Pacers/Pistons Fight as a Picasso Painting
Pacers/Pistons Fight as a Picasso Painting - Definitely via kottke.org - this is hilarious and clever.
Pacers/Pistons Fight as a Picasso Painting - Definitely via kottke.org - this is hilarious and clever.
My sister Katy was waiting to catch the campus connector yesterday, wearing her red purse and red backpack, when she was approached by an elderly women. “We both have red purses” the women commented, quite out of the blue. Rather nonplussed, Katy replied, “Why yes, we do - great minds think alike!” The woman thought for a moment and replied, “Well, I was thinking that I never had a red purse until I was old.” Some random old people give the rest a bad name.
This Thanksgiving was at Dave’s house. I woke up to the smell of sweet potatos in the oven and the phone ringing. Ms. Lind accompanied us and I was really glad she came, considering how many of my family were there … I mean goodness, it had the potential to be an overload. I had cherry pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert - this was a good thing, however I do think I will return to the traditional pumpkin in holidays coming. Light flurries of snow fell as we walked some of our food off; I hope this means we’ll have a white christmas. Later, we all watched Hellboy, which was really much better than I had expected - it used that Indiana Jones formula of serious/adventurous/mythical tempered by humorous lightheartedness. After returning home, I caught up with Steve and John, Matt and Shayla, and Mike at Mike’s house - it’s strange how far away high shool feels; it was good to see that they were all alive, though.
I’m done with somewhere in between 60 and 75% of my holiday shopping, however this final part will require the most thought - can I do it? Can I gift correctly at Christmas? I do not know. I am pretty sure that something will come to me in the middle of a Physics test, while sitting at the piano, or while doing chin ups. With luck, that something will be Something.
Finally, my current embarrassing top-40 favorite song is by Jesse McCartney, a likely one hit wonder. The name of the song is “Beautiful Soul.” I know it’s formulamatic and mass-produced, but I am occasionally still a sucker for songs like these. Have a good holiday, everyone.
The human capacity for self-improvement is unlimited. For some reason, this thought sprang into my head this past Thursday as I walked through a dark and chilly late afternoon to Art History. Then, I realized that that belief fuels a lot of the activities I participate in in my free time. (Pardon my interruption, but that’s the first time I have written two sentences in a row that had two words in a row in them … I should probably write here more so my English mechanics do not perish.) I design to improve my usability eye, code to improve my ability to think logically, and compose music in an attempt to refine my creativity. The list goes on, and I am sure you have one similar. The motivation to improve ourselves is not a selfish one, but one that exists because we are so aware of our capability to be better. I am truly comforted by the thought that, as my life progresses, I can continually work towards being someone I want to be. That, I believe, is a true inspiration.
In accordance with my usual random subject changes that inevitably occur in these compliation posts, we turn now to Levitral. It is another drug for men with erectile disfunction and frankly, I am tired of hearing commercials for it. In fact, I am tired of hearing commercials for any drugs. The way I see it, if you have an ailment you do the research and find the drugs that apply to your condition. We say “Wow, I’m hungry, I just saw a Burger King ad, I think I’ll eat there.” We do NOT say “Wow, I don’t perform in bed, I better try the last drug I saw advertised that helps this.” Drug commercials are absurd and poisonous; they make doctors seem like middle men to patients when this patient-caregiver relationship is what truly matters in the health care industry. If people were not under the impression that there were a magic pill for everything, there would be less pressure on doctors to be writing prescriptions for every person that comes into their office. But the bottom line is, I just do not want to hear about solutions for men’s performance problems - save it for the doctor’s office.
The place I always hear these commercials is the weight room, location of many strange experiences, including another involving audio. About two weeks ago, I wandered into the weight room one weekend day and noticed something odd. The usual 93X hard rock was not playing. Nor did I hear KQ92 (classic rock) or the more rare Cities 97 alternative. A Bach concerto floated merrily from the ceiling speakers, casading down among big guys moving heavy weights around. How on earth do you lift listening to classical music? I looked around for any small group smirking in the corner, but found none. Everyone had accepted that the corner radio tuner had been set to this station; shockingly, no one changed it for 45 minutes. I will never know who set the radio to that station, or why it remained there for so long, but those who say variety is the spice of life really had it right.
I am in the midst of registration. On the good side, it looks like I can graduate in four years with a degree in biochemistry. On the down side, getting back on track after being in EE for Freshman year is going to take some sheduling heroics. I know now is the time for registration for all of you out there, so best of luck keeping a clear outlook on the future.
The Complete Far Side - Sweet box art.
Nobody ever does this, but I have decided to break my normally strong ties with common sense and reommend a movie before I have seen it. Yes, I want you to see The Iron Giant. Yes, it is animated. No, I am not being paid to recommend this. Yes, drawings can move a person.
You see, it marks the end of an era. Earlier, I wrote about the great days when Disney produced annual animated features films that consistently delivered entertaining plots, classic music, and memorable characters. Following the assumption that they know popular opinion better than the populous does, studios have been moving away from this animated format. Of course, Pixar seems to have filled the “power vacuum” left by animated films, but I still think the old format has a lot to offer. It just has been handed poor ideas and direction in the recent years past.
So, The Iron Giant is not just a very good movie (which I can’t even vouch for yet, which is sad), but it also puts an exclamation point at the tail end of animated films as we know them, instead of letting the genre slide down a slippery slope into oblivion (much as the Rocky movie dynasty did). Sometime soon, I will watch the movie and deliver a better report. In the meantime, I will have to take my own word for it.
What a bizarre recommendation.
On Thursday, for some reason I am still not aware of, everyone was smiling at me. It was the oddest thing; everyone from the lunch card swiper to random people on the sidewalk were smiling at me. It was a busy day, I was trying to get all of my scattered physics knowledge to coagulate in time for the exam yesterday. I was happy, but I didn’t feel like I was exuding vibes to cause the positive response around me. Who knows.
Friday brought an excellent exam (I may eat my words on that), and other good things, like finally taking a night off from studying. My keyboard came, and I am really starting to like it. It takes a little getting used to, but once you try these low-profile keyboards, you won’t go back. Here’s a review of the ViewSonic ViewMate keyboard I bought.
Anyhow, we watched Bridget Jones’s Diary and Elf on Saturday, both of which were very good. I had seen bits and pieces of Bridget J.D., but it was quite good to see all together in one movie viewing. Elf far exceeded expecations by being both funny and touching at the same time. Impressive for a holiday movie. Will Ferrell was fantastic as a sugar-addicted eternally optimistic
elf. Santa was perfect as still merry but slightly rough around the edges. The child who played the scrooges’ son (one scrooge or more in every holiday movie) was excellent as well. Furthermore, we had some excellent Jimmy John’s sandwiches, which were extraordinarily tasty. I think I found the answer to my order-in desires. Their sandwiches are unfailingly fresh, tasty, and fast from call to delivery. While angels did not exactly sing upon my consumption of the sandwhich, it was still pretty darn good.
I ate some Thanksgiving (early) turkey (and other fine turkey-day type food) with Mykala and her family on Sunday, which was fanmazing (fanmazing simply is not catching on, I think I will return to fantastic and amazing). It was good to take a break from college, drive up to town censored for privacy, and nervously meet some more of her family. We returned to a wide variety of things to do, from registration, to phone callation, to paperation, but none of it really caused any amount of stress. With this Thanksgiving break coming up, it really is hard to get overwhelmed by anything. Life can’t be bad when it’s 3 days on, 4 days off.
I do not usually do this, but the song of this post is Switchfoot’s “Learning to Breathe.”
Spot the Pizza Planet Truck and Win - Via kottke.org … I think.
Be Less Specific - “Take the stairs in a building with a basement, and you’ll likely notice a gate in the stairwell when you reach the ground floor. This is called a ‘forcing function’ — a physical impediment to jolt users out of their routine and ensure appropriate behavior. In this case, the relatively infrequent annoyance of opening the gate is offset by keeping panicked people out of the basement when the building is on fire.”
Luxo :: A blog dedicated to Pixar - It isn’t actually official, but it is done with such care and quality that it sure looks that way. Very fun to read.
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