"I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days, before you've actually left them... ...Someone should right a song about that." --Andy on "The Office" finale.
Found index card at the CCAE building: From merchandising is Forever, a blog of Star Wars toys... 26 Boba Fetts: I admit I'm a little nervous about the apparent strength of the economy, both the relative joblessness of it, and just because I'm always ready for the other shoe to drop. And it looks like America under Obama and a divided Congress has done a lot better than Europe.
Used the RunKeeper app for the first time, alongside C25K. Admit I'm a little bummed by my 14-minute-or-so miles (not even counting the warmup cooldown time). As a chubby high schooler I remember being relieved by cracking the 10 minute mark, though that was just for one mile, but I had a fantasy I was back to that kind of performance, despite being the slowest jogger on the path.
All well, lik Matthew says, no such thing as "jogging too slowly", right? (I'm glad the saying isn't "you can't jog too slow", because then that's not clear if it's a demand or a definition.)
As lazy as you are, I guarantee you will not be doing nothing over the next 30 seconds... In my off time I've been working up this year's Advent calendar (see http://advent.alienbill.com/ for last year's). Last year only had one original piece, the rest of my effort was spent converting from Processing to Processing.js, doubling the size, and making things iPad friendly.
So I'm been trying to brainstorm Christmas/Winter/Holiday/Maybe Just Toys/Childhood in general themes. Looking over what I've done so far, including 5 ones this year: Santa (3), Gifts (5), Christmas Tree (6), Reindeer (3), Candy Cane (3), Snowman (4), Wreath (3), Fairies (2), Snow flakes (2), Snow Activities (4: -blowing, -sledding, -angels, -forts) Wordart (2), Religious/Other Holiday (menorah, dreidel, kwanzaa, festivus poll, wisemen scene, new year's ball drop), Videogame parodies (Centipede w/ Snowman, Adventure w/ Tree, Asteroids w/ Tree) and then 11 more random things (English Christmas Cracker, Gingerbread, Stocking, Rocking horse, TV w/ Broadcast Fireplace, Penguin, Holiday Lights, Snow globe, Snow scene, Icycles and Iceberg.)
Other ideas I've not yet made include a nutcracker and maybe a toy train.
Thoughtful analysis of Trek through its various incarnations.
"In the beginning, when Adam was first created, he spent whole days rubbing his face in the grass. He picked his ear until it bled, tried to fit his fist in his mouth, and yanked out tufts of his own hair. At one point he tried to pinch his own eyes out in order to examine them before God had to step in." --Jonathan Goldstein, "Ladies and Gentleman, The Bible!"WARNING: catchiest kids video ever... it's funny how they really embrace the logic of it.
In the words of my father (who would look forward to this day every year just so he could peer down from the pulpit and say it:) "Good Morning to All You Mothers out there."
Slate on Japan's "Abenomics" So, Japan shakes itself from its stupor with stimulus, and Europe trudges through austerity. I think the USA could learn something.
I think I have found a new band home... last night I had a little strolling Honk with the JP Dunster Road Honk Band... it felt really good to be tuba'ing with a group again.
(Man, Honk and Pep and Marching Bands are so much more fun than Concert Bands and Orchestras! If I had seen some of these as an option maybe I wouldn't have had such a long Tuba dark age...)
"This feels like the Soviet Republics in '89, one more down: Minnesota House passes Marriage Equality in 75-59 Vote. Equality is coming." --http://twitter.com/johnksawersI am almost halfway serious about starting to consider the possibility of maybe someday changing my name to "Kirk Is".
"You only grow by coming to the end of something and by beginning something else." --John Irving"I went my whole life not knowing that there is a part of my body named the Canal of Schlemm and this is my new greatest regret." --Justin Fowler"Nobody has all the answers, because all the best answers generate more questions." --Scott Meyer, "Off to Be the Wizard"
Islam vs Christianity throwdown... comic, but kind of cosmic.
It reminds me of this quote from Off to Be the Wizard (great book, by the way, what Ready Player One should have been) by Scott Meyer: "The advantage that religion has over magic or science is that man's inability to understand is built into the system, so if an explanation is confusing or unsatisfying, it strengthens the point."
"The flow of discourse is just as real to human beings as the pathway of a fleeing zebra is real to a pursuing lion. They are both varieties of motion in certain kinds of space; it's just that the space of hunting is physical and the space of discourse is mental." --Hofstadter / Sander, "Surfaces and Essences"
Metaphors make up a huge toolbox to help us build our thinking, metametaphorically speaking. (Trying to find a good way of expressing that last thought was like rummaging through a disorderly toolbox... metametametaphorically speaking of course.)
"Life would make a lot more sense if you could hear the laugh track." --http://twitter.com/TheTweetOfGod
Good lord, they're right. Eat apples from the top down or bottom up. (When you get to the seeds, you can just shake them out, a detail the post doesn't mention.) Eat the ENTIRE apple. You will barely notice the core that seems so terrible when you're eating around its equater.
"Life always has an unhappy ending, but you can have a lot of fun along the way, and everything doesn't have to be dripping in deep significance." --Roger Ebert. The final quote of his I'll be posting, and probably my favorite.
The music I added to my collection last month -- Needing/Getting was fan-tas-tic. Exclamation points mark worthwhile videos.
Alt with Big Drums
!!!Needing/Getting (Video Version) (OK Go) I love the lyrical resignation of this song, and this version, with its car-powered percussive instrumentation, is amazing to hear and to see.
!!Somebody That I Used To Know (Walk Off the Earth) A beautiful post-breakup duet -- the video, with all the performers on one guitar thing, is pretty awesome
Country/Bluegrass/Blended
!Blowin' Smoke (Kacey Musgraves) NPR had a thing about this singer-songwriter, kind of a Sheryl Crowe vibe.
!Into Action (Tim Armstrong) Catchy boogie-woogie like movement.
!Poisoning Pigeons In the Park (Tom Lehrer) ...I actually sang this goofy, whimsically dark number for my high school Senior talent night. It didn't go over all that well.
Female Hiphop
!NYC Bitche$ (Awkwafina) From the singer of "My Vag", kind of a novelty number with a lot of authentic details from the buroughs.
!!We Hate Everyone (K.Flay) Not as good as "So Fast, So Maybe", but the beat is great.
Slate on LOL Heh. Just like I'll never be really comfortable wearing a backpack with both straps because that was totally uncool in the late 80s, I will never be at ease using "LOL" because that's what the AOL noobs used in the mid-90s...
"Likeness is a most slippery tribe" --Plato
Just finished week 4 of C25K, which puts me at halfway through. Noticed my arches are tender during the day, but I wonder if that has more to due with some fisherman sandals I've been wearing now that the weather has shifted.
I guess my speed isn't great, but I jog when they say jog and walk when they say walk and keep up with that, so that's something.
My April, One Second a Day... a lot of Emma, was never sure when it was going to be her last shot... http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/1/4279674/im-still-here-back-online-after-a-year-without-the-internet So, not a clear win for "cut out the Internet", but still some lessons to be had. I wonder how I could get a better balance...
