have more Japanese people in black body suits doing ridiculous, amazing things. There's a great cameo in here too. :)

Matrix Ping Pong

2009-02-02T13:14:00.004-05:00

This video is years and years old, but it is still amazing. Imagine if all the people on America's Got Talent put this much work into their acts.

Edit: And here's a bunch of Americans doing it wrong. :(

Ooh! Ooh! You guys!

2009-02-01T09:12:00.003-05:00

You guys, you guys... I'm back! And what better way to come back than with a PETA post? Huh? HUH? *waggles eyebrows* It also just happens to be about the Super Bowl, which is today, if I recall correctly.

Anyway, I'm sure a lot of you have heard of the rejected PETA ad for the Super Bowl (a couple of you even sent it to me). If you've actually watched it, you know it's not even that good of an ad... it kinda sucks, even beyond the whole objectifying women thing. I mean, even looking at it from a guy's POV, they don't show them very naked or sexy or even for very long. And hey, where is the research about vegetarians being better lovers? Where is the empirical data, the analysis, the scientific modeling, the peer review, the double-blind studies? Why can't I find it on Google?

Regardless, we all know that PETA never intended for this ad to actually play during the Super Bowl. They weren't going to pay the millions of dollars it would cost, and they certainly weren't planning on making any of the suggested changes. They did this knowing that it would get rejected, and knowing that they would get more media coverage for much, much less. Also: when I think of phallic vegetables, pumpkins, broccoli, and asparagus are definitely not the first things that spring to mind. Really, PETA, where's the love for the cucumber, the carrot and the banana? And where are the condoms!? C'mon guys, safe veggie sex. Do you know how many people touch the produce in the grocery store? Just dumping them in the hot tub does not equal washing the damn things.

What's really stupid (though sometimes smart) this time around are the posted comments on the PETA blog post for the commercial.

Choice comments:

Okay... one of the hottest ads I've seen in 41 years!

Going out to get more veggies ... right now!!!

Great job, Peta! Shame on you, NBC!

I agree with Mandy... the ad should definitely get its air time, but perhaps only after the lil' ones have gone to bed!

Our kids know too much about sex as it is! They'll lose their minds if they view this hot fire of an ad!!! ;) (stupid)

Yeah, we can allow a bunch of steroided freaks bash into each other and it is all right to watch that. The super Bowl is not a family event- it is just a symptom of our messed up society. The ad was a bit racy - but love, even for vegtables is cool. When we learn to love ourselves - then we maybe can love all creatures too. I say ban the violence and promote the love. Keep up the work and fee thinking PETA. (ghey)

Hi, I just saw this commercial and I think it should be on TV. I am 12 years old and I've seen worse stuff on tv. So I don't see what the big deal is. by the way this ad is making me eat my vegetables! (creepy)

urm . . .

Nice ad

but I have a girfriend

bye (LOL)

More: Smart, stupid, smart, sexist, ummm...a retard?, wait, what?, stupid, incredibly smart, despite the cruise control for cool, sarcasm for the win, my twin!?, smart, huh?, thank you!

Also, if you say this ad makes you want to switch to being a vegetarian... you're admitting that you're so bad in bed that you would entirely change your lifestyle on just the slim chance that you might be a little better. Just sayin'. ;)

Happy Super Bowl!

Who the Hell is Benny Hinn?

2008-12-13T18:36:00.003-05:00

Benny Hinn is a faith healer who takes the phrase "laying on of hands" to a hilarious extreme. He also made predictions about the 1990s, including:

Fidel Castro's death
the destruction of America's homosexual community by fire (sent by God)
the devastation of the East Coast by earthquakes
America electing its first female president.

You might think that last one doesn't fit in with all the others. There's more to it: she'll destroy the nation. You can read more about him here, but I suggest you just watch the video.

Found at cracked.com

We're All Gonna Die!

2008-12-09T15:01:00.003-05:00

Here's a video of a real live dinosaur. Seriously, watch it... it's awesome and hilarious. Also, the people commenting that "this is teaching kids that dinosaurs are pets" are stupid... c'mon, quit nay-saying everything that's cool! (The people saying that the kids that ran are the smart ones, on the other hand, are right. Natural selection!)

Borderline is Just Another Word for "Unclassifiable"

2008-12-08T23:36:00.004-05:00

I promise this blog won't become cluttered with quizzes, but I was wondering if I had ADD, and so I took an online test. My results?

I think I'm less ADD, and more that I talk too much and waaaaaaaaaaay too fast. It's why I have no ESL friends. :(

We Could Be Friends!

2008-12-05T00:11:00.004-05:00

Oh, XKCD, you put everything so eloquently. And he didn't once use the word "Nice." Amazing. (Images are links, ICYDK.) Also, completely off topic: we could be heroes!

Ha!

2008-12-03T09:44:00.004-05:00

In your face, PETA.

Best.

Game.

Ever.