 | 
Milgram tested people's response to authority -- whether or not someone would follow orders that clearly caused harm to another human -- in an eye-opening (but deceptive and scientifically specious) way. This gentleman was one of those tested, and talks of the test, authority, the Red Scare, and how the three intertwined in his experience under Milgram's observation. #
When it comes to communism or Fourierism (one of my new favorite philosophies), the whole bourgeoisie/proletariat thing doesn't really register -- it's because the US doesn't have a widespread limiting class-system like elsewhere. This may be why outright communism didn't work so well; it requires 'us vs them' to work, with the 'us' being the larger part of society (the lower class). Here in the USA, we're not constrained by class, so the argument that we need to even the odds is rather moot, until class is referenced regarding discussions of taxes or innate needs (food/housing/fuel). The article above reminds that pure wealth isn't a class distinction, so don't expect cries for a communist government when gas hits $4 a gallon; the general consensus is that everybody's got to do something for themselves about it, which is the opposite from communism. #
Brainwashing and faith ride a blurry line in this snippet from Matt Taibbi's forthcoming book; I remain open to the fact that an outsider-unbeliever's view cannot understand what's actually going on for the dedicated believers, there are some cautionary points about the current state of evangelicism. #
The eyes, it seems, have it: your eyes were the way they were when you were born, and will be pretty much the same (aside from ravages of age) your entire life. Unlike hair and skin, eyes don't regenerate or change through constant growth. #
Although Wikipedia has a list of people who did this entirely without pseudoartistic extravagance, an artist in Germany is creating one of these intentionally. #
Don't spend too much time at sea: you might end up like this guy, with a severe case of poet-scurvy. #
Everyone's heard about how Pixar and their ilk use open-source software to get their work done; the software, however, doesn't get any screen-time for it -- unless they start crediting Linux in movies. #
New Scientist has a list of misconceptions about evolution, from both sides. This couldn't have anything to do with a new, poorly-done, logical-fallacy-laden movie, hmmm? #
I recently posted Salvador Dali outtakes at the Infomercantile -- this blogger saw them and took his own Atomica. #
Why no remaindered quick-links in the last few days? I'm tryin' something new out -- a redesigned Thingsville, where I post stuff I only have a few words to say anything about. It's kinda fun -- usually I spent a half hour or so researching and composing an average post, but at Thingsville I tell myself I have to find a link, say something, post a picture with it, all in as little time as possible, like a minute or two. As a writing exercise, it's fun; I'm a little worried it will take time away from longer-format stuff, but we'll see how it goes. #
Modern graphic design, as embodied by modernistic, retro, and grungy rock concert posters (some mild nudity) #
Creepy, yet fascinating: the gestational cycle of the common teddy bear. #
Kottke has a nice roundup of all the old media that's available for free (or cheap) online -- I loves old magazines for reading, and now you don't even have to scrounge up old copies at rummage sales anymore. #
From the New York Times archives, 1880: What if spiders were as large as sheep? #
Tay Zonday, the 'Chocolate Rain' guy, is proving to be something more than a one-hit-wonder by being eloquent and insightful on what the media is and how it relates to the perjoratives "one hit wonder" and "sellout." (via) #
Resistentialism: the philosophical idea that inanimate objects are inherently hostile towards rational beings. It makes sense: if, thinking, artistic humans are productive and working towards creation, it's only logical to connect the unthinking with the destructive. Like the golem, Frankenstein's Monster, and poorly designed cellphone interfaces, our creations are out to destroy us. Don't trust that Mac...despite the cutesy music and friendly interface, it's gonna bash your freakin' face in. #
Blinded in childhood, posessing a law degree, fighting for what is righteous and just? Could be Daredevil, could be New York governor David Patterson...or they could be the same person! #
An adventurous and trusting person left their camera on a park bench, with instructions...and this happened. Similar to this, which uses postal workers for their art. (via) #
The Ludolphine: at the turn of the 17th century, Ludolph van Ceulen calculated an amazing, magical number, which was named in his honor. The Ludolphine number starts 3.14159...and continues out for a total of 35 decimal places. People who remember 7th grade math (or resort to treppanation to avoid manipulation by hasidic jews) may recognize this number as pi, the ratio of diameter to circumference in a circle. The Ludolphine is not pi -- true pi has endless decimal places -- but is mathematically equivalent. van Ceulen's grave has the Ludophine carved into it, a hundred years before pi was ever used as a name for his famous number. #
 Speaking of Caturday, this past Fark Caturday I, as my alter-arch-ego-nemesis Azrael Brown, posted a lame, inane post, which it turns out has the most votes as of 3/17/08. Is are kan be posibl 2 win Caturday? I think can be such, and I am that winner. #
Exotic, but I question the practicality of spoons made from bread; I suppose if they were made of something stiff like prezels, they might have enough body to actually support food on the cup end. They look more fun (see last picture here) than anything. #
Awesome forced-perspective art: the Thing runs through the theater. (via) #
I found this researching something for The Infomercantile: A list of popes who were gettin' some. Popes had sex? Who knew? Well, the one pope whose dad was a pope. Ain't no virgin birth going on there. #
Black dog syndrome: anecdotally, a dog stays at a shelter longer (and, eventually is put down) if it's big and black. I find it suprising, since a black lab is (also anecdotally) the friendlist of dogs, easiest to train, and is good with families. The news article has a good explanation, that may be technology-based: under low interior lights or in a photo, an all-black dog is a dark & indistinct shape, which makes it harder to 'latch on' to some cute-factor, and triggers the general instinctive aversion to bright eyes and glinting teeth embedded in massive, indistinct black voids. (via) #
The world's smallest independent country, Nauru, is in need of help: it has no money. At only 8 square miles, the resource-less country has been relying on Australian input to keep their nation moving, but that's ending, and the 10,000 residents will cease to have paychecks and national benefits. If you've got some lottery winnings to burn and want to become a small nation's benefactor, I'll bet they'll be happy to see you on their doorstep! #
tweetronising: cute, sweet, everything-is-great sentiment designed to get you to buy stuff. A portmanteau of 'twee' and 'patronizing', it's used in hipster-bourgeois-commercials to appear grounded and earthy, without any sort of buddhist lifestyle actually embedded. Those new MacBook Air commercials are the perfect example of such a thing, thanks to Yael Naim's "New Soul"; see also Apple's Nano commercial, the Ford Edge, and this Sprint commercial. #
If you ever wanted to see your geeky life plotted out in humorous detail, see the NYT's flowchart, starting with early-life D&D exposure. It seems to overlap, or at least compliment, Lore's Geek Heirarchy. #
A telemarketer has found how much fun it is to hack caller ID. They've been contacting people at all hours of the night, showing up on caller ID as a call from Tommy Tutone's Jenny. While it might seem ideal for a good time, beware calls from numbers you find on bathroom walls. #
The Instructables website is chock full 'o useful information, such as this entertaning and relevant set of insutrction for how to ship a tiger to Canada. It's not too long, and cute enough to have been a children's book. (via) #
Kosovo has proclaimed independence from Serbia, further fragmenting the former Yugoslavia. Not that it means much, unless other nations acknowledge and respect their sovereignty. In a tactic taken from Stephen Colbert, Kosovo has a 'Who's Recognizing My Existence Now?" website called Kosovo Thanks You! #
Last Thursday, one of my coworkers won a free lunch with James and Cori In The Morning for the entire office from FM 105.1 (formerly "Lite Rock 105," but only old people still call it that). We chatted, everyone told embarrassing stories about themselves and each other, I had a tasty tasty sandwich, and we all got our picture taken. That's me, way in the back on the left, with the scruffy beard and black sweater. #
Yesterday, partly due to age and partly due to being beat down by high Infomercantile traffic, the server hit the canvas hard and the paramedics had to be called to the ring. If I had propped him up and growled like a pissed-off Burgess Meredith, the server probably would have gone on fighting for a couple more rounds. I've had replacement servers burning-in over in my server closet since December, so despite not having completely tested everything I hedged my bets that all would go well by swapping machines. Sadly, the new server hadn't gotten a dose of current content in quite a while, resulting in everyone getting old content for around 8 hours yesterday while I troubleshooted copying 10GB of data to the new server without overwriting anything important. If you came here yesterday and were confused by the late-December content, don't worry: you didn't fall through a wormhole nor entered a groundhog-day loop late in the month. It was the replacing of servers. I'm still working out bugs, so brace yourself, in case you see anything crazy happening. #
If you're not sure what to write on your product's label and you don't have some amazing awe-inspiring description to encourage the purchase, just rephrase the definition of the object, but IN ALL CAPS! In case you didn't know, my blog PROVIDES WORDS TO READ WHEN THE LETTERS ARE ASSEMBLED FROM LEFT TO RIGHT, IN ROWS FROM TOP TO BOTTOM, STOPPING AT SPACES AND PUNCTUATION. If you're not partaking in my blog in this fashion, you're doing it wrong. #
Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books, those maddening yet anticlimatic interactive fiction children's books were huge when I was a kid, but I never quite saw the god's-eye-view of what the book's structure looked like. Well, for that matter, I never even thought of what the god's-eye-view would be (I was eleven, for cryin' out loud), but the nerdy grownup in me wants to know -- and I can find out, for "The Mystery of Chimney Rock," CYOA #5. #
Random Hall, who have named a floor after my daughter Destiny at my behest, has turned 40. The building, originally temporary and not meant to be a formal dorm, has stood the test of time and been an internet darling since before the web. Happy birthday, all! #
Now that you've memorized all eleven planets, just be glad that there aren't as many planets out there as we once thought -- like those listed in this 'hypothetical planet' list. #
This has to be the awesomest foodstuff ever: The Big MacChicken. Step one: Replace the buns of the Big Mac with the chicken patties out of three McChickens. Step Two: Enjoy the heavenly bliss. Step three: vomit out your less-useful internal organs; after eating the genius of a Bic MacChicken, you won't need those parts anymore. Oh, my McDonald's tip: Order a McChicken Combo and an extra McChicken: it's cheaper than any of the predesigned 'combos' on the menu, plus it's more food. #
OK, my name's Derek, and my brother is named Simon -- and imagine my surprise when someone has STOLEN our names and developed the Derek & Simon Show at SuperDeluxe. Ever since Bob Odenkirk slept with my wife, I warned the bastard that he better not screw with me anymore. Now this is war. #
Marmaduke Explained, a serindipitous combination of verisimilitude and absurdity in understanding a bland, unoffensive, and poorly-drawn comic. #
Which is better: keeping a backout path open, or ignoring missed opportunities to move forward? Moving forward is better, but people are more willing to lose and keep missed opportunities available. Online users, when presented with a game that provided a simple winning process that preferred users who progressed. Users, however, would choose to keep their options open than proceed, showing that they'd rather play it safe than risk loss -- despite the more likelihood of a win. #
Can you remember all eleven planets? There's a new mnemonic: My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants. Hrr-whaa? Eleven? Rather than demote Pluto, this mnemonic counts the generally-accepted minor planets, those solar system residents too small for full planethood but with enough gravity to be round: Ceres (in the asteroid belt), Pluto, and Eris (in the Kuiper belt). Bonus points: Lisa Loeb will compose the new mnemonic into a song. #
This is cuter than I thought when reading the headline. you might think someone with a refrigerator full of immobile turtles is some sort of sicko, but in this case it's a proper caretaker, maintaining hibernation in the cheapest, easiest equipment available. #
 Proving that our college students are as studious and responsible as everywhere else -- LastVoice has a category just for discussing pictures of Fargo's Greatest Minds...meaning "post hot pictures of drunk gals, make fun of drunk guys, and - dear God - the Goths have no makeup skills these days." This goes to show how lame I was in my youth; every situation photographed is as foreign and unfamiliar as National Geographic photos of aboriginal tribes on some lost island. Nothing's overly NSFW, but if your boss doesn't approve of you looking at bikini babes at your desk, you might wanna come back after dinner. #
Conan O'Brien has been making his wedding ring spin on his desk, as a strangely-mesmerizing way of dealing with the writer's strike. On the 8th, he brought on a MIT scientist Peter Fisher (with help from his students) to see if he can improve his spin-time (go to chapter 2 in this video) -- air resistance was inconsequential, vaseline lubrication failed -- but teflon is da man: 51 seconds. Ah, science: is there nothing you can't do? #
While this toddler's murderous Elmo seems to be a happy accident, you can program Knows You Name Elmo to say fun combinations of his pre-recorded sounds. Just want Elmo to say your name (oh, baby, say my name!) you can try it out at the bottom of this page. Make it a looping ringtone -- "DerekDerekDerekDerekDerekDerek"! (If Elmo isn't your thing, Dora is super-excited to say your name, and creepy-synthesized-bear plans to lull you into a state of relaxation, so the robot coup can begin.) #
Candyland is a simple, reading-free, strategy-free game for young kids, and it's no wonder that the game hasn't been torn apart and analyzed in Probabilty And Game Theory 101 classes -- oh, wait -- someone has, providing all the enormously entertaining mathematical analysis for all to partake. (via) #
I caught The Mountain Fold (not sure if that's the show name, or just the URL) on KNDS this afternoon -- I may have to listen a bit more before I recommend it, but the stuff I heard was brain-unfoldingly excellent. Here's the playlist from today's show -- go play that Tagaq video of the Inuit throat singing. No, really, it's much more fun than it sounds. #
Try and show some of the more abstract parts of American culture to a person living in another country. Now, just explain it, without using any pictures. Now, try it with a reduced-sized dictionary designed for non-English speakers. Think you can do it? Voice of America's Special English programming "American Mosaic" does its best to do it right. #
Want a rocking chair? Build it yourself -- Testor's glue not included. (via) #
While I mostly ignore Cracked Magazine's lists (they're linked all over the place; you don't need my help to find them), I have to give props to their #1 Badass US President -- Teddy Roosevelt. Their articles are usually laden with humorous exaggeration and satirical hyperbole, but Teddy defeated such tomfoolery. He's no fun to do a 'Chuck Norris Facts'-style-list about, because Teddy Roosevelt actually did those things. #
Today we've got a new book released, the first in over 6 months: The hardcover edition of Cheeseburger Brown's Simon of Space. If you're anxious to get it now, we've got it for sale, but if you'd prefer a Barnes & Noble or Amazon discount, it should be available from them very soon (I'm surprised it's not up there yet). #
Probably over the heads of non-sysadmins, but the screenshots at the end are of greatest value: using Linux firewall software, you can screw with computers on the network, flipping images or blurring websites -- and, using that sort of script, you could easily do word-replaces, Dialectizing or ROT-13ing the webpages of anybody stealing your bandwidth (or changing colors, or stripping HTML to plain-text, or...). I like the 'blur' screenshot, though: just noticably subtle enough to make someone think their own computer is screwed up. #
Palimpsest: something wiped clean and reused. The term was usually reserved to describe ancient parchment that was scraped bare to be written upon multiple times. The term goes beyond general recycling: they include the romantic possibility of hidden, lost messages in the faint remainder of the previous image. It happens with paintings, storefronts of all kinds, advertisements, famous voices, and even digital media. Digital media, however, is far more permanent when erasing, so palimpsests may be going the way of a lot of classic media...although, a client I work for regularly loads her plain-paper fax machine with the back-sides of old sales reports: a palimpsest for the modern day. #
Seamless: Computational Couture is where MIT geeks put their technology education into something important -- fashion. OK, most is very theoretical and not practical...but what fashion show has not been entirely theoretical and impractical? The Media Lab's contributions, as you might guess, consist of converting feedback from the user into blinking lights and noise...but it's the Media Lab, what did you expect? Well, I'd expect someplace like the Media Lab to contribute something worthwhile, like helping me pick matching colors when I get dressed, and tell my black slacks from the navy blue ones. Now that would change the world of fashion. The sad thing is, the truly revolutionary things at Seamless would be hard to show in a promo video, like topographically indistinct fashion and mushroom-clothes that help a body decompose. [more] #
Lovecraft fans: Call of Cthulhu, a silent film faithfully adapting Lovecraft's story, will be screened at the Fargo Film Festival. While I do appreciate art-house films, I usually don't jump up and down to attend film festivals; Cthulhu might give me a reason to really try and make it this year. #
What's in a name? When you're getting a car wash, it's so important that they couldn't wait to make a new sign. A 'express' wash for $5? You're lucky if you can get a 'basic' wash for $5 these days. #
via B3ta: a poster touting the technological marvel, the Metroshuttle...which completely misses out on how the technology depicted words. Bonus points: the commenters who don't get it. #
If you've ever sold something on ebay and curse at that one, lonely, super-low bid you got? Imagine being this school -- they placed their old stadium up for sale in a closed-bid auction. The winner? A member of a local football team...a team of kindergarten flag-footballers. The lad's bid was $5, and it was the only bid received. Sadly, the bid was $1,949,995 short of the minimum-bid-price, so the school is rejecting his bid, thus avoiding the horrible positive-press aspect of giving the kid 1 day of ownership or something and going with the "too-bad-kid,-you're-not-a-grown-up" angle. #
Since today is Super Tuesday, chances are many of you get to vote in open primaries today, or are registered to vote in the other states. AIGA put forth a challenge: design posters to get people to vote, without being partisan or recommending action other than voting. Here's what they produced in 2004. #
Ariana's skin puffs up and reddens at the slightest injury. An artist at heart, she knows to use everything her body offers to produce her artwork -- including her own skin. More here. Her website. #
Caturday, over at Fark, is a place where people post either a photo of their cat, or a LolCat version of said cats. I'm rather proud of this one I made for Fark: it puts together the best of bizarre art, subtlety, and poor english:
(original) #
Despite all the crap Vista gets for being over-complicated and user-unfriendly, we here have a shining example -- Microsoft's Help page for opening the freakin' software packaging. If you can't design the box it comes in to be simple enough to operate without instructions, you're doing it wrong. #
In North Korea there is a huge building, looking like a bladed arrowhead sticking out of the back of Earth's skull. It's the Ryugyong Hotel, one of North Korea's misguided attempts to prove it's a 'real' country by putting on a show that it can have cool things like the rich countries do. The building was never completed and is uninhabitable. That is, until the internet got a hold of it, producing a virtual Ryugyong in a Sim-City/2nd-Life sort of way. #
The internet has been abuzz with the horror known as "Cheeseburger in a Can". I was unpressed, figuring until somebody actually gets one and eats it, I won't pass judgement. Well, I've been rewarded. While I'm not ordering them by the case to eat at home, I'd think they'd be fun to take on one of our immense monthly drives to Wisconsin. #
Royalty-free photos are all the rage, now that most anyone can photoshop themselves something and send it off to the printer. Those people that posed for the photos are now appearing everywhere -- like this gal, who's on the cover from everything from Christian to suicide books. Still, it's better than having an obsessed internet-dude after you. Computer companies will vie for your attention. In the end you may just decide to enjoy where you pop up. #
In 1998 -- a time when I had already been online for 6 years, but most people had just gotten their first PC -- futurists were consulted about the level of technology in the far-flung year of 2008. How'd they do? Aces in technology, but poorly in sociology. #
You know, when TV puts an idea in your head, and you have to act on it, the results may be entertaining. This bloke heard on TV that pineapple will remove your fingerprints, allowing for a life of unfingerprintable crime. So, using his research, he tried it...with cringe-inducing results. #
Crowdsourcing is to outsource a project on spec to a group, and pick the best of the submissions or combine the product into a useful singularity. Publishing has been doing it for years, compiling anthologies and magazines by buying only the best dozen out of hundreds of submissions. Crowdsourcing applies this to the rest of the world. Jeff Howe has written a book on it, and he's putting his book where his mouth is: he's opened the cover design to the committee of the unwashed masses. Hurry -- you've still got a few days for submissions if you're feeling creative. If not, the submissions are worth browsing. #
I'm probably installing a new switch and server this weekend, which means I'm going down to The Rack -- my cabling isn't complex, but there's plenty of examples of the good, the bad, and the ugly of rack cabling. #
 Fargo is #6 in Men's Health magazine for best cities for men. Woo -- I'm one of those! Women, have hope: Fargo is #10 in Self's list of best cities for women.
We're pretty good all around, you see...despite the -20 temperature today, but like I say: the cold keeps out the riff-raff, and that makes Fargo a better place. #
I actually do have Bohemian ancestors - from the region of Europe, that is. They're easy to identify by bloodlines, but moderne bohemians (small 'b') are a bit harder to identify. Thankfully, the Bohemian Manifesto gives classification guidelines to identify these wily creatures in the wild. #
They must be re-running Match Game '75 someplace -- in the past day I've got a few hits for people searching for a particular contestant...which is what I did, too, last year. #
"Got a valet of hares?" "Go fish!" Before modern standardization of playing cards, they were produced in a variety of forms, such as these square cards with round images. As characteristics were adopted, the various forms separated: poker got spades, clubs, diamonds, and hearts -- and tarot cards got cups, swords, wands, and pentacles. Still, that's not all we play with these days. #
Variations on the Death of Trotsky, Variation 2, from a linguist's perspective. Funny play (I saw Trosky performed by TPAS' Dean Bellin during his college days), and as the linguist notes, benefits from those minor flaws in the english language that puns are born from. #
MinnesotaMom, whose alias tells a lot about her blog, is devoting one day a week to write Fargo Fridays. I hope to see it continue: a dilemma of writers is starting big and general, which reduces the pool of things to say at later dates. If she's creative, future Fargo Fridays should become more interesting. #
In 1966, a scientist was given the assignment of coming up with a symbol: one identifying biohazardous materials. You probably know it well, and that's in the design -- it was supposed to be uniquely representable, and pervasively memorable. Today, the etc. Group is sponsoring a contest for a similar symbol: a symbol for nanotechnology hazards. It's reasonable to believe that a day will come when nano-objects, unseen but deadly, will be present in our world. See also. #
If you want to get rich, eat out on the East Coast -- in Florida, and again in New Jersey, people have found pearls in their fried oysters. Jewelry pearls are cultured-for-profit these days because they're so rare in the wild -- but not as rare as food-oyster pearl harvesters assume, it seems. #
For as low-tech as it is, you can still buy 3D cameras. From stereopticons to Viewmasters to the Stereo Realist, 3D has been around a long time, and still looks darn fun. #
Steampunk, or a 19th century envisioning of the future, is a hoot -- here's a bunch of Star Wars re-envisioned in steampunk form. #
Phalanstery - a communal living-space, combined of the words 'phalanx' and 'monastery'. Originally coined by Fourier in his social reform movement, it would be a living space for a phalanx, a labor-organized community like an artist commune or union co-op, where living space and working space were in the same structure. The Roycrofters used phalanstery to mean a central building for use by a community in a social way, such as an inn. In modern terms, it could be the predecessor of the arcology, with similar social-changing aspirations...or, in a more social-damaging way, it's the house in Big Brother. #
It's hard to believe that, in this day and age, there's a place without telephones. Iowa Hill, California, is finally getting landlines. A remote, sparsely populated area, the town has been considered too spendy a prospect to run copper lines all they way out to. Foresthill Telephone Co, with some government help, has decided to wire the town. It's hard to imagine that just twenty years ago, before the proliferation of cellphone use, this town was without any way to communicate with the rest of the world. The national average for lack of phone service ranges around 2%, with 6% in Mississippi. That's a lot of people without access to a phone. #
What's a half-hour of CNN Headline News? Fluff and ads. It's no wonder that those two go together so well. It's rough to blame people's lack of interest in in-depth or depressing news, but that's kinda pushed on us as an excuse by advertisers; "people don't want to watch boring or sad stuff on our channel" equals "we can't get advertisers with our numbers." Fluff gets viewers, so TV news pushes it more, lest they get killed for low ratings. If advertisers would value the smaller numbers of news-seekers and pay more for it, there wouldn't be a problem. On the other hand, long-format, intelligent news takes more time to produce, something a 24-hour news network doesn't have. The internet at least lets you link together a bunch of related quick-form news into a single unit; TV news is there and gone. I'm surprised that there's less talk about the internet killing TV news. #
 North Dakota is trying to drum up tourism by associating itself with zombie holocaust. Famous horror novel and movie: I Am Legend. North Dakota tourism slogan: I Am Legendary. Completely different! (via) #
What's up with Four 'I's for the Roman numeral '4' on clocks? Short answer: it's the way it's always been done. (via) #
Last night, at around 4:00, I woke up the wifey. She's settled in to a comfortable working schedule: she gets up around 4, before Des gets home from school, handles home duties while I'm at work from 5-9, we spend a couple hours together before I go to bed, and then she works from midnight to 8am, sleeping during Normal Business Hours. It gives her uninterrupted work time, I get uninterrupted work time during the afternoon -- plus we each get to pick out our own music, without any debates or eye-rolling -- and it fits our internal clocks well.
Anyhow, as I was saying, I woke up D around 4.
"...remember the company christmas party is tonight."
"Ghhnnnnrrrrrrrr."
"I've been reminding you of it for the last three days."
Her witty response: "Why did you not tell me this before?"
Wifey, being a freelance writer, has little need to leave the house, and she's become very comfortable in that mode. The grocery store is tolerable, because it's 3 blocks away, and the thrift shops are never a bad destination. However, anything else is a bit much for her.
The party wasn't to start until 6:30, and the fashionably late probably won't be until 7:30, so I had a couple hours to let D get into the mode of being around other people.
"Where's it again?" she asked.
"The HoDo."
"You know I don't have anything to wear there."
This is a running joke: When we talk about going out together on those rare child-free weekends, the HoDo is brought up. It's a hipster sort of barestaurant, a place where martinis are expensive, the food is unusual and scary, and they sometimes have valet parking in Fargo ND even though there's rarely a problem parking within a half-block of the building. To eat at such a fancy place, we'd have to get all fancied up...and, sadly, we don't have fancy-upping clothes -- not fancy enough for the HoDo, anyway. So we pick someplace less martini-and-mystery-canapes. The company party, however, is at the HoDo, and we can't pick anyplace else to go.
My first choice in fancying-up is a vintage 1970s blue paisley shirt, with an oversized collar and somebody else's initials monogrammed on the pocket. No, really, it's a kick ass shirt. Unfortunately, it was always a little curve-hugging on me, but my waist has gone up 4" in the past 5 years, and now the curve-hugging is kinda scary.
I end up wearing a monochromatic black ensemble, matching the wife. What made the matching ensembles most stylish was the vast amount of pet-hair attracted to the staticy fabrics. We hoped the lighting at the party would be dim.
And, happily, it was. Even though it was closer to 7 when we arrived, there were very few people there. So, we got drinks and sat in the corner. Sure, you can take the antisocial recluses out of the home-office, but they're still going to act creepy in public. While I won't recount the entire evening, I can tell you this:
Things Learned at the Company Christmas Party
1. Everyone thinks I'm some sort of genius. The boss' wife said how smart she heard I am, and everyone wanted to be my partner in Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader. Problem: I speak with authority, not facts. Sure, I'm right most of the time, but that's dumb luck. Wifey, upon reading this, will tell me to print it out and bring it to my psychiatrist. Still, I'm no genius.
2. When I'm not at work, rumours about my freelance work are bandied about. See, my connection to adult websites caused a rumour that I was a porn star. Seriously. That rumour has been partially continued, despite the mounting evidence against it, because the people I supervise love talking about the possibility of me being a porn star. Can't say I disapprove, because any compliment of my verility is kinda nice...but they're so secretive about it. I overheard that there's quite a bit said about me that will not be repeated in my presence. That worries me. Worries and pleases. But mostly worries.
3. One woman's underwear was not newly purchased. She was showing off the new ensemble she purchased for the party, pointing out how each piece was new. One person asked if her underwear was also new; it was not, so that was then clarified each time the story was repeated, to everyone's amusement.
4. The salmon may or may not have been raw, but it was tasty. I feel the microscopic parasites coursing through my veins as we speak. It was so tasty, I had seconds. I did enjoy the HoDo's food, although many people were fearful of the unfamiliar.
5. The coworker who was loudest about her New Year's Resolution has already broken it. She resolved to quit smoking, but was out on the sidewalk with a cigarette in hand last night. Naughty, naughty! I'd make a joke about spanking, but that'd be included in the events of #2 above.
6. Downtown is exotic to people. I'm not sure what to think about it -- for my dislike of what the downtown revitalization has done, I found myself recommending a lot of shops to my coworkers who say they rarely come downtown. The HoDo is in the center of downtown, but while I walk past it throughout the year I sat and talked with people who haven't even come downtown in years. This is an obstacle for downtown, similar to what I've said before. The downtown I love and live on the edge of was designed for downtown residents; it's going away, in favor of catering to non-downtown-residents. Those people, however, don't come downtown, but the downtown-residents are still here. There's the poor planning in the mix. Still, I hope I encouraged a couple people to patronize downtown, because the few stores I like (Revolver, Zandbroz, the antique shop in the Aggie Block) can use the traffic.
7. "Go West Young Man" was a quote from Horace Greely. This was my team's million dollar question to win the company game of Who's Smarter than a Fifth Grader. My guess, I can't remember what it was right now, was incorrect. My fellow team-members thought it was either B or C; I thought A, and per #1, above, the team sided with me. Greely was C.
8. Who's Smarter than a Fifth Grader isn't factual. In an earlier question, we were asked which was closer to the southern border of the United States: New Zealand, the South Pole, or the North Pole. Hawaii and New Zealand are closer (4,385mi) than Key West is from the North Pole (4,519mi, based on latitude), so New Zealand was our guess. No, they ignored Hawaii, and the "correct" answer was the North Pole. Also, in our losing question, the quote "Go west young man, and grow with the country" was not said by Greeley: it was said by John B. L. Soule, who was not listed as an option in the question. Not that it would have helped me, but it shows what they're teaching kids these days. I was also prepared to say that 'donner' is not the german word for thunder: I thought it was 'donder', but that's dutch. Sorry, Are...Fifth Grader, you win that round. And, yes, I do understand that actually researching the two measly questions we got wrong in Fifth Grader makes me a sad, bitter individual. That's my most attractive feature, you know.
I was hoping for 10 things learned, but I'd had 3 vodka & sours, which is a lot of drinkin' for me in 4 hours even with a meal in there, so we went home early. The party was fun, I can blame my poor performance in gradeschool facts on too much vodka, and I got to show off my wifey to my coworkers. A good night, had by all.
Remember DB Cooper? The only unsolved US hijacking, the guy jumped out of a plane in the Pacific Northwest, $20,000 cash in hand, and disappeared. Some of the money turned up -- and the finder is auctioning some of it off. After some time exposed to the elements, much of the cash cache was decomposed and crumbling, but he's offering a few partials and a few completes of the $20 bills he found with matching serial numbers to the DB Cooper stash. #
*sigh* Yet again, I'm not on Time's Top 50 Websites of 2007 list. I have to say this has to be the most underwhelmed I've been at the top 50 list -- nearly all, even in the 'news & information' category, provide services, not content. Is this a change in the internet's purpose, or a geeky attraction to new and shiny technologies? I think more of the latter. #
In a few short months, analog TV will be gone -- the Department of Commerce can tell you all about it. Don't worry though -- it won't affect people who get cable TV, people who have bought a TV in the past year, or people who get their TV via satellite. Who does that leave? The rural and the poor are a big chunk, but around a third of TV viewers still use antennas, meaning there's a big chunk of the population that doesn't spend money on TV, but will have to. Oh, there's the coupon program, but that doesn't equal free unless the qualifying converter miraculously costs less than the coupon, you can only buy qualifying converters with it, and there's a bunch of catches in using the coupon. Will it be better? Some think so, other predict chaos. #
I've spent hours over at Collector's Quest scanning and uploading photos from several 1960s Tournament of Roses parades -- go have a look. Never has a clown crotch been more flowery. #
Benday dots are what you get when you put your nose right up against a magazine or newspaper photo -- it's a printing process to make all the colors out of the 4-color CMYK spectrum, or create gradients in black-and-white, by converting the variances in color and brightness into an array of dots. Also known as dithering or screening, the benday process was invented in the 19th century and has worked out well since; your inkjet printer probably uses a variant. Roy Lichtenstein loved 'em, and made a name for himself out of exaggerating existing ones. Why "benday"? Well, ask Ben Day -- he's the inventor. #
Trouser mice: a euphemism for the male genitals. And when I say 'genitals', I do mean plural -- 'trouser mouse' is the singular and more common phrase. Spammers, not known for their grasp of the english language, have been offering the terrifying prospect of enlarging all of my penises, no matter how many I have lying around. I guess, if they're that small as to need enlarging, I might not even notice that they're all there. At least I can get a little entertainment out of the inbox annoyance. #
Trollwood Performing Arts School has announced the 2008 mainstage musical -- on the mailing list, anyways; the website is stuck at 2006 or 2007, depending on which page you're looking at. However, I can help y'all out -- 2008's Trollwood Mainstage Show will be Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Trollwood performed Joseph in 1994, and they say it's their most-requested revival. Sadly, it will be the last show performed at Trollwood Park -- in 2009, TPAS moves across the river to Minnesota. #
In 1891, Theodore Schwennesen circumnavigated the world, a trip of a global scale -- which included passing through Fargo at one point: Now to Morehead and Fargo with 12,000 people on the Dakota border. Here everything is bare, hilly land. Buildings look lost and lonesome, no trees, just hills and valleys interrupted by some rocks... Upon crossing into "Dakota", as he calls it, his description of the rest of the state isn't too much different from today, although there's more of us around now. Remember: this was only 70-80 years after Lewis and Clark, and only 15 years after Little Big Horn, and indian attacks were still on people's minds. Most of the cities he mentions were only a few years old, and the rest is still wilderness, save the lonely railroad tracks Schwennesen was on. Interestingly, the 'fort' he reports seeing in Hebron was most likely Fort Sauerkraut, a makeshift defense against indian attack during The Indian Scare of 1890; due to the, er, "success" at Wounded Knee, Fort Sauerkraut was no longer needed by the time of Schwennesen's trip. #
I haven't seen a more awesome thing yet today: Mondospider. The mechanics in it seems rather simple -- it's not exactly spiderlike, except in approximate shape -- but it performs its purpose beautifully. Do I want one? Oh, but yes I do. #
Be careful when using pseudomathematics to describe your business -- the transitive property is a harsh mistress. #
A while back I wrote about how to build your own Winky the Cat. The original is a stuffed cat, wired to your brake lights, and its eyes match your blinkers. Scary stuff -- but it was a real thing, advertised in auro parts catalogs. Don't believe me? Ask Destiny. We actually saw a REAL one, in the wild, on the rear window shelf of a boat of a car a few days ago. The fact that it was in the Wal-Mart parking lot was not an anomaly. #
Scott Brown of Fine Books and Collections magazine (one of my favs), has crossed that line so many book collectors toe up to: he, his wife, and some friends have bought a bookstore. Bully to them; it'll probably be a lot of hard work, but if they've got their head on straight and love what they do, success will be theirs, regardless of sales. #
Henry Rollins, star of Johnny Mnemonic and the best screamer in the universe, is coming to Fargo next March. With a name like "Henry", you don't expect to much...until you see the guy. Doing a GIS for him gets so many intensely angry photos of Rollins that I peed myself twice. Well, you'd be intense too, if you had your best friend killed in front of you. Still, every interview I've seen with Rollins shows he's bright and three-dimensional as a person, and I've got a lot of respect for that. #
Flom is a microscopic town in west-central/northwest-central Minnesota, in the Ulen-Twin-Valley area. Beet farmers in the area know my dad as one of the agriculturalists for Crystal Sugar; Flom is one of the areas we usually hear about, just because the town's name is so much fun to say. For being a little unincorporated community, Flom has a presence on the internet -- first of all, they've got their own community website. Nextly, they have their own blog: Flom Footnotes. The focus of both sites is largely geneology and history -- and, hey, whaddayaknow: I've got relatives on their biography list! Violet is my great-aunt; her husband is Dennis, mayor of Twin Valley. #
Those of you may think my interest in insurance history is a unique and insane obsession, and then I find this guy: The American Term Life Insurance History Project. Too bad most of the content is wrapped in "buy my insurance!" stuff, but I suppose websites have to pay the bills somehow (hint). The TLIHP has some excellent archives of old documents, small so far but it appears it is going to continue to grow with more paper. I loves the old documents. #
I was recently asked for permission to reprint a blogpost I'd written a while back -- that site is The Liz Library, a site devoted to women's law, children's legal issues, custody & divorce, and all sorts of very personal, nebulous, and subjective legal issues that affect everybody's lives at some point. Of course, I agree with a large chunk of the stuff on her site, even though it doesn't always benefit dads; however, solving the wrongs done to kids and families due to selfishness and cruelty is good for society. My article appears here. #
dysgenics: negative natural selection caused by outside, non-Darwinian forces, favoring weaker and less desirable genes in the pool. Originally coined as a description of the genetic effect of war, in which the healthiest and strongest are tagged for death while 4Fs remain available for breeding. Largely used as the opposite of (and justification for) eugenics, it has been brought into the public eye with the movie Idiocracy: society crumbles because giving birth is seen as a poor decision, so those predisposed to poor decisions are the only that breed. #
What do you do when you have so much spare cash around that average Christmas gifts (e.i. humorous boxer shorts, "Special Edition" DVDs of 1980s movies) would seem insulting to your loved ones? Buy a concert -- for a cool million-and-a-half. Invite 499 of your friends (that's 500 total, not one more person over. Sorry, Shelly from the gas station, I'm out of tickets), get to rub shoulders with Regis Philbin -- and that's gotta be worth $1,500,000 on it's own, you know -- and not only do you take in a top-notch performance, but you get to keep the piano. Rich people apparently find it insulting that performers take the piano with them after they're done performing -- it's like the caterer getting to keep the leftover pigs-in-a-blanket after the party, how rude! If you're doing the math, take out $80,000 for the Steinway, and you're still spending $3,020 a head. What they don't tell you is that you can hire most orchestras and rent a concert hall for significantly less the Niemann-Marcus price, bring a thousand friends (Shelly, you're back in!), and still get to keep the piano. Regis Philbin, well, he must be the spendiest part. #
KNDS, an excellent hodge-podge LPFM format station in town, is a must-listen from 8am to 9am on Tuesdays. In that timeslot is Bluegrass In The Valley, a listenable and entertaining show focusing on that fun branch of the folk-country-western tree. I've always had a taste for bluegrass; the content of country music annoys me to no end, but bluegrass is folksy enough to be enjoyable. #
Defictionalization: When a object or product of fiction becomes real -- not scifi generalized predictions like robots or satellites, nor the naming of something as homage, but something more like Bubba Gump Shrimp and red Swinglines. It seems to largely be a convention of marketing: fiction has long been the realm of speculative invention, so while initially seeming like a term for literature, defictionalization more likely to work its way into marketer's vocabuaries. "Did you see what the propmaster came up with for that 22nd century soda can? Let's talk to Pepsi about defictionalizing that ASAP, coordinate with the film's release." #
I only have a vague understanding of the Planet of the Apes series -- even though I believe I've seen the first 3 movies multiple times -- but with the TV series, the comics, and so forth, I'm a bit behind. Thankfully, there's an all-encompassing timeline, including crazy and self-contradictory stuff (that's the best stuff!) so I can catch up on my Planet of the Apes universe at my own pace. #
Ever wondered what's up with the gypsies? Girl in the North Country can fill you in. As far as nomadic-cum-interstitial societies go, the Romani are an oft-overlooked one, since its range so overlaps that of what we'd consider civilized world. An interesting statistic: Of the Bosnian refugees that have been in Fargo for several years, the majority are Roma. #
In 1936 a famous photo was disseminated, highlighting the drought during the depression by showing a sun-bleached cow skull resting on cracked, dry earth. However, some sharp-eyed newspapermen at the Fargo Forum noticed that the same skull appeared in some not-so-arid photos taken by the same photographer around the same time. The Forum cried foul -- the skull had been moved, to provide a more powerful photo. The photographer argued the common defense: it may not be what was happening, but it shows what was actually happening. Rothstein wasn't particularly affected by the revelation, photographing some of the more famous photos of the Dust Bowl (which, it seems, was also staged), but the FSA drew criticism that if they had to fake all their photos, they must be faking the rest of their work. The Forum warned Roosevelt, who was visiting the state at the time, not to trust such faked photos; North Dakota wanted to let the president know that we're doing just fine here, thanks. Turns out, Rothstein was with Roosevelt at the time. As the Time article above notes, the Forum had a field-day with faked photos, it seems: one claimed the Missouri River was bone dry (not true), and another claimed cattle were overrunning the State Capitol (only true on Stampede Saturdays). Oh, OK, that last one was completely false: it'd have been pretty tough for a herd of cattle to get all the way to the capitol grounds, even back in the 1930s, but someone had a photo to prove it, so it must've been true. #
The phrase, "I've got more problems than Carter has pills" was the subject of debate at work: two had heard it before, the others had no idea what a peanut-farming president had to do with it. Turns out, a different, non-presidential Carter really did have lots of little pills -- specifically, little liver pills. A 'patent medicine' purveyor, Carter walked the snake-oil line alongside Kellogg during that poop-centered era of medical history, ending up producing a pill that actually seems to have worked. Years passed, 'liver' was dropped because, well, the pill had little to do with livers, but it continued to be used. Carter's expanded into Carter-Wallace, eventually becoming known for other products: Arrid antipersperant, Trojan condoms, and Nair. You can still get Carter's Little Pills, (a brand revival attempt?) but only in Canada it seems. Unfortunately, Carter isn't in change anymore: the company is now owned by Church & Dwight, aka Arm & Hammer. Having "more problems than Church & Dwight has pharmaceutical company acquisitions" just doesn't have the same ring. #
The number "104.7" must be the kiss of death: that station here in Fargo has made yet another change in format. Mix 104.7, formerly The Wolf 104.7, formerly KDAM 104.7, temporarily EdFM, and along with other stunting and probably other formats in between I missed, is changing format yet again -- to a quasi-oldies 70s and 80s station called Mojo 104. My guess is 104.7 is a testbed for programming on their other stations -- why else would a broadcasting company do something so stupid as to change formats every year or so? Advertisers and listeners want predictability. #
I've been to the Mall of America once, only to pick someone up; the distance I entered the mall was barely a smidgen of its actual volume. I really have no interest in going -- I've been to malls before, and I'm not much of a mall-shopper. Neither is this guy, it seems, who spent a week in the mall. All goes pretty well, before he starts to go all HST on a mall bar's ass. The article does take the "Fear and Loathing" thing a bit too far, but it remains entertaining throughout. Important note: you can sleep in the aquarium. Maybe I will have to go to the mall after all. #
Currency is a fickle thing in today's electronic age: we're all accustomed to moving cash with clicks and plastic, but if there's not an electronic version, what do you do? Return to the world of transporting suitcases of cash -- something Dartmouth Capital (parent of SafeDinar.com) does on a regular basis. Because the Iraqi Dinar isn't exchanged on the world markets, the only way to do business in dinar is to move the paper around. The premise is something right out of a spy flick, exchanges made in seedy hotel lounges with questionable contacts, covering tracks, and looking over the shoulder. As cash is untrackable, this sort of dealing does attract the wrong sort: North Korea has done their own smuggling, as well as Hamas; the exchange process is also ripe for money laundering. The process itself is somewhat illegal -- smuggling cash out of a country is frowned on by their treasury -- even though can be necessary for expanding international commerce. Without nefarious purposes, the transport of huge amounts of cash internationally can land you in jail anyway. #
Those Futurama guys pull references from all kinds of obscure corners -- I was looking for old scifi covers, and ran across this one. My first reaction was that it must be some marketing thing for Futurama, despicting a stylized Bender-like robot, but it turns out that this cover was largely the inspiration for the character of Bender. #
If you're like me and still use an SLR film camera, the textured faux-leather parts are probably getting a bit ratty. No worries -- just replace them. The company, cameraleather.com, has pre-cut leather replacement panels for a huge number of cameras, in a wide variety of styles. Since the film camera is becoming a relic of the past, why not restore yours with a little style? It's like the fresh leather upholstery in a restored classic car -- it might not be in the style of the original, but it sure looks better than what it looked like before. #
Rather than writing anything myself, I'll point y'all over to Metafilter, who has a link-filled post on one of the bigger historical events of the 20th century here in North Dakota. You know, if I knew that announcing a big 'ol party in the middle of nowhere in North Dakota and people would actually come, I might try it again. However, with the Zip to Zap as an example of how it can go horribly, horribly wrong, well, I guess I'll give it some more thought. Still, if it's still on the fuzzy edges of society's memory (as is most everything revived on Metafilter), it can't have been that big of a failure. #
If you've bought a Ford recently, you might want to look into this: All Model Ts are being recalled. It's a novel way of letting everyone know that the last remaining examples of this pioneer of the automobile industry are reaching their 100th birthday, and the Model T Ford Club of America would like to meet them. Next July, Model Ts are invited to Indiana to celebrate their birthday, at which time we'll all remember that in September 1908 the automobile finally became within the reach of the average citizen, who would spend a few years figuring out where to park the thing out of the rain. A century seems vast, but on the scale of things it's barely a blip -- to go from this ramshackle car to THIS in half that time...and what have we done with cars since then? Heated butt-warmers, that's what. If you'd rather feel more 'motor city' in your celebration, Michigan (home of the Model T Automotive Heritage Compex), has got one, too. #
Looking for a career worthy of being an eccentric but lovable character on Numb3rs? Try Accident Reconstructionist -- those guys who know automobile accidents inside and out, and can review an accident like rewinding a videotape; forensics meets the junkyard. Insurance companies and lawyers have their own, but most police departments have one or can borrow one from nearby. You can even hire one yourself, if you need one. If you think you can do it, they've got an association, cool videogames, and even templates! I loves the templates. #
The 2007 Art Burn was tonight. The Fargo-Moorhead Visual Artists have an annual Art Burn to allow artists the ability to ceremonially destroy art they no longer wish to exist, rather than sending it to the dump or giving it away; it allows the art to retain its symbolic value, even though it no longer physically exists. More will appear on Collector's Quest Monday morning. #
Most of the non-relevant search-engine hits in my referrer logs are either naughty or spammy, but this one just had to make me smile: someone's trying to find clothes that fit a great dane. I hope they found what they're looking for...and share pictures. #
Mithridatization: Whether you're the Dread Pirate Roberts or Mithridates VI Eupator (who lends his name to the process), mithridatization is the process of slowly poisoning yourself to make yourself immune to a deadly substance. It takes, of course, a great amount of patience -- not something to try and speed up by doubling the dose -- and the process could go wrong in so, so many ways, thus the average person might not want to start a regimen of arsenic Eggos in the morning just yet. If you're the kind of person who risks being poisoned on a daily basis, however, it may be worth the time. #
Journalist Scott Libin pulled out some lacquer transcription archives of his father, a radioman from years ago, and found a way to turn these recordings into something he could put online. I've looked Crosley machines before, and figured they were low-end novelty equipment; Libin actually produced pretty good copies given the quality of the original -- listen to an interview by Libin's father, at a barbershop. #
In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Rascals," a Starfleet-approved periodic table was shown. Of course, when Table Of Elements 99823 is magnified using our 21st century technology, it can be seen to be full of jokes. Me, I'm waiting on an order for a bicycle chain made of an alloy of Daffyduckium and Turbonium...my bike would be so cool that Darmok would "jalad the tanagra," if you know what I mean. #
Someone has taken the time and craftsmanship to turn a laptop into fine furniture. People used to mock the 32" 1970s console TV I owned -- complete with wood spindles and faux-drawers -- but now wrapping technology in wood and metal fittings is called "steampunk." *sigh* We need more electronics designed as fine furniture, instead of ungainly pseudo-futuristic shapes that don't fit anyplace. #
3D printers, a staple of scifi, have actually been around a while -- I've been picking up their samples at tradeshows for at least 5 or 6 years, and at the Mountain-Plains Museum convention I got a cool fabricated arrowhead from Prairie Fire 3D that I play with like a worry-stone at my desk. The open-source world, of course, jumps on the coolest stuff and relies on the wisdom of crowds to come up with 3D printing for the masses. Fab@Home is the place for learning how to make your own fabricator, with which you can take your favorite squirtable medium and start building. #
Scientists have used nanotechnology to produce the world's smallest radio. Little more than a resonant hair, the momofilament carbon tube turns radio energy into mechanical energy, which is then turned into an electronic signal -- acting much more like a taut string between two soupcans than a radio receiver. Well, but much cooler, and I've never actually gotten a taut string to work the way the Boy Scout Handbook says it should. These guys got their hair to play Layla, and that rocks. Bonus trivia: Largo from the opera Xerxes was the first music broadcast by radio. # |
|
The sign has been on the wall at work for weeks, warning us that we would be painting bowls. Bowl-painting? Eh, could be fun, but I usually leave in the morning before anything fun happens, so I didn't count on participating.
Today, I had to stay late to make up for hours lost this evening. Then, I heard there's be pizza for the bowl-painters, and we didn't have to punch out.
That pretty much sealed it. I'd be a bowl-painter.
So, I was given a plain, bisque bowl and chose several colors of paint: brown, blue, purple, white, black. I was going to paint something scenic; I don't think I'm a great painter, but it's just a bowl. I've learned enough by studing Pletan's works, I figured I could pull it off.
Surprisingly, everyone had much the same feeling as me: their bowl was to be perfect, yet after the first few minutes of spreading paint, perfection was clearly not going to happen. I, too, despite compliments from my coworkers, felt my art sucked. The paint was drying too quickly and couldn't be worked very well. I was leaving spots where spots should not be. I didn't count on how painting on the obtuse curve of a bowl would affect my ham-handed attempt at a mountain-bordered horizon. My art was amateurish at best.
Who'd think that a bunch of people working in a detail-oriented would be picky about their art? Go figure.
Oh, well, I told myself: I can think I'm doing crap, but what of it? Artistically, some of the Fargo bison weren't all that great, but they got called 'art'. In my best managerial voice, I complimented my coworkers and employees, pointing out what I thought was cool about theirs. I allowed myself to paint a symmetric ring of pine trees, where symmetry doesn't really exist in nature. It's a freaking bowl -- what does anybody expect?
So, I finished my bowl, ate my pizza, and then checked out everybody elses work with a dash of positive reinforcement and a reminder it's all for charity.  The March of Dimes in the area is hosting Bowls for Babies on December 5th. They've asked a bunch of contributors to try their hand at fine art, decorating nearly a thousand bowls. Donors will attend the soup banquet on the Dec 5th, with the first 900 being given one of these painted bowls to keep. Helping babies and free art? That's an event! Keep an eye out for my bowl:
Just as MST3K has announced an abbreviated return, Joel and a big chunk of the other MST3K alumni have announced their own movie-riffing online program called Cinematic Titanic. While I'm looking forward to both, I hope that this is friendly competition between the two camps; if either side starts getting ugly over their competition, then it stops being fun to watch. #
I've been reading this blog for a few weeks, and find it very interesting: Media Chatter, a blog that collects the opinions of students taking Communications 101 from Dr. James Duncan at Anderson University. The course covers, according to his website, the role and function of mass media in our society, and at how social, economic and political forces shape the media and its messages -- and then turns around and redirects the effects that media has on the students back on the media by expressing it online. The writing is what you'd expect from kids with a high-school education, but shows that they're processing what they're learning, and the variety of responses is quite readable. #
How to tie a rope cincture: whether you're going as a monk for Halloween, or just having trouble dressing yourself at seminary (mom always used to tie my cincture for me), these instructions are handy. Found amongst other important instructions at CM Almy, alberdasher to the holy. #
Starting next week, Mystery Science Theater 3000 will return with new content. The messageboard linked seems to range from "cool" to "OMGWTF!" There don't seem to be any of the main onscreen talent returning (they've all mostly moved on to bigger and better things), which will definitely have an impact on the environment, but if they're smart I'm sure they can come up with something interesting. The site will, as of Nov 5 '07, be at MST3K.com. #
Seasteading is to build floating human habitats on the open ocean. There's various ways to do it, but the people at seastead.org have come up with a very adventurous design for a floating home. It appears to be what you get when you take a boat design, remove all motion advantages, and replace them with buoyancy advantages. Much to the chagrin of the libertarians, who aren't going to find utopia at sea, anything that floats is essentially a boat and devoid of any real national identity (and unless they fly a nation's flag may be considered pirates). There's a reason the highest mountains, furthest deserts, and coldest glaciers were conquered before the seas were...oceans are inhospitable to non-swimming creatures. #
Antiques on Broadway, the antique mall D and I used to sell in, is branching out into fine art. The Listed Art Gallery focuses on established artists that have been noted in art catalogs -- which should mean they've got good stuff, as opposed to the newer, more abstract artists that dominate the rest of Broadway's art galleries. I think. Their website is hard to navigate, the images are saved at full-size which affects download speed, their text is jumbled and unclear; I hope they didn't spend any money on the website, because it's only going to confuse and distract potential customers, it'll be a detriment. Except for creating a place to link to, which is more than they had before (even though I tried to talk Arnie into a website years ago; but that's old news). Skip the website, go to the store, by the caboose near Main Avenue and Broadway. #
Via my sis' blog: art that's not art by its existence, but by its interference with photons. #
Proof of Purchase is a neat take on the same spur as the Receipt Site (which, incidentally, wasn't about receipts). Anyways, back to Proof of Purchase: A diligent consumer comments on his own receipts, posting them as a foundish documentation of his life. Had it just been purchases, ho hum -- but the comments make it something more. #
CAT FOUND! Not very friendly or housebroken for a cat -- unfortunately, from the picture, it's obviously an opossum. Could someone be so obliviously stupid, or is it somebody having fun? When you consider that the 'possum pic in the LOST sign is a Wikicommons photo of "AwesomePossum", you can probably assume it's a joke. Still, it's funny to imagine the altrustic household's fun after bringing in such a creature in need. (via) #
Googie architecture: an attempt to make people believe George Jetson has moved in. Originating in the pre-interstate, post-Sputnik world, the future-looking style seems both dated and futuristic by modern standards, recalling the pie-in-the-sky future of flying cars and space-travel, but also the world that eventually crumbled during the social upheval of the 1960s and financial doldrums of the 1970s and 1980s. There's still a lot of the stuff around, although its slowly falling apart and being torn down & replaced with modernism. # |
|
| 
|
