February 2009
“Ideas are cheap; making them into something awesome is super-hard.”
– Merlin Mann in “Toward Patterns for Creativity”
I Wrote This For You →
One of my favorite blogs, because the restrictions in the format make for some incredibly evocative writing. Like this entry, for example.
You don’t see much writing in that tone on the internet. It’s literally lovely.
January 2009
Oh wow, HillaryIs44.com is still running! →
This was one of the most fervent and crazy pro-Clinton sites during the primary campaigns, but somehow continued through the last half of 2008 and to this day produces near-daily posts and hundreds of comments. Bizarre.
The only attempt I've seen at a Southland Tales... →
Still incoherent and bad, but with actual context for the random insanities that I singled out on my viewing.
On a side note, I’m watching the making-of featurette and it’s nothing but actor after actor saying “I have no idea what the heck is going on in this film!” while Richard Kelly occasionally jumps in and prognosticates about social commentary and political satire...
So I finished watching Southland Tales, with full... →
It almost swerved into actually being neat in that last half-hour, but kept on dipping and diving away from quality. That said, if you have some sort of gimmick to get you going through the learning curve (like blogging, or a drinking game!) then the movie itself is sort of interesting as a piece of filmmaking gone horribly wrong, like a live-action loony tunes movie that attempted social...
Crazy Friday-night experiment
I am watching the critically-trashed, incoherent, and utterly unfollowable movie Southland Tales. All 144 minutes. For the first time.
Where you come in (and where I hope to keep my sanity) is that I’ll be posting updates throughout, chronicling just how completely insane the movie is. Enjoy!
—————-
Beforehand: Oh my god the previews include a movie called...
An aesthetics paper was due at 5pm today, and I...
Totally could have goofed off for three more minutes somewhere in there. :(
High point of the day
Getting hit on in the Sonic drive-thru with my two supervisors - Maggie and Brittani - in the passenger and back seats respectively. “Happy Hour” indeed.
Samantha Power to get senior foreign policy job at... →
The official position name is “senior director for multilateral affairs” at the National Security Council, and I am utterly excited to see her near the top level of discussions in the Obama administration.
Samantha Power wrote an awesome book on US response to genocide and is brilliant when it comes to foreign policy, helping to shape most of Obama’s stances during the campaign....
“What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.”
– Emerson (via charlsie and claudia)
Steven Johnson on how he uses DEVONthink →
I actually bought a copy of DEVONthink about a year ago, but never really found a use for it. I’m never working on any one project long enough to need to amass a bunch of research on it, and don’t have any larger focus to work towards. Maybe it would be useful to slurp up every post on my blog so I can look for connections, but that’s a stretch.
“You are a counter-example to Chomsky’s universal grammar!”
– Myself, poking fun at my friend Maggie earlier this afternoon when she was jumbling around words as she spoke. Pretty much the nerdiest insult ever, and it reduced us both to tears laughing about it.
Her response? “That cut deep.”
Blagojevich is crazy-talking to the Illinois... →
There’s a link to the live feed at the top of the MSNBC homepage. He is rambling on and on and it’s totally awesome to watch.
Animal Collective - Taste
There was a flurry of...
Watchthebalaclava: imadam:
Demetri Martin - If I
I posted about this special a couple of months ago, and it remains my favorite out of any of his stand-ups because it’s more of an autobiography than an comedy routine. Basically, it shows his unwillingness to deviate from what he loves to do and how the fame was just a by-product.
I remember reading this interview and realizing that this guy has an...
Justin.tv - Allison Weiss LIVE! →
allisonweiss:
TESTING TESTING, I’m testing this now. Watch me test it. Hear some tunes. Watch me test it. Hear some tunes.
Watching this right now. So cool!
p.s. I am totally awesome at making a fool of myself on the internet.
“Immortal” Jellyfish Ages Backwards →
robot-heart:
Scientists have just identified a 5mm-long jellyfish they call Turritopsis Nutricula, originally from the Caribbean but soon to be everywhere, which has the ability to “return to a juvenile state” after multiplying. According to the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute, this is the only known animal which is capable of quite literally reverting to its younger self, through a cell...
U.S. Infrastructure Is in Dire Straits, Report... →
More than a quarter of the nation’s bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Leaky pipes lose an estimated seven billion gallons of clean drinking water every day. And aging sewage systems send billions of gallons of untreated wastewater cascading into the nation’s waterways each year.
These are among the findings of a report to be released Wednesday by the American Society...
If I have to read the Meditations for one more...
wikirocks:
We are STILL reading Descartes in Modern. It’s not that I don’t think that they are important. Yeah, they are. And I am absolutely sure I will have to read them again in graduate school. But they will not change. They will still be the same six Meditations. Descartes will still make a ton of loop holes for his “arguments”. Cartesian dualism will still be a bunch of bologna.
It really...
Sometimes I really hate living in Kansas.
thebalaclava:
Today in AP Government, we were talking about what barriers we thought will be broken next, now that we have our first African-American president. The majority of my class seemed to think that neither an atheist nor a homosexual would be able to attain the office of president because the people wouldn’t vote for “someone whose moral compass is that messed up.” REALLY? REALLY? I...
Principles of Biology class consistently makes me...
I can guarantee you - without fail - that at 5:20pm every Tuesday and Thursday this semester, I will walk out of Ackert Hall totally pissed off. It’s not even a question of degree: 100% every single time.
In my seventeen years of schooling thus far, this is the worst class I’ve ever had to suffer through.
Amazon’s Kindle 2 Will Debut Feb. 9 →
Even the clunky first edition of the Kindle received raves, so this second iteration is definitely one to watch.
Nobody’s yet done for reading what the iPod did for listening, although that analogy breaks down in a very interesting way. The web has already encouraged eclectic reading of small-form content from a variety of sources, much in the same way that the iPod pushed the idea of...
WatchBest trick I’ve ever seen done in a skating game, and he didn’t get any points for it. :(
Ugh
I signed up for OPE too late to get the conference housing for $25/night, so I had to get a room at a nearby hotel for a total of $213, as opposed to the $75 that I was hoping to spend.
But the reservation’s been made, and I’ve signed up for OPE. I’ve “thrown my cap over the wall,” and have actually committed to doing the best job I can at finding a Residence Life...
WatchRide the Snake
The most underrated SNL skit that I know of. Just check out Carrey’s mannerisms throughout, especially during the lady’s testimonial about the method; he’s incredible.
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Survivor - Eye of the Tiger
This is what started...
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