Someday we’ll look back on this moment and plow into a parked car.
— Evan Davis
Monthly Archives: September 2006
Open thread
This picture is hysterical for so many reasons. First, you don’t even see the whole cat on first glance. Second, his face is saying one of two things: (a) Oh shit, I got caught! or (b) Um, I need some help RIGHT NOW! You decide.
You’ll feel dirty after reading this, and I don’t mean dirty in a good way. I mean unclean like you should go bathe in bleach and give yourself a crushing head injury to get the visual out of your mind. If you’re at all familiar with the children’s television program called Saved by the Bell, you’ll undoubtedly remember the character Screech (played by Dustin Diamond). Well, he apparently has his own skin flick where he does a three-way with two women and does things like the “Dirty Sanchez” (if you have to ask what that is, you probably don’t want to know, but you can always go here for the nasty details). Go ahead and toss your cookies at the thought of Screech in a porn flic and of anyone performing a Dirty Sanchez. I did.
Mug shot indeed. Does it get any cuter?
The private space race keeps heating up. Now there’s a new space travel firm by the name of Benson Space Company. It’s the latest business jumping into what I hope to be a booming new market.
And in the same breath, Virgin has just unveiled its plans for SpaceShipTwo, including “cushioned reclining seats and lots of windows during suborbital flights.” You can see some of the concept photos in the article. Very cool!
The Ultimate Blog Post at Wired. It’s hysterical. About the author: “Born helpless, nude and unable to provide for himself, Lore Sjöberg eventually overcame these handicaps to become a handyman, a handicapper and a handmaiden.” Need I say more? Good stuff.
The lights went out in Iceland last night for a very good reason. “Authorities in the capital Reykjavik [turned] off street lights on Thursday evening and people [were] also … encouraged to sit in their houses in the dark, writer Andri Snaer Magnason said on Wednesday. While the lights [were] out, an astronomer [described] the night sky over national radio.” Why don’t we do something like that? America’s citizens are so out of touch with nature that such an endeavor would be a fantastic if only small way of trying to remedy that.
Check out this photo of twin lakes discovered on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. Dubbed “Kissing Lakes” because they are joined together by a small channel, it’s likely the two features contain a mixture of ethane and methane (since it’s too cold on Titan for them to be filled with liquid water). Contents aside, this is a dramatic representation of how non-unique Earth actually is. I think we’re getting closer and closer to discovering some kind of life on another planet, and even more exciting is the probability that we will discover it right here in our own solar system. In addition to the Kissing Lakes, 10 additional lakes have been discovered near Titan’s north pole.
Be sure to visit Friday Ark #106 throughout the weekend for a plethora of links to animal photos.
You’re not who you appear to be
I stepped outside yesterday and saw our resident lady cat Larenti grabbing a bite to eat. Unlike so many times before, however, she ran a short distance away when I stepped through the door. I must have scared her.
So I stood where I was and watched her return to the meal. Slowly and suspiciously, she started eating again, yet she kept her eyes on me the whole time. If I moved, she jumped back to a safe distance. If I stood too close, she wouldn’t eat. This was all very unusual.
And then it occurred to me. This was not the same cat. Sure, this one looked a lot like the female cat I’ve been feeding and befriending, but this one was different. First, the tabby stripes were slightly more pronounced and the general color of its fur seemed more brown to her grey. Second, unless she began magically regenerating body parts, her normally clipped ear was now fully intact.
I’ve always been aware of the large number of cats living in this area. I’ve equally been aware of the diversity in the population. What I hadn’t been aware of until yesterday was that I may have been seeing two cats who are almost identical while assuming they were the same cat I’ve been feeding. The new visitor is skittish and not nearly as trusting as her highness, and, as I said, its coat is slightly different from hers. Nevertheless, in quick glances and passing views, it’s likely I’ve confused one for the other on more than one occasion.
Suffice it to say I gave the feline plenty of room to eat and talked quietly to it while it did so. After a healthy meal, it went on about its business. I’ll keep an eye out for this new neighbor and will try to grab a photo or two in addition to identifying its sex (if it wouldn’t mind lifting its lush tail long enough to make that possible).
The nerd? geek? dork? test
Another week has come and gone and we find ourselves facing yet another internet quiz. I’m quite certain these percentages are too low…
Modern, Cool Nerd 69 % Nerd, 52% Geek, 8% Dork
For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.You scored better than half in Nerd and Geek, earning you the title of: Modern, Cool Nerd.
Nerds didn’t use to be cool, but in the 90’s that all changed. It used to be that, if you were a computer expert, you had to wear plaid or a pocket protector or suspenders or something that announced to the world that you couldn’t quite fit in. Not anymore. Now, the intelligent and geeky have eked out for themselves a modicum of respect at the very least, and “geek is chic.” The Modern, Cool Nerd is intelligent, knowledgable and always the person to call in a crisis (needing computer advice/an arcane bit of trivia knowledge). They are the one you want as your lifeline in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (or the one up there, winning the million bucks)!
Congratulations!
Isn’t it amazin’
I’ve been blogging since February 2003. There are thousands of posts here (I don’t know the exact number and don’t care to look it up). Know what?
In that time, excluding open threads (and their predecessors, sundries) and random thoughts, I’ve never used the same title twice. NEVAH!
What does that mean? Do I have a very good memory? Am I even more anal than I’ve admitted? Does the wellspring of my creativity eviscerate all chances of such a thing? Am I just lucky in that regard despite having no luck elsewhere? Is it something else?