Stuff from 25 May, 2007
This is the archive of tumbledry happenings that occurred on 25 May, 2007.
This Will Be Difficult to Tag
Ok, here we go. Since one of the purposes of this site is to preserve things in which I am interested for posterity: I will now embark on an image-powered summary of some of my interests from the past week.
Interest 1: Vega4
This music group sounds like Snow Patrol; that’s a good thing. I like ‘em … I caught them on the radio (not on the television, though I must admit that seems to be one of the best place to hear new, alternative music these days); I’ve been thinking about getting their album ever since. A quote from a PopMatters review follows:
Perhaps it’s the directness, the refusal of a band like Vega4 to house their emotions and their stories in deep symbolism, instead showing a preference for literal sentiments like “Life is beautiful / But it’s complicated / We barely make it” (quite obviously from the aforementioned “Life is Beautiful”). That’s one of those lyrics that could be brilliant, or it could be utterly stupid. It’s impossible to tell the difference.
…
That’s the formula here—repetitive verses with big fat choruses, all of them with easy-to-follow, eminently singable melodies.
Interest 2: Mandles
I thought the name of this was funny. With scents like “leather,” “yardwork,” and “wild alaska,” these are guaranteed to be masculine candles. Don’t think I’ll buy any (just out of college, remember … I’m poor)—but it’s a funny, catchy idea.
Interest 3: Funny t-shirts
I’ve been known to procure the funny t-shirt from time to time, and these two I really love. The first is not so funny:
Called “Reach for the Stars,” it was reprinted by Threadless because it was so popular. I really like it. Now then, next up is a great biking t-shirt:
I think that’s really funny. It isn’t elitist or tree-hugging, but it’s funny and has a powerful message. Plus, it has some great graphic design going for it. You can ask Threadless to reprint it—that’s cool.
Interest 4: Slashdot Humor
I’m almost embarrassed to mention this … but hey, I own a website where I blather on about the sorts of things I am interested it—if that’s embarrassing, then perhaps I should reevaluate the larger picture. Anyhow, this one requires a bit of explaining of the culture of Slashdot, a sign which should be sufficient to push me away from sharing this joke. But, I’m up for a challenge. Ok, here’s the back story: Slashdot is an extremely geeky hangout for people from many walks of life, but it attract a disproportionate number of folks with a predilection towards the many different flavors of computer geekery. Founded in 1997, the site is so big that it’s famous for crashing the servers of the websites to which it links. As Kottke wrote on the matter:
If you look at the second graph, Slashdot appears to have a significant “aftershock” effect on the traffic to kottke.org. The traffic went up and stayed up for days. In contrast, the traffic from Digg fell off when the link dropped off the front page and increased traffic a little the next day (compared to the baseline) before Slashdot came and blew the doors off at 4pm.
And as John Gruber succinctly put it:
Digg gets all the press, but Slashdot still has serious mojo — 15,000 referrers in a little over three hours.
So, we’ve established that Slashdot is a site that has tremendous influence, with piles and piles (millions) of visits each day. Within this framework, a rather complex culture has evolved. There is one key to the humor here:
Slashdot assigns user ID numbers in the order that the user registered, so the lower the user ID, the longer they have been a registered user.
There is a (generally joking) sense of seniority afforded to those with these low UID numbers. There is also a reference in many discussions of articles of “RTFA,” which can be interpreted as “read the featured article.” “Featured” needn’t be the word for which “F” stands … there can also be a modifier for article; figuring out the specific word intended is left as an exercise to the reader. So, Colin Smith, with the UID of 2679, writes:
WTF? You don’t expect me to go RTFA do you? That’s what all those high UID peons are for. Someone post a cogent summary.
For reference, my user number is in the 18 million range. So, this guy does have some seniority. However, user Enry, with a UID of 630 responded with a comment of his own:
Exactly. Let me know when you’re done, newbie.
Interest 5: Pumping Iron
I investigated the film Pumping Iron, because I had heard a couple of people talking about it. It’s essentially a film from the 1970’s that, with Arnold Schwarzenegger as the main character, examines everything that is wrong with competitive body building and the obsessed individuals at the center of the maelstrom.
Oh, and Arnold Schwarzenegger is, umm, really strong. See below, a photograph from the November 16, 1975 issue of the Los Angeles Times. In the linked larger picture, pay special attention to his left leg … have you ever seen anybody with visible veins on that part of their leg? Scary.
Interest 6: Doorbell Photography
I stumbled across this guy who makes great pictures of Italian doorbells: I found him because he uses the same camera as myself. Here’s an excerpt of one picture:
See the “L’INVESTIGATIVA” under one bell? Well, the extensive caption to the picture on the Flickr page that hosts this image tells the history behind that caption. It’s about a young Italian guy who really knew he wanted to be a private eye: the caption tells the story of his many failures, and his eventual success as the head of the largest organization of its type in the country (I won’t give away the ending—it’s worth a read).
Interest 7: Invisible Bikes
This is an invisible bike. You may view the Flickr page from which it originates. This is from a great article about “lol cats” by Anil Dash (which Can Has Grammar, by the way).
Now then, there is more to say about the lol cats: they are essentially pictures of cats with really bold captions saying funny things. These funny things may have their grammar tweaked. “I has idiosyncratic conjugation” would the self-referential example cited by Anil Dash from the previous link. I have to include one lol cat picture.
Interest 8: Flash photography The Strobist blog published a picture of a guy (John Sumrow) with a lampshade on his head, lit from the inside.
Strobist writes:
Folks, I am at a loss for words. Except to point out that this is probably the first time the following phrase has ever been posted to the internet: “… One Vivitar 283 ball-bungied to my head w/ a coffee filter diffuser …”
Interest 9: BYU “University”
Brigham Young University is not a University. A University is a place where open discourse and learning can take place, unfettered by prejudice, prejudgement, and agenda (religious or otherwise). Take the “Do Ask, Do Tell” policy at BYU, covered recently by Newsweek:
