I raised this question this afternoon with a couple of female friends. There's nothing particularly special about my hair.
One friend told me it's because I'm 'cuddly.'
This was not the goal I set for myself, frankly. I've been trying to seethe with raw, barely contained animal menace.
Apparently it's not working.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Friday, November 09, 2007
Angst delay
I know I'm past due for posting some long angsty philosophical thing. I'm just low on angst right now, what with getting the house painted and all.
Someone broke off one of my cactus plants, and I was pretty annoyed about that, but then I remembered this, which applies to cactus as well.
Someone broke off one of my cactus plants, and I was pretty annoyed about that, but then I remembered this, which applies to cactus as well.
Questions to snopes.com
You probably already know that snopes.com is the Internet clearing house for urban legends – some of which are true, some of which are not.
Here is a page of questions submitted to snopes which they consider 'unanswerable.'
Among them:
Here is a page of questions submitted to snopes which they consider 'unanswerable.'
Among them:
They say that if a person has a pet cat and dies, if the person's body is not found fairly soon after death, the cat, having not been fed, will become ravenously hungry and eat the dead person's face off— JUST the face!
Is this true? My cat often looks me in the face. I used to think he was just being friendly. Now I know he's just sizing me up, like a chef at a butcher shop, waiting for "the big day". Since hearing this rumor, every time my cat licks his chops it gives me the willies!
Is some one can tell me how to read expire date on corona beer box/bottle. code I have on box is DC08C088. What this mean. reply me ASAP.
Can people see into your house if it's darker in your house than it is outside? When I look around at other houses that don't have lights on, I see darkness, a reflection or only what is immediately in front of the window (curtains, plants, etc.). As a result, I tend to act as though no one can see what I'm doing inside as long as the lights are off and there is no other source of light illuminating me. My wife, however, is often appalled by this behavior. Should she be appalled, or am I correct?
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Long hair or short
You've probably noticed I've been letting my hair grow out again.
I've gone from shoulder-length to having my head shaved over the past seven years, with several lengths in between. I don't know if I'll let it get this long again:
But I might.
I've gone from shoulder-length to having my head shaved over the past seven years, with several lengths in between. I don't know if I'll let it get this long again:
But I might.
Come on Fido... let's go for a ride.
I don't know what an immobilizer chip is, but apparently you shouldn't let your dog eat it.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
More than you ever wanted to know about Benny Lava
The two people in the video are not the singers.
She is Jayasheel.
He is Prabhu Deva.
A hard-to-follow translation of the lyrics here.
Another blogger parses the original Tamil lyrics for phonetic similarities to English. (The 'I want to swim in his beeeeeeejaaayyyy" line isn't even someone singing.)
Good lord... what am I doing with my life?
She is Jayasheel.
He is Prabhu Deva.
A hard-to-follow translation of the lyrics here.
Another blogger parses the original Tamil lyrics for phonetic similarities to English. (The 'I want to swim in his beeeeeeejaaayyyy" line isn't even someone singing.)
Good lord... what am I doing with my life?
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Now poop on them, Oliver
Having finished my daily rounds, I return to my Fortress of Solitude to enjoy music of faraway lands.
Don't laugh. This makes more sense than anything by America.
And the female lead singer in this video is adorable.
Except that she sings like a chipmunk.
For that matter, so does he.
How do they do that?
Don't laugh. This makes more sense than anything by America.
And the female lead singer in this video is adorable.
Except that she sings like a chipmunk.
For that matter, so does he.
How do they do that?
Afternoon update
I continue my efforts from another undisclosed location.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
Vader in love redux
It's been awhile since I overanalyzed the hell out of something, and I've got a few free minutes in my otherwise busy schedule, so I'm going to write some more about the 'Darth Vader in Love' skit.
There's a lot of stuff going on here, and what makes it funny, I think – at least for men – is the way it all happens 'according to script.'
Although this starts off with some Mel Brooks-level humor – Vader infatuated with the 'Sith chick' Commander Larkin in pink hemlet and armor – it quickly moves to more sophisticated territory. Vader, perhaps pop culture's number one control freak, suddenly finds himself in a situation over which he has absolutely no control. Not only has he lost control of external events, he's lost control of himself, which for him is far worse.
One of the things you've picked up on if you've read my favorite book, Alan Watts' The Wisdom of Insecurity or anything by Pema Chödrön, is that we don't have control over anything, when you get right down to it, and it's better to learn to live with the shifting sands of uncertainty than to futilely try to find refuge in fortresses that ultimately can't defend us from reality.
So here's Vader with a 'teachable moment,' but no one there to teach him. He's hanging over the abyss of what is fundamentally the mere biochemical processes of his own brain, and it's funny to any of us who have had similar experiences. (Some of us, though, remain blithely unaware of such processes and plow forward regardless of possible consequences. Even Darth Vader wouldn't offer the Prime Minister of Germany a free backrub at a formal meeting of an economic summit.)
An enlightened Vader would have sensed his attraction, recognized it for it what it was, remembered that there is no 'Vader,' no 'Commander Larkin,' and that the Force that can be named is not the true Force – and he would have gone on with the business at hand of torturing the captured rebel.
So we laugh at Vader's floundering around because it looks so much like us.
And then there's the birthday party scene, and here's where Commander Larkin reveals the inevitable previously-undisclosed boyfriend. Of course, she waits until she's got Vader in a room full of people and has given him the gift before dropping the 'Chris bomb' on him.
More typically, 'Chris' would have been the ne'er-do-well heir to the Harkonnen Spice Fortune back on Arrakis, but since it's pretty hard to top a Sith lord in a 'fabulously wealthy bad boy' contest, the writers counter-programmed with an IT geek.
Clearly Larkin has figured out Lord Vader is on the make and has timed the counterstrike for maximum embarrassment and dicomfiture, not to mention drama. Again, Lord Vader: no Darth, no Larkin, no Chris, no drama. Detach and move on, dude.
Anyway, that's why it's funny.
To me, anyway.
Not that anything like this has ever happened to me. I'm just talking in the abstract, of course.
There's a lot of stuff going on here, and what makes it funny, I think – at least for men – is the way it all happens 'according to script.'
Although this starts off with some Mel Brooks-level humor – Vader infatuated with the 'Sith chick' Commander Larkin in pink hemlet and armor – it quickly moves to more sophisticated territory. Vader, perhaps pop culture's number one control freak, suddenly finds himself in a situation over which he has absolutely no control. Not only has he lost control of external events, he's lost control of himself, which for him is far worse.
One of the things you've picked up on if you've read my favorite book, Alan Watts' The Wisdom of Insecurity or anything by Pema Chödrön, is that we don't have control over anything, when you get right down to it, and it's better to learn to live with the shifting sands of uncertainty than to futilely try to find refuge in fortresses that ultimately can't defend us from reality.
So here's Vader with a 'teachable moment,' but no one there to teach him. He's hanging over the abyss of what is fundamentally the mere biochemical processes of his own brain, and it's funny to any of us who have had similar experiences. (Some of us, though, remain blithely unaware of such processes and plow forward regardless of possible consequences. Even Darth Vader wouldn't offer the Prime Minister of Germany a free backrub at a formal meeting of an economic summit.)
An enlightened Vader would have sensed his attraction, recognized it for it what it was, remembered that there is no 'Vader,' no 'Commander Larkin,' and that the Force that can be named is not the true Force – and he would have gone on with the business at hand of torturing the captured rebel.
So we laugh at Vader's floundering around because it looks so much like us.
And then there's the birthday party scene, and here's where Commander Larkin reveals the inevitable previously-undisclosed boyfriend. Of course, she waits until she's got Vader in a room full of people and has given him the gift before dropping the 'Chris bomb' on him.
More typically, 'Chris' would have been the ne'er-do-well heir to the Harkonnen Spice Fortune back on Arrakis, but since it's pretty hard to top a Sith lord in a 'fabulously wealthy bad boy' contest, the writers counter-programmed with an IT geek.
Clearly Larkin has figured out Lord Vader is on the make and has timed the counterstrike for maximum embarrassment and dicomfiture, not to mention drama. Again, Lord Vader: no Darth, no Larkin, no Chris, no drama. Detach and move on, dude.
Anyway, that's why it's funny.
To me, anyway.
Not that anything like this has ever happened to me. I'm just talking in the abstract, of course.
House painting
I'm having the exterior of the house painted this week.
This will be a top-to-bottom job with an all-new paint scheme. Somewhere I have some pics of the house with its current paint scheme, but at the moment I can't find them. The paint scheme, done by the previous owners, is a cool gray base with white and teal/aqua accents. Which is okay, I guess, but not authentic bungalow colors. And it gives the house a kind of feminine, dollhouse look – hardly appropriate for a rugged, two-fisted minivan owner like myself.
The new paint scheme is a sort of dark taupe with dark green and dark red/brown trim.
This was done more out of necessity than vanity. The white trim was flaking off everywhere, and the scraping lifted quite a bit of the gray as well. But now that the process is under way, I'm developing a certain attachment to the outcome. I'm pretty excited about it.
This will be a top-to-bottom job with an all-new paint scheme. Somewhere I have some pics of the house with its current paint scheme, but at the moment I can't find them. The paint scheme, done by the previous owners, is a cool gray base with white and teal/aqua accents. Which is okay, I guess, but not authentic bungalow colors. And it gives the house a kind of feminine, dollhouse look – hardly appropriate for a rugged, two-fisted minivan owner like myself.
The new paint scheme is a sort of dark taupe with dark green and dark red/brown trim.
This was done more out of necessity than vanity. The white trim was flaking off everywhere, and the scraping lifted quite a bit of the gray as well. But now that the process is under way, I'm developing a certain attachment to the outcome. I'm pretty excited about it.
Monday, November 05, 2007
Another day in which I did almost nothing
I spent the entire day, from about 9 am to about 6 pm, shuttling between hangouts. I did some art – well, sort of art – along the way, which I will post here once everyone's cool with it.
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