2024.03.02
a week ago I was in Mexico for Anna + Kellie's wedding, and the next day I thought of a really relevant comic collaboration I made a while back (one that I hadn't thought of for years) - on my site The Blender of Love I had posted a Just So story about Planets, and the Humans tradition of exchanging rings. A graphics design student, Marissa Sardapon, used it as the basic for an illustrated book. It really is a nice little piece. I think it has been used as a reading at a couple of weddings (and even had an authorized translation into Chinese)
2023.03.02
Double Life Hack: popcorn via chopsticks is a great way to learn how to use chopsticks.
Triple Life Hack: Despite what Dylan said in the 90s you can totally have popcorn as your dinner especially if you are more of a grazer at night anyway.
2022.03.02
Open Photo Gallery
Inside you are two wolves. And it's too dark to read.
After I drink coffee I show my empty cup to the IT guy and say that I have successfully installed Java. He hates me.
The bad news: mildly aging eyes, I'm doing the "glasses on top of the head" trick for stuff close up.
The good news...er, I kind of like if I get some glasses maybe they can be "progressives"? So like, on-brand.
2021.03.02
TEXAS! LAND OF RECKLESS STUPIDITY!
Cash out on freedom now... Pay for it later! (whether from frozen-ass grid or COVID deaths from this premature idiot.)
I really loved the drumline cadences we had at Euclid High School in the early 90s, and I'm always keeping my ears open for similar stuff. The first half of this gets the spirit of it. (So many other drumlines have such boring, technically challenging but funkless stuff... a good cadence is kind of like a melody, it has a larger form a casual listener can really grab onto.)
2020.03.02
More recently, I remember my mom commenting on a little thing I am prone to do when starting on a new beverage - take the first sip, then do a little approving nod - that that was something my dad would do.
I wonder if too, it's a small way for my inner child self to communicate with the world, or maybe to my rational self... it doesn't usually have spoken language, so gesture is its idiom, and it just wants to say, "this is good".
You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. True power is sitting back and observing everything with logic. If words control you that means everyone else can control you. Breathe and allow things to pass.So the attribution is uncertain, but it's not bad advice. But I'd go further: you should see if you can get to a place of logic even in response to your own emotions... that's an important milestone on the path to equanimity.
Bought a case for my iPad mini that has a slot for the Apple Pencil, a mix of trying to always have the Pencil at hand so I use it more, and then just not misplacing. Guess the case is the best bet until the make an iPad Mini Pro and the pencil sticks and charges to the side...
Anyway, really do dig the Apple Notes app. The "infinite scroll" where you can just keep adding to the bottom when scrawling notes is fun, and I like the way it think in terms of lines and strokes and not pixels.
2019.03.02
- Mary Jane's Last Dance (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers) Good song, but the whole "Gotta keep movin'" followed a few beats later by "...on. Keep movin' on" is endearingly dorky in an 80s/90s kind of way
- Sally (Gogol Bordello) (video is the live version) Sally is 15 (Mary Jane was 18) - Anyway, Gogol Bordello is a special energy in protest music. I didn't know Nebraska would have Gypsy travelers tho...
- Girls Will Be Girls (Sophie Beem) Probably heard in "Bad Moms" - like the big bass drum percussion.
- "Kansas City Shuffle" (J. Ralph) Cool 70s vibe to this one.
- Karma (The Black Eyed Peas) Not my favorite Black Eyed Peas, but they really have a great and distinct studio sound.
- Rock Lobster (The B-52's) grabbed this when School of Honk started doing it. I admit it's probably my least favorite of the well-known B-52 songs ,but still pretty good. And fun to play.
- Love Has All Been Done Before (Jade Bird) Arun pointed me to this sweet indie style song.
- Trap Nig**z (Boyz N Da Hood) Forget where I ran into this, but the slow groove is pretty good.
- You Make My Dreams (Daryl Hall & John Oates) One of those songs I like, a bit, but never had.
- We Ready (NFL Playoffs) This month I figured out a setup to record right off of youtube- I always want to pay for music, but some stuff you know will never be released, like this minute track of a high school (I think) team singing "We Ready", from an NFL playoffs commercial
- Siri ! What is 1 Trillion to the 10th Power There are a few videos using Siri going "Zero Zero Zero" as a beat, but the India-music this puts over it makes it my favorite.
- Ooh La La (Faces) Another, oh yeah, I kind of like that song ... I liked the chorus "wish I knew then what I knew now" before realizing it had that "women and their evil ways" vibe.
- bury a friend (Billie Eilish) Spooky, horror vibe to this one.
- Gotta Get Up (Harry Nilsson) Like everyone I rediscovered this song on the Netflix series "Russian Doll"...
It seems odd that two tropes for the clearness of the eyes - "gimlet-eyed" and "limpid pools"- both sound a bit like the opposite of what they mean.
A cucumber - like, either end of an english cucumber - wrapped in a tortilla, and with some jalapeno mustard, has a remarkable tastiness and texture and nutrition (well, at least lack of un-nutrition) to fuss ratio, seriously off the charts.
2018.03.02
- Too Many Rappers (New Reactionaries Version) [feat. Nas] (Beastie Boys & Nas) Sonically rich... striking and melancholy that MCA revised his verse with lines like "Stay up all night, and I MC and never die / Cause death is the cousin of sleep" to "Like a Nexus-6, comin' home to roost"
- Soul Bossa Nostra (feat. Ludacris, Naturally 7 & Rudy Currence) (Quincy Jones) Heard about this album in those recent interviews he's been doing - fun version of a song School of Honk does.
- Bang! Bang! (The Knux) These guys deserve a lot more attention, amazing flow.
- Sanford and Son (feat. T.I., B.o.B., Prince Charlez & Mohombi) (Quincy Jones) like Soul Bossa Nostra - finally looked it up, that amazing didgeridoo-like sound from the original is a bass harmonica
- Ding Dang (From "Munna Michael") (Javed Mohsin, Amit Mishra & Antara Mitra) Looking for Brian Wilson I found Bollywood, and how.
- Do You Love Me (Single) (The Contours) So popular when I was high school (I guess because of "Dirty Dancing", I was surprised it hadn't made it into my collection before this...
- So Long (Fats Domino) I think Alan Freed played this as a farewell when his pioneering rock and roll radio show was shut down
- Blood Makes Noise (Suzanne Vega) Missed this song back in the day.
- Want It Back (Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra) Great video, and not just because of the nakedness
- Ain't I (Lizzo) Raw.
- Opps (Vince Staples, Yugen Blakrok) Hiphop the "Black Panther" sound track.
- Which Side Are You On? (The Freedom Singers) Looked for a version, something BABAM might want to put in their playlists.
- The Jabari, Pt. II (Ludwig Goransson) Cinematic stuff from the "Black Panther" sound track.
- Space Lord (Monster Magnet) Southern rock, I guess?
- When My Dreamboat Comes Home (Mr. Boogie Woogie) Looked for this song when New Magnolia was going to do it. Mixed feelings that the version I picked turned out to be so Dutch...
I'm not the biggest basketball fan but Lebron's nutmeg and James Harden's "what are you doing" stare were both pretty great
From the makers of I Can't Believe It's Not ButterTM, Introducing:
-It Might Be Bread
-Let's Just Say It's Cream Cheese
-It Almost Tastes Like Jam
-Sure, it's 'Maple Syrup'
-Smells A Bit Like Eggs
I never knew a blacksmith who was in love with his hammer.(Vonnegut cites that after Renata Adler defining a writer as somebody who hates to write.)
2017.03.02
Is it just me or does the concept of judges running for election feel really weird? Straightup Democracy for everything seems kind of odd. (Albeit, better than the neither-fish-nor-fowl (tho a bit foul) electoral college...)
Keep me from going to sleep too soonThe final line was rattling around my head this morning.
Or if I go to sleep too soon
Come wake me up. Come any hour
Of night. Come whistling up the road.
Stomp on the porch. Bang on the door.
Make me get out of bed and come
And let you in and light a light.
Tell me the northern lights are on
And make me look. Or tell me clouds
Are doing something to the moon
They never did before, and show me.
See that I see. Talk to me till
I'm half as wide awake as you
And start to dress wondering why
I ever went to bed at all.
Tell me the walking is superb.
Not only tell me but persuade me.
You know I'm not too hard persuaded.
Necessity is the mother of invention. Boredom is the Father. Laziness is the shifty uncle. Laziness might be the illegitimate father; as in one day Necessity was bored of Boredom and noticed Laziness was much more fun.
2016.03.02
- This Woman's Work (Kate Bush) At first I thought this song was just overwrought, but reading up on it, and remembering its probably from a new father's perspective, it's powerful. Think I heard it in "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."
- Ni**as in Paris (JAY Z & Kanye West) Is it weird to own music whose title you're not allowed to say? Anyway, the DJ was playing this before "The Soul Rebels Brass Band"
- Dont Blame The Dynamite (Dr Teeth & The Electric Mayhem) Muppets! "There's a party all the time, for them what choose..."
- GDFR (Flo Rida) I think this is playing in a strip club in "Deadpool"
- Groovulation (Youngblood Brass Band) Awesome tune I played with the Bread + Puppet Overtakelessness Circus.
- Son of a Preacher Man (Aretha Franklin) How had this cover flown under my radar? Thanks Obama. I mean, Melissa.
- Anyone Else But You (The Moldy Peaches) Favorite lyric of the month: "Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start, just because we use cheats doesn't mean we're not smart"
- You Are My Sunshine (Pt. 1) (Elizabeth Mitchell) Hunted around, this was the best version I found.
- Kangaroo Court (Capital Cities) Love the video for this.
- Gravel Pit (Wu-Tang Clan) The youtube video is crazy censored, but I was very impressed by the Austin Powers-esque groove
- Thunderstruck (Steve`n`Seagulls) i think I prefer the youtube version of this song, and not just because of the hats.
- When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along (Al Jolson) Is... this version racist? Like just by himself, the voice he does? Vs "the Jazz Singer" I mean. Anyway, Dylan like to sing this one.
- Iko Iko (Jimmy Fallon, Sia, Natalie Portman, The Roots) Man do I dig Fallon + The Roots + Celebrity Singer Kindergarten Percussion covers. Plus my band totally needs to get back into this song.
Tuba travel planning. I find it charming , yet pragmatic, that multiple exemptions for musical instruments have been carved out for airline baggage policies.
And it's irregularly shaped to boot. "My hump, my hump, my lovely tuba lump"
Wow-- remember that old computer animation of a fantasy contraption, hundreds of spheres bouncing and playing (percussion, and impact-y strings)? Someone made that a reality!!
It's like a music box*100!
2015.03.02
Jazz and Instrumental
- All of Me (Frank Sinatra) My band started playing this song, and I really love it. Sinatra's version stood out when I looked for a cover.
- My Sweet Hunk O' Trash (Billie Holiday / Louis Armstrong) Dr. John covered this one with his musical guest, the original is also a delight.
- Heart of Glass (The Puppini Sisters) A bit brighter and cheerier than the similiar Nouvelle Vague cover.
- Edmontosaurus (Paul Leonard-Morgan) Some sports commercial had this... AMAZING big acoustic dinosaur picture.
- Animals (Martin Garrix) Not many electronic instrumentals make it onto my play list... love the tick tock sound.
- Take Me to Church (Hozier) Sacred, Profane, etc.
- Shiver (Lucy Rose) Sweet, gentle song that closed an episode of Girls.
- Unconditional Rebel (siska) Such an amazing video...
- The a Team (Ed Sheeran) Another kind of calming song.
- Can't Hold Us (feat. Ray Dalton) (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis) When Hunter and I heard this demoing headphones at Target, I thought it was Pitbull. Really cool sound though.
- Remember the Name (Fort Minor) Rap.
- Yeah! (feat. Lil Jon & Ludacris) (Usher) Surprised I hadn't grabbed this earlier.
- Lose Control (Missy Elliott ft. Ciara & Fat Man Scoop) I hadn't been forewarned of Missy Elliot's guest appearance at the Superbowl Halftime, and it was a serious delight.
2014.03.02
2013.03.02
I wasn't ready for you / but I wasn't ready for you to change / I clench my jaw tighter
2012.03.02
action figure fighter - source - built with processing
2011.03.02
--I am kind of enthralled by the kinetic hubris of Charlie Sheen, here used as the captions to a series of Old New Yorker Cartoons. Especially because I think he does make an interesting in-show character, from what little I've seen of "two and a half men".
See also livethesheendream, a Sheen quote generator, but it seems to be having some kind of technical difficulty. It was probably folly to think that a web server or any other form of automaton could handle that much Sheen!
Gargageband for iPad, finally! Wonder if the video out will be smooth for streaming video on the new models...
2010.03.02
moobak - source - built with processing
Made for THE 371-IN-1 KLIK & PLAY PIRATE KART II: KLIK HARDER.
One small argument in favor of Intelligent Design: at least toenails grow a lot slower than fingernails, eh?
Everyone check under your seats! You all get gum!
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/02/ff_google_algorithm/ - on Google's algorithm. Damn, that's some smart stuff.
Deep-rooted abandonment issues leave most orphans highly susceptible to shame-based psychology (for a complete list of opportune moments to obliterate the esteem of test subjects, please consulting Training Video #89-D, 'You'd Perform This Test Better if You Had Parents')
Objective assumptions in English-"it'd be The Cake Is 'A Lie'", vs 'The Truth'. We can have "truisms", but kinda assume there's one "Truth".
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/03/01/petition-to-make-hel.html - I support making "hella-" the official prefix for 10^27
Heh - David "Pitfall!" Crane's "2600 Magic" iPhone tutorial gets Atari playfield graphics a bit wrong- it oversimplifies the bit order! (see http://alienbill.com/2600/cookbook/playfield.html ) I guess it's "teacher's license" so as to not confuse things, but it's good to feel smarter than David Crane if only for a moment.
I love to juxtapose the Sony "Y2K.01" bug with 'Sony commits to PS3 for next decade" from http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/9699.cfm
2009.03.02
--at a japanese conveyer restaurant (via)
Rumor mongering... based on a survey I think Micro Center is considering a second Boston store, either near Burlington Mall or Framingham.
Bleh. First day of actual unemployment, and it's a damn snow day for everyone anyway. What fun is that?
http://www.trainhorns.net/sound/ - I could hear the mp3 when its cranked up (how dumb is it not to give visual feedback that it's playing?)
If you don't know concentration which gives you peculiar pleasure, your life looks like a hell.
2008.03.02
Speaking of what kind of suitcase should I use... what kind of suitcase should I use? My first plan was trying to get by with a small suitcase (on the high side of domestic carry-on-able) and then my courier bag. I have a medium suitcase I can use instead, and now I'm wondering if I should buy a more touristy/hiker backpack, or if that would just clash with the Japanese street style, which I know I'm already going to be at the low, low end of.
I do want to pack lightly, and have a certain small amount of giftage to bring there and back...
Link of the Moment
NEStography -- kind of like a geekier, less harsh a softer world. Melancholy and painfully self-aware in parts. With Nintendo games, so obviously it's perfect for me.
Game of the Moment
| --Dessgeega et al. graced us with a perfect and appropriate "Leap Day" gift -- an original oldschool game Mighty Jill Off. It's a mildly-kink-themed tribute to "Mighty Bomb Jack", an old NES classic. A very playable and satisfying short story of a game. |
2007.03.02
Maybe it's a stretch, but I was reminded of that with how I was arranging my keys as of late. For a long while, I've been able to limit the keys in my pocket to a clicker for my car, a large-ish car key, and a smaller house key. My new job gave me a key to the restroom, and I really had to think about what kind of arrangement of the three keys was most intuitive to me , so I wouldn't have to think about it. The house and restroom are both unlocked with the teeth face up, so that was the first step of the arrangement. The clicker goes in my palm. Putting each small key on either side of the big key was too symmetrical. Then I thought the most intuitive arrangement was to put the house key next to the car key, since the house and the car are in closer proximity to each other than the job is to either.
But that was wrong... the best arrangement is with the restroom on the "inside" of the other two keys, since I'm already inside (a hallway) when I go to use it, and I'm standing outside when I use the housekey. That seems to be the logic my subconscious mind is using, and life has better flow when I respect that.
I'm aware that by itself "this is how I put the keys on my keyring" sounds like the worst kind of "who else in the world cares?" blogging, but that's just because I'm not doing a good enough job of going into the sense of "flow" that it represents for me, and the implications of that.
Images of the Moment
| --Leave it to the Germans to do photoresearch into that age old question, What's the last thing to go through a bug's mind when it hits your windshield? |
Dumb Question of the Moment
"...You ok?"The video shows Holmes checking his altimer, saying "bye", and then his perspective under from under his failed chute... then you see the same scene from King's perspective. It wasn't QUITE freefall, but man...
"No--"
2006.03.02
Also, a very deep Metro station... this shot of the entrance from the inside doesn't show how deep it goes but I like it anyway.
Passing of the Moment
Just got word from the compsci department at my alma mater that Prof. Schmolze has passed away after a fight with cancer. I didn't have too many classes with him but he seemed like a great gentleman.
And now I'll never be sure about this one incident I had with him in an AI class...he had just told us about some bit of AI logic that was named after it's creator (Unfortunately I can't remember what that was.) But then he was talking about another construct, representing a logic statement that would lead to a contradiction, called a "NOGOOD". And I asked, gee, was that too named discovered by a Professor or Doctor Nogood, and so it's named after him? His response was along the lines of "heh heh, no, see, we call them 'NOGOOD's because they're No...Good ...See?"
And so now I'll never be quite sure if he didn't catch the dumb little joke I was making, or if it was just a dry-as-kindling sense of humor that had him playing along...
2005.03.02
Yesterday was probably my worst day of the whole season for car-digging out...the snow was just so wet and heavy. Plus, I'm a moron, and misjudged how wide an entrance had been dug out to my building's mini-parking lot, and backed half my car into a snowbank. I was stuck pretty badly for a bit...I probably should've tried to get some help from a neighbor. At one point I left the car in gear to "creep" forward and then got out to push...on a scale of "1" to "safe and smart" it probably ranks pretty low, but at least it got the job done.
Speaking of my car...I'm still pretty infatuated with it. It just has that "cute" and "utilitarian" vibes down so well. I suspect I might be the tiniest tad insecure about it somehow, like people who think it's underpowered on the highways (which I totally disagree with, but whatever) because I so enjoy positive coverage, like they had recently in "In the Autoblog Garage", Day 1, Day 2,
Day 3,
Day 4 + 5.
2004.03.02
Unfortuntely all the decorative tchotchkes were hers hers hers all hers. I need to do some decorating or something.
UPDATE: I actually wrote that last night. Doing so-so today; maybe it's a bit tougher than I expected.
Film Review of the Moment
"The Passion" strips Jesus of his message, ignores (for the most part) both his humanity and his spirituality, and reduces him to a suffering cipher. In Gibson's hands, Jesus becomes the central figure in a work of blood-soaked homosexual pornography. This film is a two-hour-long BDSM session, with Jesus playing "bottom" for a Jerusalem teeming with ruthless gay Doms.
[...]
Gibson has bragged about the fact that, on screen, his is the hand that drives the first nail. We are told that he made this gesture to emphasize his own sense of sin. Yes, Mel, we know. You've been a bad boy. You've been a VERY bad boy.
Bemoaning of the Moment
So, like I said, Mo moved out today. She went out early to get some Dunkin' Donuts coffee and brought me back an iced coffee and one of those "Apple Pie" pastries they have which are really pretty good. You know, I was fine in an oblivious kind of way 'til she wanted to hug; then I dunno, maybe things started to hit me more.
Right before I was ready to head to work I asked for a goodbye kiss; she acquiesced and we kissed and then hugged again. She said I was going to be ok. I told her thanks for everything, and also "better luck next time". She gave me a kind of a funny look; yeah, the line had kind of occurred to me before the embrace, but it wasn't meant as just a stinger. There is a legitimate hope that she finds what she's looking for, and that maybe she can get to it without having to go through something like this again. But "next time", of course, is the troublesome bit; half a year ago I didn't think there was going to have to be a "next time" and right now I really don't think Mo put nearly enough effort into trying to make our relationship work, just emotionally cut bait when she figured it wasn't meeting her needs.
I feel a bit like a loser and also like so much in our wedding has been made into a lie.
Last week Dylan sidebar'd about how some of the problems of our wedding and how maybe in retrospect they seem like omens. Here's what I wrote about the near-wedding disasters on loveblender a year and a half ago on our first anniversary. Back then I ended it "And at the end of it all I have Mo, so how can I be anything but happy?" and that's no longer true.
Game of the Moment
LAN3 pointed out that to promote the new (and highly regarded) Prince of Persia game, they've released a Flash version of the original. (Though with the SNES graphics, not the original PC's, which had the main character dressed up in a white tunic ala Luke Skywalker in a New Hope...I remember playing that game along with an excellent port of Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off Road on a PC during my trip to Portugal.)
2003.03.02
Hey, why do people call tan cats "orange"? There's maybe a subtle hint of red with our cat Murphy, but I'm surprised that everyone else wants to call that orange.
Link of the Moment
I know I've seen it around, but NPR mentioned Gone & Forgotten, where has-been (but mostly never-wases) comic book heroes go to die. Some great reading there. Great reading in the "Latest Feature" and "Past Articles" section...I'm not sure but it looks like they got past their previous bandwidth or serverspace issues.
Must...stop...reading...comics and get...to....loveblender...
Fable of the Moment
When Benjamin Franklin was seven years old, a visitor gave him some small change. Later, seeing another boy playing with a whistle, young Benjamin gave the boy all his money for it. He played the whistle all over the house, enjoying it until he discovered that he'd given four times as much as the whistle was worth. Instantly, the whistle lost its charm. As he grew older, Franklin generalized the principle. When he saw a man neglecting his family or business for political popularity, or a miser giving up friendships for the sake of accumulating wealth, he'd say, "He pays too much for his whistle."I wonder what whistles I'm paying too much for, sometimes it's hard to tell.
Another Link of the Moment
Of far less general interest than that previous comic link, Skrybe's Japanese-Only NES Games Page. Lots of rare cool stuff there.
2002.03.02
Funny of the Moment
Have you ever wondered what Star Wars would be like in Scotland? The translations at the bottom were the best part.
Exclamation of the Moment
"Holy Pope with a Band Saw!"I'll try to remember to add it to my repertoire of outbursts.
2001.03.02
"How am I this morning? Frankly, Mister Never-Around, I'm as horny as the middle-school band."
Art of the Moment