Green Tambourine

Why do I have the distinct feeling that some, shall we say, illegal substances were involved in the making of this video?

I would like to know why they felt the need to attack that poor, defenseless teddy bear. Also, that twitchy-eyed, creepy elephant is probably going to give me nightmares. And if I were the people who had their likenesses rendered in the form of an ugly tin man and a Humpty Dumpty with disturbing eyelashes, I would be insulted.

I adore this quote.

"I don't think suicide is so terrible. Some rainy winter Sundays when there's a little boredom, you should always carry a gun. Not to shoot yourself, but to know exactly that you're always making a choice." -Lina Wertmuller

The Meaning of Life

is an impulse buy.

No, really. A while ago in an independent bookstore I saw, next to the checkout desk, a small shelf of small brightly-colored books. They were short introductions to such varied topics as communism and calculus and beat literature. And the topic of one was The Meaning of Life. I am not making this up. I couldn't. It's one of those things that's stranger than fiction. I wish I had taken a picture to prove it to you. Or better yet, I should have bought it- I mean, who couldn't use a short introduction to the meaning of life? I'm quite curious as to what that book says it is.

I should just shave my head

I've grown my hair out some lately. It was a bob; now it's just to my shoulders, and looks kind of awkward, because it's too long to still be a bob. It's outgrown itself. I could embrace the awkward, disheveled look, or I could get a new haircut. Right now it's looking like I may have to embrace it.

I am looking at hairdos, and I am ready to pull my hair out. Seriously. It looks like there may be no haircut on Earth, indeed in the universe, that will meet my constraints. They are:
1. NO SIDE BANGS. Seriously. I like seeing.
2. It should be low-maintenance. For a while I had hair that was past my butt, and I would have to get up an hour earlier just to have time to brush it all out, let alone style it. In that period I think I used up my lifetime ration of patience with my own hair. Now I can't stand to touch it besides brushing and washing. It can do as it pleases.

Not only are all of the hairdos I've found on models with bizarre clothing in avant-garde lighting, but some of the hairdos themselves fail far too epically to be ignored.
This woman looks like she got in a fight with a rogue curling iron. And lost.

If this 'do was supposed to make the afro cool again, it's not working.

Next we have the indecisive cut- To side bang or not to side bang? Meh, screw it, both!

Well, either it's indecisive or the hairstylist passed out midway through cutting the bangs. I'm not sure.

And finally we have this "very sexy" and "incredibly clean" style:

Hang on. That looks an awful lot like a mullet. Business in the front, party in the back!

Did someone say random quote?

“No! The other right! As in the other left!”

As usual, this is from a story. The reason for the seemingly superfluous quotation marks is that somebody said it.

(yes, I am posting a lot to make up for my one-week dry spell.)
(and, dontcha just love MS Word? I actually had to go into Edit Html and clean out all the code the quote somehow introduced simply by being from MS Word before I could post...)


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Now playing: Cat Stevens - Rubylove
via FoxyTunes

Something to ponder

Am I the only one who thinks/says "I want to go home," even if I already am home, whenever I'm uncomfortable? Where do you think we're referring to? A happier place? The place we were before we were born? Heaven? Unconsciousness? Dreamland? It's a good thing to wonder about whenever you think that modern life has everything figured out.

60's Surf Pop + 90's Grunge = Awesome!

My Slightly Creepy Obsession

Seeing as I'm too tired to write much today, I am instead going to share with you my obsession: this site. It's full of beautiful, haunting pictures taken in abandoned buildings in New England. There are more in the Flikr, too. Enjoy!

The world...

...is flat?
...ends with you?
...is too much with us?
...cruise ship?
...is not enough?
...according to Garp?
...should be ruled by The Avant Garden?

No, silly!
The world... as told by Google!

Seriously, the search suggestions from Google can be the source of much hilarity. (By the way, the top result for putting the "hilarity" into the Google search box is "hilarity ensues." Way to go, Google!) I mean, it's oodles of fun just putting random things in and seeing what the data accumulated from the searches of the world adds to them.

For example. I put in "we have." I get, among other things, "we have always lived in the castle" (WTF?) and "we have the technology." But "we have" is a fairly standard thing. What about Bloop?

Some results were "bloop bloop," "bloopwatch" (like Baywatch, only in Insanityville?), "blood pressure" (um, hello Google? Sometimes bloop is just bloop), and "blood creature" (I am trying very hard not to think about this too much). Just out of curiosity, after this I put in "bloop bloop," to see if it would do what I thought. Sure enough, it did- "bloop bloop bloop." It also returned "bloop bloop went the little green frog," which sound interesting, in a bizarre way- I mean, if it was "ribbit ribbit" it would be innocent enough, but in whose universe do frogs go "bloop bloop?" The logical conclusion is that whoever created "bloop bloop went the little green frog" is either delusional or tripping, either of which would lead to something I really want to see.

How about "random and?" I got "random and systematic errors," "random and useless facts" (w00t!), "random and funny," and "random and odd" (this is my new favorite phrase).

Now to get politically charged- "revolution!!!!" Some followup words I got were lyrics, myspace (so even revolution has a myspace now- wow, I'm really behind the times), prep (¡Viva la Revolución!), 9, tea, and (most worryingly) "for cats" and "for dogs." Now, I just had to click on that, and the result was anticlimactic- it's an anti-parasite product.

Then, I decided to get even more political and put in "revolution of." I got various dates which might be good for a history lesson, "the mask," and "the earth."

Now for the really fun part- click on the results that intrigue you, and see what they're really about. Prepare to waste the rest of your day.

I love me.

So I was just going through my files on my computer, innocent as can be. I come across an HTML document titled "lalala." (The fact that random files like these are common on my computer should tell you something about me. Recently I've been trying to clean them up.) When I clicked on it, what should open but a web page with this embedded in it and underneath it, the words "hahahaha you just got rickrolled, sucker! Love, Chris."

So I effectively just rickrolled myself. I didn't even think that was possible.

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Now playing: Interpol - Evil
via FoxyTunes

Sometimes when this place gets kind of empty...

Hello, Avant Garden! Oh, how I have missed you. *twirls around*

I swear. Blogging is like an addiction. Think about it. When you try to quit, you continue to see things and think "oh, that would make a great post!" and randomly wonder about the nonexistent comments on your nonexistent posts. Or at least, that's what happened to me.

Now I bet you're all going to go all ninja-tastic on me for daring to quit. Why did I even bother? Well, I would like to say I just forgot my password again like the last time I abandoned this blog. But that wouldn't be the truth. This time, the blame for the abandonment falls squarely on me, not on my poor malfunctioning memory.

After several nights of sitting up late working on that ever-present scourge of the student, Homework, and thinking, "damn, I should really post something on my blog!" I decided enough was enough, and that I was giving up on my blog. Yes, giving up. During the school year I would (and will) never, ever, ever be able to produce enough free time to give this blog the attention it so badly deserves. So, from now on, the Avant Garden is a summer-only blog. This does not mean there will be no posts during the school year. At some point I may be compelled to post, or simply pull enough time out of a hat to allow for a brief statement of "I'm alive!" or something to that effect. But, don't hold your breath for it. That could end badly.

Now, the picky among you will point out that the last time I posted was in July, long before the school year could have started. The truth is, I really have no reason for stopping posting then. The best excuse I have is a bad case of terminal laziness. I just kept putting posts off and putting posts off and the next thing I knew, it was September. Yeah. I probably shouldn't let that happen again.

But for now... Look out world, the Avant Garden is once more open for business! Now society can once again get their fix of random crap they really didn't need! Rejoice!

Save The Internet

Quick favor? check out my new linky. More info is coming tomorrow.

Way To Miss The Boat!

I always wanted to something really special and awesome for my 100th post. Well, I guess I won't- that last post was my 100th post. Well, there's always the 200th post...

Since this is the 101st post, I feel as if I must include the 101 Dalmatians in this somehow.

Deep Funky Quote

I believe we are long overdue for a nice random quote from one of my writings. Don't you think?

The better they are, the shorter their lives. It is a tragedy, of course, but it is the law.

To make up for how, well, bad the last post was, I went pretty deep with this quote.

Dale a tu cuerpo alegria, Macarena

Remember Howard, the stick... thing I made with Pivot Stickfigure Animator? Well, I was at it again, and this time I was slightly more ambitious- I made a stick figure dance the Macarena (well, as close to the Macarena as a stick figure can do). See what you think!

Is it anywhere close to this? (major earworm alert, it's the official Macarena music video)

I think it is!



PS: check out my new, improved, shmancy, huge donkey-blogroll over on the left!

Not just for the few!

This is a hilarious 70s PSA. Not only is the song a hell of an earworm, it makes VD (more commonly known today as STDs) sound like something everyone wants- I mean, it's for everyone, and the people in the pictures are all happy and doing well. And the picture of the baby puzzled me- it could be a veiled reference that sex gives you a VD, or implying (as I took it as at first glance) that you can even get this terrible (or, as most would take from the context, wonderful) VD thing from a baby. Huh?

BY THE WAY: It's officially summertime! Guess what that means- more blogging! I know I haven't posted for a long long time, but now that it's summer I'm not busy! Yay!

Do you know what day it is?

Why, it's World Tapir Day! (But you knew that, right?)

Do you know what World Tapir day is?

Neither do I. But you can find out all about it at this link. In a nutshell, I think it's basically to raise awareness about preserving tapir habitat and keeping these little critters with huge noses from going extinct.

Interesting Topic of the Day: Polaroid Manipulation

Today's interesting topic is Polaroid Manipulation.

Polaroid Manipulation is, in short, a sort of old-school, analog Photoshop. You know those old-style Polaroids that come out wet, start black and then develop into color, and that you apparently aren't supposed to shake to dry? Well, if you do shake it while it's still drying, you'll come out with a surreal, wavy, wiggly, painting-like picture, that looks almost like a reflection in water. Shaking it different ways results in different patterns of waviness. People have turned shaking the little pictures into a sort of art, telling how you have to shake just the right way to achieve just the desired effect.

The fall picture is a good example of a photo that was truly "shaken like a Polaroid peec-tchah!"



Another way people can manipulate Polaroids is with a toothpick or something of the sort, scraping the dye off in places to achieve another kind-of painting effect. They can outline things, shade things, make things look like snow, make random borders... This way of manipulating Polaroids requires slightly less practice and slightly more creativity and drawing talent. Even though it may at first sound inferior to the wiggly-wobbly picture produced by shaking a Polaroid, you can do some really awesome stuff to your photos that way, too. A good example of a scraped Polaroid is the picture of the lamp.




(photos from here and here, if you check out the Flikr pools they're in, you can find some other really cool manipulated Polaroids, too)

Observe the radish in its natural habitat...

I know you've all been wondering one simple question- what do radishes dream about?

They dream about their native Radlandia which they were so cruelly captured from, of course. (the name Radish means from Radlandia, just like French mean from France)

Just look at this rare photo of radishes in the wild- if you were from there, wouldn't you want to be back too?(photo source)

Rrrrrrrrrandom quote!

"Harmony is out of the question."

I'll let you guess where this was found.








Okay, got your guess?








It was really from some random article about earless, singing frogs I was reading. Bet that wasn't your guess! Ppppthbbbt.

But it's been done, I bet.

I have always wanted to start a band called Natch, and then put out an album called Natch Rally. Geddit?

Subject-O-Matique

After pasting something random again today:

"Anachronistic Antidisestablishmentarianism: A Case Study"

I noticed a pattern. It always happened in Yahoo Mail, in the subject line. So I googled this strange phenomenon (after googling Anachronistic Antidisestablishmentarianism: A Case Study and turning up a Wordpress blog post about a teen searching for Jesus) and guess what!!!

It's a Yahoo Mail Easter Egg!!!!!

This has to be my favorite easter egg ever. Yes, even more favorite than the one in the last post. I then proceeded to go through them all. I love them. I am SO using some of these phrases for posts in the future.

ALWAYS Read The Small Print.

You could get the LOL of a lifetime.

Disclaimer: No fluffy warm creatures were maimed, dismembered, tortured, deplumed, discarded, deflowered, dropped, twisted, wrung out, extended, respliced, broken, humiliated, irradiated, brow beaten, pickled, deluded, duped, detained, mishandled, desiccated, bronzed, belittled, coddled, expelled, deported, imbibed, elected, marginalized, placated, misrepresented, overworked, underpaid, underappreciated, overly petted, genetically altered, or cloned during the making of this product. Except, of course, for Bunny and Bear. Nuff Said."

- from the notorious WCEE Credits Easter Egg in all versions of IE. This cracked me up! (I've added punctuation and got rid of errant capitalization and spaces for better readability. And better grammar *coughGrammar Nazicough*) The Bunny and Bear were famous Microsoft in-jokes that you can read all about in Wikipedia if you feel the need to.



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Now playing: Lemon Demon - Dance Like An Idiot
via FoxyTunes

This Button...

So? What is it called?

A: The Emergency Flasher Button
B: The Hazard Light Button
C: Pizza for everyone!
D: Iunno but it looks muy importante.
E: THE PANIC BUTTON!!!!!!1!!!!!eleventy-one!!!!!

The correct answer is E. Okay, technically it's A. But I think it's E. Various people have corrected me, but I refuse to think otherwise. Because it's funny. It makes me picture people hitting the button and then running around the car waving their arms and screaming. And because such a button, all big and red and centered and dangerous-looking, just looks like, I don't know, a panic button should look. (Because when I see triangles, I think panic!)

Aaah, TGIFriday

... and the subsequent temporary brain death thats comes with it.

So, what am I doin' all of this lovely long weekend?

Oh, just hangin'. You know. In a literal sense.

The yawn in this video is perfectemundo. (That is not a word. But in my book it is, baby!)

Not Another....

Paradox, that is. Listen closely and you shall see...

Sesquipedalian.
Now here is a word that just does not make much sense.
It means using long words.
Now, just using the word sesquipedalian would indicate that you were sesquipedalian.
Which would make the use of the word sesquipedalian just a formality, as it had already been shown that you use long words.
*brain fries*

Today's Timewaster

Pivot Stickfigure Animator.

It's a free download that makes it ridiculously easy to draw and animate little stick creatures. Here's one I just made. You can click on it to seem him in full-size animated glory. Yes, his name is Howard.

PS: If you get a song with the right beat just right, it will look like he's dancing to it. This was highly amusing at 11:30 pm. (I recommend Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.)

Question of the Day

Is that kind of noodle pronounced rAYmen or rAHmen? Discuss.

(regular posting will resume soon- Chris has been sick. Blech. Until then I'm posting all this stuff to make it up to all my non-existent readers.)

Earworms

So the song Log got stuck in my head today. You know, from Ren & Stimpy. The video completely cracks me up, and of course I'm most obliged to share the earworm so you can enjoy it too.


I wonder who came up with the term earworm? I mean, it's not a nice term. It's slightly strange, actually. It makes me think of some fat white writhing beast, a little like a maggot, that crawls across your pillow at night, enters your ear, latches onto your brain with its mouth thing like on a tapeworm, sucks it out during the night, and turns you into a zombie. (Feel free to hold me responsible for putting that lovely image into your head.) They should call it ear-itch, or repeater, or something like that.

And speaking of which, did you know there's a science to earworms? Nobody knows exactly why they happen. Apparently, though, it is because they cause some sort of cognitive itch, and the only way to get it to go away is to scratch it. And the only way to scratch it is by playing the song in your head... over and over and over again... until you want to scream. And repetitive songs or songs with sudden twists seem to be more likely to cause these cognitive itches. So, you learned something new today.

A Small Thought

HOOGAH SHAKKA HOOGAH HOOGAH HOOGAH SHAKKA HOOGAH HOOGAH HOOGAH SHAKKA

This is what is being blasted through my headphones right now. I wonder when it changed to this song. It just occurred to me to wonder why I'm listening to this.

Geekity Geekity Geeks

This week's random link/music video is completely awesome. It's a flash video for Geeks in Love by Lemon Demon. The more you watch it the more you notice, and if you're a geek you'll find plenty of it completely hilarious. I love it. There are so many little jokes and things I could point out about this video, but I'll let you find them for yourself.

Watch it! Now! I command you!!!

PS- can you spy the Subliminal Massage?

The Book Tag

1. Grab your nearest book.

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.


Here's mine:
And for him it was different- the more he won, the unhappier he became. But though he sometimes missed questions whose answers he knew, he still won the contests easily, gaining admission to bigger contests with bigger prizes, until at last his parents were perfectly dazzled at the prospect of fortune, and Sticky was perfectly exhausted. Despite complaining and even begging, however, he couldn't persuade them to let him stop.
- The Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Stewart

I invite anyone to join in if they want!

A Grand(ish) Unveiling!!

I did the The Band Meme, not because I was tagged, but because I wanted to. (Miracle of miracles, I actually wanted a meme!) Here's what you do:
1. Go here. The first article title on the page is the name of your band.
2. Them click this. The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.
3. Finally go to this link. The third picture is your album cover.
4. Use your graphics program of choice to put them together into a respectable album cover and you’re finished.

Presenting, for the first time ever, my new-release album cover:
Band Name: Boulge*
Album Title: know where things are.**
Picture: the shoes with the happy faces drawn on them, titled happy feet by the taker, which is very cute.

I, being the curious music geek I am, wonder what you all think my music off this album would sound like. I'd like to hear your ideas before I tell you what I imagine "know where things are." to sound like.


*a hamlet in England, in case you were wondering. Yeah, like Bulge, but with an O. That's important.
** I went all minimalist and didn't capitalize anything. This is an ironic title for me to get, because I typically don't.
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Now playing: Ladytron-- Seventeen
that was me again, hehe.

Blueness

(enjoy the craptastic alien abduction concert corny fighting plus crappy animation video for this song)

I feel the need to announce this. You know that wildly popular (kind of carppy, now that I hear it again) song, Blue by Eiffel 65? I misheard some lyrics in it. I had never looked up the lyrics to it, ever, and I got a shock when I did. You know that little rap part in the middle? This part:
I have a blue house with a blue window.
Blue is the color of all that I wear.
Blue are the streets and all the trees are too.
I have a girlfriend and she is so blue.
Blue are the people here that walk around,
Blue like my corvette, it's standing outside.
Blue are the words I say and what I think.
Blue are the feelings that live inside me.

Well, prepare yourself for my version-until-five-minutes-ago.
I have a blue house with a blue window.
Blue is the color I vomit and I wear it. (Ew, yuck, blarg, gee-ross!)
Blue are the streets and now the trees are blue. (minor mix-up here)
I have a girlfriend and she is so blue.
Blue are the people here that walk around.
Blue is my corvette, its engine on fire (YOW! Lay off on the starter fluid, buddy.)
Blue are the words I sing when I think. (If singing helps you think, I guess...)
Blue are the feelings that live inside me.

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Now playing: Of Montreal - Lysergic Bliss
(That was actually me, I changed it to what I'm listening to on internet radio since it doesn't work with that)

A Positively Pointless Post

I think I should post something.

I haven't in a while.

Hmmm.

Oh! I've got it!

Wait... I forgot.

Oh well.

I'm alive. I'm still here. I still exist. Just in case you were wondering.

And I promise I'll have a real post soon.

Random Tired Thought at 12:12 AM

Don't forget to leave a contrail as you go up. It makes things more interesting for the rest of us.

(Well, I didn't promise it would make sense.)

Holly Jolly

I'd like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Oh, and a Happy Hannukah, too, if you celebrate that!

I probably won't be posting again until next year, which actually isn't as long as it sounds. Until then, I'd like to give you this link to get you out of those incredibly boring holiday parties that we have all faced at some point in our lives:

http://holiday.enlighten.com/

Random Is What I Do Best

Presenting the next part of Bee's meme at long last! This is the random one. It actually wasn't that hard, seeing how good I am at random things and all. Blame me for procrastinating it.

7 random things about me!!

1. I have an irrational fear of a certain song by The Decemberists.

2. Everyone says this music-blasting light up tree the people across the street bought and have in their front yard is annoying, and I agree, but I secretly like it and hate it that whenever the husband comes home he shuts the music off.

3. I am currently watching a fat guy in a red shirt and a jean skirt ride a bull on TV.

4. I had a crush on a cartoon character at 4.

5. I cannot make a decent rhyme- one that isn't like "thread" and "bread"- to save my life.

6. I can say the phrase "I sit and stare at nothing for hours on end" (je rest assis et je regarde fixement dans le vide pendant des heures) in French, but not much else.

7. I wiggle my ears when I'm trying to hear something, like it will actually help.



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Now playing: Johnny Rivers - Secret Agent Man
via FoxyTunes
(I have always wanted to rewrite this song as Secret Asian Man)

*blush*

Bee was kind enough to tag me for not one, but two tag game meme things. I'm a little late with them. Here's the embarrassing one, as promised. Expect the random one soon.

8 (oh, okay... 4) EMBARRASSING THINGS

1. When I was in a play in, I don't know, 1st grade, I had the opening lines, and I went out to speak, in front of everyone in my whole entire family and the school, when the big piece of background scenery came crashing down on me from behind. I didn't even notice until it hit me. And it was caught on film. I have never truly recovered from that.

2. I have an unfortunate way of staring at any objects headed my way until they hit me. Call it Deer-In-Headlights Syndrome. When playing basketball once, someone threw the ball at me. Instead of catching it, I stared at it until it bounced off my upturned face. And it went into the basket! One in a million.

3. I slipped on ice on the top step after a nasty ice storm, once. It was a really comical Chaplin special, with one foot coming flying out from under me almost 90 degrees after planting it, and me landing flat on my butt. I bumped down all three stairs, and absolutely flew all the way down the path- on my butt, remember, with both legs and both arms flailing wildly- until I finally managed to skid to a stop where the paved little path bends. It must have looked hilarious. And I know a few people who were out at the right moment saw. Not to mention I had a bruise almost the length of my thigh that lasted more than a week. Owie.

4. I ripped my shorts one day this summer- a great big split, right down the back seam- and went around all day with it on. In the mall, with everyone and their uncle in it. I honestly did not notice until I took them off. How bad can that get??

5. No more, I've already humiliated myself enough...

And this is not unusual dress, for her.

Random Writings Phrase of the Day:

“She has green tights.”

I'll leave the rest up to you on this one...

Me, too.

Two rather odd (but what did you expect from me?) PostSecrets I can very much relate to me.

Now you will know two pretty weird details about myself.

Take That, Bad Grammar!

If there's one thing that miffs me on the web, it's stuff like this:
heyyyyyy i like ur blog cuz itz cool k cul8r!!!!!
I understand using it for texts if you get charged by the character. Heck, if you got charged by the character, I'd shorten even more that that. I'd abbreviate everything. It would be funny. I love abbreviating random things. I would just write stuff like SWU? and people would have to guess what it meant (in this case I was thinking So, what's up?). But on the internet there's no reason for it. It's just plain lazy. Not to mention bad grammar irritates me. Grammar Nazi here! So when I saw this avatar today, I was like "Heck, yes!" Enjoy The Grammar Geek avatar!


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Now playing: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Snow (Hey Oh)
via FoxyTunes

Give Thanks!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!

Below I have posted a link to the lyrics to Alice's Restaurant. I won't torture everyone by posting the whole thing right here. I just have a link, so if you want to read them, you can, but if you don't want to, you don't have to. It will also keep me from stretching out my blog page by a ton, because that song is more than 20 minutes long and it's all talking. Now there's something to be thankful for. Enjoy!

By the way, I guess listening to the whole of Alice's Restaurant on Thanksgiving is a New England thing. Hmm. Who knew?

http://www.arlo.net/resources/lyrics/alices.shtml
Also, the full version of this song is on my blog playlist, so if you have never heard it you may enrich your life with it.

**please excuse the huge text, try as I might I can't seem to make it smaller... Blogger being wacky**

As Seen On Cops!

(now there's an attention-grabbing headline if there ever was one)
(yet another weird story from my weird life)

A few nights ago, at around 4:00 AM, they were playing Cops on TV. I decided to watch for the heck of it.

They were arresting two guys in Florida who were acting (or maybe driving) suspiciously. They said they were honest and innocent, and worked 50 hours a week, and all that. Then one of then undid the effect by making a break for it. The police set dogs on him and everything. Then once they had them with their hands up, they searched the car. In the back, they found a plate that had crack on it, and they confiscated it and arrested them.

I'm sure you're wondering what this has to do with anything. I'm getting to it. You know how they were carrying the crack on a plate?

It was MY PLATE!!!

Honestly, I have a plate that looks exactly like that one! Size and everything! The plate is older that dirt and slightly ugly, depending on what your preference is. It's very 7os, white with a border of olive green flowers. I don't even know where I got them, I think from a yard sale (now there's luxury for you). And it's exactly the same plate that was on Cops. Precisely. Right down to the last flower. Maybe I should sell that plate on Ebay with a screenshot of the show and the words "As Seen On Cops!!!"

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Now playing: Smoosh - Great Skies
via FoxyTunes

Who Knew? (I Did)

I took a serious (honestly, it was for real, complete with psychobabble) personality test...

And the results, as I can discern them, said that I live on the cusp of Reality and a Fairytale World.

Would I make this up?

I think it's very true...

PS: You can take that test here, just make sure you have plenty of time on your hands as it's like 75 questions long. I was INFP, in case anyone had a burning desire to know, which I doubt.

Aitsu Chotto Hen

This is the theme song (with subtitles for us English-speaker's convenience) for a new discovery I have made trolling the web- a Japanese cartoon called Afro Ken. Leave it to me to find something this random, right? Anyway, the show does not make any sense, but is strangely appealing. (kind of like my blog!) It's also always very cute. Afro Ken is a cute little dog with an shape-shifting afro. He is attracted to fluffy things and also takes their shape. He is "Honest, Innocent, and Happy" in personality. The show is focused around some things- Afro Ken and his various forms, a father and son who always find Afro Ken in the most random places (like in a pea pod...?), and bits of Zen-Master type life lessons (i.e. "When you accept things, love grows," "Goals should be set high and ambitions embraced," "If you believe something is possible, you can make it possible," etc.) complete with the Zen-Master voice to say them, and illustrated by, as always, Afro Ken. I rather like it.

If after my eloquent and convincing description (hah!) you feel the need to see a whole, entire, English-subtitled, kooky episode of Afro Ken, here's the link to one on YouTube, in three parts: 1, 2, 3.

PS: I spied another Christmas tree in a window today! And this one was fully decorated!

PSS: If you listen to the song long enough it sounds like they're saying "It's the African!"


----------------
Now playing: The Vapors - Turning Japanese
via FoxyTunes
(LOL, after finishing this I realized how appropriate this song was for the post!)

Forget Thanksgiving!

Every year, I've noticed it. It is getting more and more evident.

Christmas is poised to take over the world.

I am not kidding.

Every year its season is creeping steadily more forward. It has already swallowed up Thanksgiving, for the most part. If things proceed as planned, Halloween will be next to take a back seat to the holiday.

It's already November, which means the holiday season is starting! There is no snow on the ground. The leaves aren't even all gone for heaven's sake. But I'm already getting Christmas catalogs. XM has already put up a Christmas channel and will be adding more soon. People are starting their Christmas shopping. Proof of this can be found in the local mall, which is already, undoubtedly in full-blown Christmas mode. Decorations, trees, Christmas sale signs and advertisements, Santas, carols on the mall radio, and all. Heck, somebody in my neighborhood is already proudly displaying their eight-foot-tall Christmas tree in their front picture window. They had it up two days before Halloween. It's in the process of being decorated now.

Not that there's anything wrong with this. Goodness knows I love Christmas. You should have seen how excited I got when I found the Christmas channel. But once Christmas starts creeping into the summer months, it will probably start to seem quite ridiculous.

Light's Demons

WARNING!! MAY BE SCARY!!

Light never spoke. Nobody ever asked why. Not that she'd answer.

She was not dumb. She could write. In fact, she carried a pad of paper and a black pen
everywhere. But she didn't. Instead she drew shapes. Strange shapes. Shapes that curled,
twisted, slithered, crept, writhed on the page without ever moving an inch. She used a new
sheet every day.

Her parents were quite proud of her, for reasons known by all parents. But Light, who was
not her name, scared all who saw her. Something lurking behind her black eyes seemed to
warn all to stay back, run, save yourself. And they did. Everybody gave Light a wide berth.

Her parents wanted to exhibit Light's drawings, but they couldn't. At the end of every day she
ripped them into a million pieces and threw them into the fireplace. After that, she gave a
satisfied smile, and crawled to bed, slowly, excruciatingly, as if something had sucked all
energy out of her. And the next morning at breakfast she would start a new drawing.

But finally the day came when a lonely man who wanted a dance parter asked her at a small
Halloween party at her parent's house, "Light, what do you draw?"

Light looked up and locked eyes with him. It was a thoroughly disconcerting experience. He
felt like she was examining his mind with her piercing, haunted black gaze, sorting through
every thought, deciding if he was worthy to know her secret. Finally she spoke, barely more
than a whisper, for the first time since she was three and told her parents she saw a black
shadow by the window.

"I could tell you. But it might kill you."

Might. Curiousity overcame him. "Tell me," he murmured.

"Demons." The word came like a death toll. "I can see them, and only I. I bear the burden for
the world. And I must keep the world safe. They do not know. If only they did! Demons, lurking
everywhere, black and slithering, ready to take over the world and feed on your soul. I draw
them, every one, and destroy them in the night. It keeps me sane, keeps me alert, as if I slip I
will fall to them. And it weakens them, somehow. I do not know why." He was starting to feel
oddly numb. "Ignorance is your only escape. Once you know them, they have a way in. That
is all they need. I am the only one strong enough to hold them back." He was starting to hurt.
All over. The world was fading... The last thing he heard was Light saying in her weak little
voice, "I am sorry."

********
Happy Halloween!

(originally posted on Indie's blog, The Synchronicity of Indeterminacy, under the Halloween picture. There it shows under my old pseudonym Talespin. Posted here by request.)

Carrots And Tasers

Or, A Rare Glimpse Into The Workings Of A Guy's Mind

Me: "You have to say one word, and then you have to say another word that starts with the last letter of the word before. And they're usually in the same category."

The Dude: "Like carrot and taser?"

Me: "Um, yeah, that makes a lot of sense..."

So there you have it. Carrots and tasers go together like ebony and ivory in a guy's world. I guess I'll never understand how...

The Official Allen Wrenches Song

Allen Wrenches... that are blue
Allen Wrenches... they can screw
Allen Wrenches... from Yahoo!
Allen Wrenches comin' through-
JUST FOR YOU!!

Someone who makes Allen wrenches should take this up as their marketing campaign. Really.

Put De Lime In De Coconut

Le Edit- the next day-

no need for a stupid video anymore, because this song is now on my playlist, yaaaay!

I've been adding to that thing like crazy. It's now up to 52 songs.

And now back to your regularly scheduled Randomness.

An Experiment In (Un)Flattery

Is this person pretty or ugly? It is the same person in both. You decide...

PRETTY:
Her thick hair shimmered the deep, rich, earthy color of mohagony, tinted with autumnal colors like shimmering gold and flame red. Her eyes were large and dreamy, a deep, almost bottomless, the rich dark color of chocolate. Her skin was a light Sicilian golden-brown olive color, tanned from the sun, with a charming sprinkling of freckles across the cheeks. Her arms and legs were most attractively long. So were her fingers, long and elegantly tapered to the tips, perfect for playing the piano or holding a pen with.

UGLY:
Her hair was the dark brown color of a mud puddle. Her eyes were quite big, taking up most of her face and giving her a constant deer-in-headlights look, and the almost same muddy and murky color as her hair. Her skin was burned beyond belief, like you get from being outside in the summer 24/7, and across her cheeks a few freckles were carelessly scattered, like a last-minute hasty detail. Her arms and legs were so unnaturally long it looked rather as if her entirety had been stretched out. Not even her fingers had escaped, as long, thin, and bony as spider legs.

----------------
Now playing: The Beatles - Revolution
via FoxyTunes

FoxyTunes

I have downloaded FoxyTunes. It's a software you can use to listen to music through Firefox (which I have, too). It rocks! Literally! I love it. And, as I discovered while writing the last post, it has a built in music signature option! You know how I do that sometimes, when I feel like typing it out? Well, not I can save myself the typing of that! I just have to click a button! It's awesome! And just what am I listening to? You'll see...

P.S.- Click the song name and see what you find- even neater.

----------------
Now playing: The Guess Who - No Sugar Tonight & New Mother Nature
via FoxyTunes

Aaaaaaugh!

The slightly annoying, amazingly melodramatic Wilhelm Scream, screamed by the guy famous for doing the song Purple People Eater- that's right, the one-eyed, one horned, flyin' purple people eater song- has been being used in films for 56 years now. It's something of a tradition (or, given the hilariously overexaggeratedness -wow, is that a word?- of it, maybe it's more 0f a very long-running joke in the film industry). Maybe it's kind of like the guy saying "My leg!" I hear in every single disaster scene in SpongeBob episodes. I found this awesome compilation of slips from films containing the Wilhelm scream on YouTube.

Can you hear The Scream in every clip?

Sign of the Day

Announced in big flashing letters outside the hospital:

MOCK DISASTER DRILL
OCTOBER 13
BE PREPARED!!!

Now, you don't see a sign like that every day.

I was panicking until I saw the 13. Whew! I didn't know anything about a mock disaster going on two days ago, for the record. I guess I died. Heh, dark humor.

I love how they're not preparing for a specific disaster, it's just a generic Disaster. Don't you think more extensive planning would benefit for something as important as this?

Thought of the Day

"I wonder what I came into this room for. But from how fast I came in, it must have been something important."

-embarrassingly enough, me

Happy Blog Action Day!!

Today is Blog Action Day. So, in honor of saving the earth (kind of an important cause, don't you agree?), I am posting this lovely green spiral photo.







GO GREEN!!!!

(I almost wrote Happy Green Day but then thought, wait!)

Aaah, Dubai...

*sing to Kokomo*

I wanna take you down to Duu-bai
We'll get there quick and then low we'll lie-ai
Plane tickets I will buy
Way down to Duuuuuubai!

Thank You.

And now, an orange singing opera.

Raaaaandom Phrase Time!! *singsong*

*this is a phrase I copy-pasted with my eyes closed from one of my works*

Fermagglio, who was irritated that morning, simply sighed and twirled his moustache.

The Exception

Why does everything expire earlier in New York? It's drivin' me crazy here! Is it some food law? Or is it just different there?

File This One Under "WTF?!?"

Listening To: "A Girl Like You" Edwyn Collins (before you go looking, this one isn't on my playlist- it is on YouTube though)

Okay. So I went out to eat at a restaurant today. My dessert experience was interesting. To say the least.

My brownie was surrounded with what looked to be, to me, melted vanilla ice cream. I took a bite and...

HUH?

I had no idea what it was. But it sure as heck wasn't vanilla ice cream. I thought I tasted garlic. Could it be? I took another taste, and my suspicions were confirmed...

It was Italian salad dressing!

Yup. That's right. Brownie, ice cream, and salad dressing. Yum! It tasted very strange, let me tell you. It tasted wrong. Almost as wrong as the time I made myself applesauce with generous toppings of salt and cloves- but that's a story for another time.

I got a new brownie and a free meal. Their lame excuse was that they had a new dessert chef.

"What, one that came from the salad section? One that has sight issues and can't tell the difference between vanilla ice cream and effing salad dressing?" I wanted to say, but didn't. That's just out there. I don't even want to think about how it might have happened.

Another thing so weird it could only happen to me. What's next?

She Wondered

She wondered whether everyone else had to put their thoughts into words, or else they wouldn't make sense.

She also idly wondered whether everyone else often thought about themselves in the third person like she was currently doing.

YouTube Irony

These two videos could be found through each other over on YouTube. Thing is, though they both feature animated singing cats, they couldn't be more different. One is all joy-joy-joy-joy-joyful, and the other is all emo.

Random Link That'll Really Make You Think...

"The Day Before" Ad Campaign

The world can change dramatically, for good or bad, forever, in a day. This slightly eerie ad campaign shows pictures of places the day before huge historical events are to happen there, in blissful ignorance of what is to come. Simple yet hard-hitting.

Rest In Peace, Dear Friend The Tube TV

You know that TV station I discovered waaaay back when? You know, in this post? (Oh, and that song is in my playlist, second from the top, if you feel the need to hear it.) The Tube TV?

Well, it is no more.

When The Tube's channel number no longer worked on October first, I was mad. I just thought it was another channel that the evil folks at the cable company had yanked on me, like EuroNews. Then I went to TheTube's website, and discovered this:

Dear friend of THE TUBE Music Network,

We regret to inform you of the fate that has befallen The Tube Music Network. October 1, 2007 The Tube ceased its national broadcast.

Viewers, Artists, Music Companies, Investors, Business Partners, TV stations, Cable companies, Advertisers , Friends and our creative partners @Radical Media - your support of The Tube has always been highly valued and appreciated. The collective efforts of this team, fueled by the letters we received from viewers, sustained THE TUBE as it struggled through the financial limitations that ultimately contributed to its incapacitated state.

Thank you for inviting The Tube Music Network into your life.

Sincerely,

The Tube Music Network staff

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Whaaaaaa! I loved that channel! It was like MTV withought all the crappy shows! It was pure music! How can such an awesome idea go under? Is it because the public actually likes the drivel MTV shows better? (oh, right, we already know that)

The Tube was an awesome station and an awesome idea. It's too bad it had to end like it did. I will miss the station very much indeed.

Rest in peace, dear Tube.

5 Pence Premoniton

I found five pence in the bottom of my bag yesterday. Maybe it's an omen that I should head to the UK, stat!

What I Noticed On Saturday, by Chris

(some of these may be ever so slightly exaggerated)

A man walking down the side of the road holding what looked like a whole tower case full of CDs, without a case. They were everywhere. His arms were full of loads of them and they were sticking out of all his pockets (and he had quite a few). I give him major points for not dropping any. None of them were in cases, either. He was holding one out like he was looking at it, in particular. But what caught my attention was that he actually was carrying a few CDs in his mouth! Yep, that's right, holding them in his teeth like how a dog catches a Frisbee. I wonder what he needed them all for, and why he couldn't get a bag or something for them.

In the restaurant, a woman sitting alone at a table with like 6 emptied wine glasses in front of her, and one more half full. No food, just wine glasses, and lots of 'em. Go lady go! The seventh is always the best. I'm surprised she could stay in her chair.

Oh yeah, and...

I found an even longer and including anniversary titles Paramount title sequence compilation, like the infamous one I obsessed over in this post. There's also the end of a Star Trek theme hiding somewhere in this video, can you catch it? I did!

My least favorite theme is very early on. It's the one at 1:55. Very jarring. And, oddly enough, I find the Closet Killer ones positively hilarious.

Random Thought.

Why did I find gummy worms disgusting when I was at the age I was "supposed" to like them, but I like them now? Am I aging backwards? Cool!

It's time to play...

Guess The Old Video Game! I love this one.


Give up? Click here for the answer.

O Agenda Chicken, I Hardly Knew Ye

One of my interests is "watching foreign news channels." I really do watch foreign news channels. That is, I did, until the evil cable company dared to cut the station on me. Grrrr!

The one I watched was EuroNews. (I also get the BBC but I don't watch it as much as I did EuroNews, because the BBC is from Britain, which I have nothing against but somehow didn't seem as exotic as the EU-wide EuroNews audience.) It got to the point where I was mildly obsessed with the channel. I could not go a day without knowing the weather and Celsius temperature in Tblisi. I could perfectly mimic the British accent of the guy who went "This is EuroNews, with the news on the half-hour." (I still can, which is how I put down the exact wording- I remember it.) I knew exactly what select few commercials they did play (Somfy, a watch guy called the Master of Complications, tourist-board commercials for Kazakhstan) and could tell whether they were going to play another No Comment video by whether the graphic was big or smaller.

But there was one thing I obsessed over more than anything, and that was the Agenda Chicken.

In the bottom right corner of the Agenda screen, there used to be a animation of a cartoon chicken on a purple background, for no apparent reason. The chicken did nothing but open his beak (presumably crowing) extremely wide in all directions. I thought that chicken was so funny the first time I saw it. I loved it. It was a fixture. The sun came up, the moon got bigger and smaller, and the chicken would squawk in the corner of the Agenda graphic.

And then they upgraded all their graphics, and the Agenda Chicken was no more. I never really got over that.

Catnip-Reefer Madness

I found this video browsing Catster today, and not only did I think it was funny, I also thought it kind of related to all the trippy drug stuff I've been posting on lately. I'll try as hard as I can to kick the habit of posting that stuff soon (kick the habit! Aah! It's inescapable!).

Mostly Relevant Quizzes

I was visiting Bee's page to return the favor of commenting when I got sidetracked by a site that never fails to sidetrack me- BlogThings. I did tons of quizzes but these were the only two I thought relevant enough to post.

Your Geek Profile:

Academic Geekiness: Highest Fashion Geekiness: Moderate General Geekiness: Moderate Movie Geekiness: Moderate Music Geekiness: Moderate Gamer Geekiness: Low Geekiness in Love: Low SciFi Geekiness: Low Internet Geekiness: None

How Geeky Are You?

Academic geekiness was no surprise. I've always known that. But fashion geekiness?... What did I ever do? Oh, it must have been the hair combing question. Sometimes if I'm not going anywhere important and it's not finger-in-a-lightsocket bad, I will not comb my hair. Oh noes! (Why did you think White & Nerdy is in my playlist? Because I can relate to some of the lyrics!)
And, this relates to the "naturally trippy" thing I posted earlier:

Your Personality Is Like Acid

A bit wacky, you're very difficult to predict. One moment you're in your own little happy universe... And the next, you're on a bad trip to your own personal hell!

What Drug Is Your Personality Like?

Weirdly enough, this didn't surprise me either. *insert head-scratching emoticon here*

A Really Random Link. Literally.

The Random Garfield Generator

I love Garfield. I love random things. I really love this website.

Will She Ever Stay With One?

I wonder if this blog's name sounds too pretentious. I mean, it would imply a very abstract blog with lots of poetry and the like. I have seen these blogs before, and believe me when I say this is most certainly nothing like any of them. I think I need (another) new name. Something not trying to sound too good, or too fancy. (And I will not name this blog Untitled. That sounds vaguely artsy, and also vaguely uncreative. It doesn't fit anyway. And don't even get me started on the untitled paradox.) Something that just fits for this collected off-topic blog of randomness. And this time, I'll try to stick with it. But no guarantees.

One Random Fact About Moi

(which I really don't know if you want to know)

I've been told I'm naturally trippy. Sometimes I wonder if this is a good thing or not.

Miffed Robot Phantasmagorias

Sometimes I really wish I could sketch just so I could draw the things I dream about- some of them are really pretty.

Another thing that I find weird is- WHAT IS IT WITH PEOPLE AND ROBOTIC CATS? It miffs me because I know there are lots of cats in shelters who need homes. And they're way better than robots.


Also, there's something else about these. These things are all well and good with cutesy music playing in the background on a pink backdrop, but in real life it looks jerky, and the meow sounds very pre-recorded. It's hard to the touch and after a while you figure out exactly how to make it purr or hiss (at least on mine it's this way) because you can quite easily feel the buttons you need to press under the fake fur. Not only that but you can hear the motors whirring with every move, which sends it down into the uncanny valley from weird into downright creepy. I have some US robo-cats, don't ask where I got them. One is a very fake-looking grey and white one that just meows, purrs, moves its head, and twitches its ears (accompanied by the ever-present mechanic whirring) and one is a black "newborn" that's newer and more complicated- it also kind of squints, kneads its paws, and twitches its tail. Since it's far smaller its servos hit a very high and annoying drone when it moves, unlike the whirring of the big one.

This is a video I found without cutesy music of the Yume Neko Smile:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdkI4MIsCgY


I also love the word miff. It's just fun. I say it as much as I can. Miff. Miff.

Dogster Made the List!

Blink and you'll miss it. Here's the video! How many do you recognize? I recognized more than I expected.

Not again.

It happened again today! Remember when I pasted the mysterious mothership message? I pasted something else random today. Here is the new message my computer had for me:

I eat tofu and I vote.

Well, that's good to know...

Duhn-dah-duh-duh-duh-dah!

Am I the only person who feels almost obsessive-compulsive after watching this whole thing carefully thrice through listening to the subtle changes in the fanfare, and watching the height of the mountain change? For example, in the slide-in "Television" phase, I noticed the mountain get higher for one year only before getting chopped back to normal. I guess they noticed it was obscuring the all-important word "Television."

EDIT: After watching again and meticulously counting, I have some actual years. In 1974, apparently, they acquired a theme song that would stay for quite a while. And the year the mountain grew was 1987, I think. One starts to lose track at about 1982. It's definitely at 00:27, if you want to skip to there and see. Oh, and the post title is the theme fanfare of theirs I remember best. It certainly wasn't their only.

Commented!

Wow! I just realized today I actually have comments on some posts! When I first started the blog I'd check daily for comments, but when none came I gave up. Imagine my surprise when I take a closer look at my own blog today and see... comments!!! I feel so special. I'm not sure exactly where one is supposed to answer comments, in the comments section or in a blog post, or if you're supposed to do so or not. But I do at least want everyone to know I have read them, and I will return the favor. Also, I would like to answer a few questions.

Firstly, the lovely marmie kit in my profile photo is not mine. I just liked the photo. I will put up a photo of one of my actual cats eventually, though.

Secondly, I had no idea the Uncategorizable Paradox already existed. I just thought it was more of my over-analyzing.

And lastly, pasting random phrases has actually happened to other people? Wow. I wonder if there's a compilation of them all somewhere. Maybe they're a programmer's joke or something.

Random Thoughts

Listening To: 99 Luftballons by Nena

Why do cameras start all their default file names with DSC?

I was in the pink on a storm a few days ago. By the way, pink is, on the weather channel intensity chart, even worse than dark red (very severe) is in the case of a thunderstorm. It can usually be found at the heart of the nastiest supercells. It doesn't occur often around where I am. In the midwest, the pink parts are usually the parts that spawn tornadoes, though it's too hilly for those where I am, thankfully. I can honestly say I've never been in the pink part of a storm before. It was impressive. I actually got pelted with dime-sized hail, the rain was coming down so hard I could barely see out the windshield, even with the wipers (I was in a car) and I saw like 8 huge bolts of cloud-to-ground lightning, pretty up close and personal.

The proper term for something that's misheard is a mondegreen. The Wikipedia article on this has a good amount of rather amusing examples. The worst one of mine is in Round and Round, by Ratt, in the line "Tighten our belts, abuse ourselves." The last bit sounds so much like "The pizza sells." That's what I thought it was for years and years.

When I was in the single digits, I had a very hard time telling the words union and onion apart. For years I thought the British flag's nickname was the Onion Jack.

Exit light, enter night...

I just thought of the dude who sat next to me and absolutely BLASTED Metallica on his big stereo headphones for all 12 hours of an international flight. The same CD, over and over and over. He must have left that plane deaf. It's a good thing I don't mind Metallica or I would have been so mad. How do you fight the dreaded Blaring Headphones, anyway? Just scream "TURN IT DOWN!!!" and then listen to the guy say "WHAT!?!" and go back to playing air guitar and occasionally humming snatches of what's playing, while everyone glares at you for screaming in flight, and you end up being the one that looks bad.

PS: In case you didn't know, the title is part of the chorus of Enter Sandman by Metallica, one of their biggest hits, and one of the songs I listened to more times than I rather care to remember on that flight.

Ienensrttig!

Did you konw it was siad ploepe cuold uluasly raed wdros wtih the idsnie lterets mexid up as lnog as the fisrt and lsat ltrtees seytad in the smae liactoon? Do you aerge?

... Next thing you know, my page was in Albanian!

From this helpful page, posted on July 2-

A bug that made it trivially easy to accidentally set your blog's language to Albanian has been fixed. If you notice that your blog's archives and other text appears to be in Albanian (and you don't want it to be), use Settings > Formatting to change your blog's language.

Why do I find this so hilarious? Is it just because it's so random among all this technical stuff? I know it probably wouldn't be funny if it happened to you, but it's just so funny seeing this totally incongruous glitch! I could so see this happening to me.

Random Word: Qat. Look it up. Not only is the definition interesting but you will find it quite useful for Scrabble.

Don't Even Ask.

This is just another example that anything can happen in my weird life.

This is a story so weird, you know I can't be making it up. Yesterday I went to paste something into an e-mail, and instead of what I intended to paste this came out:

"Return at once to the Mother Ship!"

I didn't even notice it until I was done with the e-mail. When I tried to paste again, curious about what had happened, it was gone. Hmm, it kind of makes me wonder about who's been using this computer. Maybe the aliens were among us and commandeered my computer.

Teapots To Teapots

(an experiment in degrees of separation)

Teapots are pretty.
...
My aunt liked them.
...
My aunt also liked marshmallows.
...
I saw how many marshmallows I could fit in my mouth once. I forget how many.
...
I also forget how many times I have ridden an airplane.
...
I've never ridden a helicopter. I'd like to.
...
You can see Niagara Falls from a helicopter, which I bet would be awesome.
...
My aunt lived in Niagara Falls for a while. The same one who liked teapots.

Random Link

The Web Neko Server!!!
This is a wonderful time-waster site which I shall put up for your enjoyment.

Skyline

(click for humongonormous size)

This is my favorite skyline. I know it's just a tad on the fuzzy side but it was taken from a window, so forgive me. I know it doesn't change a lot, like Shanghai, or have famous, iconic buildings, like New York, or host the tallest building in the world, like Chicago, but it's still nice. Who wouldn't like the skyline of home? (Okay, so it's not quite home, but it's close enough)

The Category Paradox

This is something I've wondered for a long time. Is there such a thing as being uncategorized? Defying categories? Is it impossible? Because, even if you defy all normal categories, you'll still be in a category- the uncategorized category, the category of those who defied the rest, but still ended up in a category. Can you ever be uncategorized? Is uncategorized a category? The word uncategorized is a paradox! Because, it means you can't be categorized so you go under the category of not being in any category which means this category is nonexistent, but it does exist, and so... and... GAAAAH!

I have to stop before my poor little brain implodes.

Summer Night

It's a nice night, one of those ones people in Florida would kill for now. Low humidity and a breeze. It makes you feel like you should go out on the porch (if only I had a porch), rock in the rocking chair (if only mosquitoes didn't exist), and talk with a close friend until one in the morning (if only I had someone around to talk to). As it is, I must settle for watching the fireflies blink lazily in the forest, catch whiffs of burnt trash smoke on the wind, and watch the neighbor's cat wade through the crabgrass, an almost rebellious hint of the wild in the suburban paradise, past the moss-stricken shed and the unpruned rosebushes running wild. The front window offers a slightly less appetizing view of my weeds, asphalt, and the person across the street's chemically Day-Glo green yard. Close your eyes and you'll hear the faint buzz of a million insects, almost timid venturing of the occasional chirp from one brave soul of a cricket, the endless zzzt-SNAP-zzzzt-SNAP-crackle-SNAP-POP-zzzt of the same bugs I mentioned before meeting their demise in the anything-remotely-like-an-insect-hating neighbor's humongous bright blue neon bug barbecue, and under it all the faint roar of traffic eternally passing through the somewhat-distant highway, like water through a river.

Should I laugh or cry at this...?

Random Photo

Listening To: 23 by Blonde Redhead

What poem is that that they put on the Blogger format preview pages...? You know, this? Am I just stupid not to know?


Cue the Random Photo!! This is a photo I took of a car sign in Lisboa. I love how it's so to the point. I don't think anyone could mistake its meaning, though I'm sure you get the occasional moron who thinks it means you MUST drive your car into the water or a severe penalty will be enforced!

Chris and the Amazing Technicolor Blog Page

For lack of better decorating you will need to bear with the current, rainbow, eye-smarting, in full and amazing Technicolor page coloration as of now. I basically just went wild with the color-changing feature until I got something that looked like its colors mostly matched, in an abstract sense, maybe, to someone colorblind. But it could have been worse, as I was toying with several, worse background ideas before settling on blue- a really neon yellow that will give you a headache if stared at for more than three consecutive seconds (hexadecimal #FFE303 if you really want to give yourself a headache in 3 seconds flat), a faintly nauseating shade of pale lavender, and Olive Green. So, consider yourself lucky I was swayed to the blue.

Random Thought: If you were brainwashed, would you remember it?

Random Link

I'm baaaack!

Randomness, you are not dead yet.

You may be resurrected... rebuilt better, faster, and with a way more creative title. I'm working on it! Reason I disappeared is that I was away from the blog for the longest time and when I decided to return, I had forgotten my password (the horror!) and was effectively locked out of Blogger. But, two days ago I had a stunning revelation... typed in the ol' password I was certain I had left it as but wasn't working, except this time minus one superfluous character and plus one capital letter... and was IN!!! Huzzah!

I'm working on a total revamp of the place as waaay back when I started this I really didn't know a bit about blogging. But now I do! And besides, everything had almost 3 inches of dust on it, and cobwebs everywhere, too. Achoo!

Poof! Continued

Sorry, ran out of room. Anyway... But it didn't. It did nothing else. After ensuring it wasn't smouldering or leaking, i stowed it safely in a bag and ordered a new one. This will be the 4th charger this laptop has had. I always seem to have bad luck with these. And until the new charger arrives, i'm computerless. Has anyone else heard of something like this happening?

Poof!

Ok. The much anticipated explanation to why i am posting from my phone is this- my laptop's battery is dead, and its charger died in a rather strange manner. When the computer warned me of its low battery, i naturally plugged it in. But when i did, nothing happened. It kept beeping, unaware of the plug. I unplugged and replugged it in on both ends to no avail. I then noticed that the green light on the charger box was off. This was showing all the symptoms of being broken. Little did i know, that charger had more in store for me. I shut down the computer and picked up the charger box; why i can't say. And when i picked it up it poofed. That's the only word to describe it. It got a little bit warm and the light blinked twice, and then with a loud poof this grey smokeish stuff came out of it. It made a cloud roughly the size of a soccer ball that had dissipated in 2 minutes. It had no odor and left no residue behind. I unplugged it fast and threw it down, afraid it would explode or burst into flames. Cont...

Apologies

I'm sorry i haven't been around. It's a bit ironic how my last post moaned about abandoned blogs when right after that i abandoned my own blog for a while. It's just that i've been really busy. I also apologize for the horrible capitalization in this post, which is due to the fact that i am typing this from my phone. I'll explain why later...

Record Store Cats & Abandoned Websites

You have to see this. Even if you don't really like cats it is funny!

I don't have much else to say today. I'm being lazy with posts.

Oh, and you know what else? I checked today- the person who took the domain name randomness.blogspot.com doesn't even post there anymore. It's a closed blog. I think Blogger should clean up blogs that haven't been used in years, like that one. If they did I wouldn't have had to tack that dumb bycc to the end of my name.