Well, I've got about five pounds of links to post. Yeah, I'm sorry... I've had a month worth of craziness. Tests, then camp, then midterms, then more midterms and projects, and finally when it was supposed to settle down last week? Grandpa had a heart attack Monday. They had to induce a coma by lowering his body temp to minimize brain damage. So we were stressed out all week not knowing how he was doing, how much damage there was... Either brain-wise or system-wise since his muscles are already so weak from his broken back (years ago). Well, he's alert and doing better now, although he seems a bit disoriented sometimes. We're hoping it's just from being in the ICU all week, half under coma, sleeping on-and-off all day long, but who knows, there could be some brain damage. =/ Even more than that, we have to hope some physical therapy can bring back what little strength he had before in his arms and hands, which was practically nothing. He has his sense of humor, though, which is a good sign, but it's a little sad because Grandma, of course, never listens well enough to realize he's joking, and sometimes he's just confused, and it sounds funny to mom and dad and grandma, and it just seems so depressing to me. I don't know... The whole situation is depressing. Even though, at the moment, I'm just damn glad he's still with us.
Anyway, so nothing like that to say WELCOME TO SPRING BREAK, huh? Yeah, plus camp this weekend and I-don't-have-a-fucking-clue with steel and the test coming up and just fffffuuuuuucccckkk. Anyway. Damn.
A real-life American example of what happens when you cut all your taxes. THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER. Why? Because I've read a lot of articles about
batshit insane tea-partiers and Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck in the past few weeks. And here is A CITABLE, SOLID EXAMPLE of why these anti-taxers can go fuck themselves. You know, after all that logical argument about roads and signs and parks and water and electricity and government and, you know, all that stuff you come across on a minute-by-minute basis.
GOLD.
I'm also watching Jon Stewart, at the moment, rip Glenn Beck a new one. So you may have heard, Fox came out with a panicked article last week saying DON'T SEND YOUR KIDS TO COLLEGE IT TURNS THEM INTO LIBRULS! And Beck and all those crazies have jumped on the Sarah-Palin-crazy-conservative-anti-intellectual bandwagon, and, no surprise to anyone here, Beck does not have a degree. Anyway, so Beck gave this speech apparently and said "you know where I learned all that [history]? the public library" and JUST OH MY GOD. ARE PEOPLE REALLY THIS DENSE APPARENTLY WHAT THE FUCK.
I really dislike arguing politics but I wouldn't even consider this politics. This is just
straight up idiocy. And like other sentiments I've seen echoed, I hope this crazy scheme actually works. I hope they convince all the crazy people to vote for them to get Sarah Palin as Republican candidate for the presidency and everyone suddenly just goes WOAH. WOAHWOAHWOAHWOAHWOAH, WHAT THE FUCK. And then people
start thinking. Because that is what is important.
Also, depressing, some kid on FML whose parents saw that Fox story and decided not to pay for his/her college. Poor kid, jesus shit. =/
Hand-carved wooden skateboards! I particularly like the stingray, though I feel like this is a skateboard you must be very, very careful with. However I would totally buy one if I owned a surf bar or something, hang that shit from the ceiling!
NOOOOOOOOOO first confirmed cases of White Nose Syndrome in Tennessee bats. :C I hope they figure this shit out, and fast, all the poor batties!
I love Beatonna, and this is completely true.
Blackbeard in Pirates 4! I can't wait for this shit, NO LIE. Everyone's freaking out because OMG WHY MORE JACK SPARROW WRRYYYYY and really? The answer is simple. Because he's a great character. And they somehow managed to rip a lot of the fun and adventure (
and treasure) out of the first one and leave it in the dirt somewhere. And that's why I liked Pirates in the first place, dammit.
Not to mention I can't wait to see all the North Carolinians get their panties in a twist about something. Or even better, they won't, and it will be awesome, because North Carolina is pretty sweet, despite the fact that want to think they own the Wright Brothers. STEP OFF BITCHES, DAYTON FOREVER.
=)
Tree Lobsters is amazing. I love their comic about the Mayan calendar, I want to reference it every time that gets brought up somewhere. (Almost lectured a bunch of my civil classmates about it, but I don't feel like coming off as bitchy to people I never really talk to because I'm way too damn introverted.)
And despite all the craziness and ugliness in the world,
things like this happen, and people are pretty okay.
This is very true.
Learn to be lucky. I had a comment but I forgoted it.
Holy crap!
Coconut water is a substitute for human plasma, that is, it can be used for intravenous hydration in emergency situations. SCIENCE IS CRAZY. BIOLOGY IS CRAZY. Also I think this could be a good survival skill.
This is so sad, and I think it is a good example of what's so wrong with our government right now. =(
Some part of me has always wanted a chameleon, but
I would take this instead of a real one. (I know real chameleons require lots of work and like most amphibians and lizards can spread disease really easily. This little dude is just awesome.)
Chuck Lorre rips Glenn Beck a new one, and that atheist is an asshole, just saying. I know a cultural figure of speech when I see one, shit son.
I find this sort of thing very interesting and very encouraging. Why, you may ask? Well, because everyone I know wants to get the fuck out of Dayton, and I've never really understood it. I mean, yes, we are supposedly the fifth most dying city in the U.S., but we're not in the top 20 saddest and I don't think it's horrible. Maybe needs a little bit more diversity or things of interest, but it's kind of my new little dream (and I do mean new, this is an end-of-2009 maybe even just beginning-of-2010 thing) to give Dayton its own big to-do. Ideally it would be some sort of Disney World-esque thing but I don't think that's feasible with Dayton winters. So either a huge cooperative hackerspace-type thing, maybe a sort of open-source college? Which would be awesome, or something just straight up weird, like House on the Rock. Anyway. Dayton is home for me, and yes, even though I want to get out and see the world, I think it will always be what I consider Home home.
Also, I want to go to Cairo just for the sake of American Gods, heh. That book is so good.
This was a big deal last week or the week before, but you know what? Nothing new around here, our lovely local parking nazis (the school, not the local polics, mind you-- campus parking services) have ticketed their own vehicles in our use before. Hooookaaaaay.
Harrison Ford as James Bond:
Yeh, idk, I think Bond is a bit too smarmy-put-together for Ford to play him, maybe not smarmy, but, you know, smart-looking. As in, always in a suit, very British. Ford's more down-to-earth-American-cowboy, if you will.
...Not to mention there's the whole sort of inside joke where Bond is Indiana Jones' father, WHAT KIND OF TEMPORAL RECURSION WOULD WE GET OURSELVES INTO WITH THIS MESS?! The world would go
mad, MAD I TELL YOU
In terms of thematic ipod cases,
this page has a nice steampunkish one at the top, as well as, if you scroll down, a lovely aluminum one that I would have to use any time I felt like I needed to be onboard an Empire starship or the Enterprise. Fabulous, no? Quite.
An A-to-Z guide for recycling, though it's actually an article so not really searchable--not to mention, I'm sure it's missing lots of odd things as a result.
Alright. So I have always thought that Shakespeare is rather a king of insults, along with Mark Twain. As such I have decided I need to expand my vocabulary of demeaning words, as I am trying to stop using words such as "gay" and "retarded" as well. Needless to say, I will not stop cursing like a sailor and plan to keep on using "fuck" and "shit" as much as I damn well please. =) And I am a big fan of "pretentious ass". At any rate, I need to expand my vocabulary in order to be anywhere near as damning as The Shakesmeister or The Twainz. Today's vocabulary word: "pillock". Good old-timey sound, yes? Excellent.
Interestingly, another take on slurs and curses that I've thought about I took environmental philosophy wherein my professor pointed out that a majority demeaning terms today are feminine in nature
(bitch, slut, whore, cock-sucker, pussy, vag, etc.), so I try to take that into account. However, people use "dick" to mean, basically, the same thing as "asshole", which is gender-neutral, not to mention that for the longest time I didn't know what "douchebag" meant, so, in my brain, "douche" and "douchebag" are both masculine insults on par with "dick". That is, "stop being an ass". However, as much fun the imagery of "ass-hat" is, it is just not fun to say, at all. And most of the fun of cursing is in the saying, I will not lie. Since most of the time I don't mean it sincerely anyhow...
Oddly, my main complaint is not that they confuse cricket with baseball, but rather that they butcher the joke by using "who" once where "whom" should go.
Also I may mention that I slaughtered Uncle Steve the other night in grammatic structure and it was
awesome. If there is one thing I am good at in this family, it is, surprisingly, that I could diagram any sentence to you whatsoever,
and you will like it, dammit!
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeexcellent.
Well, I'll cut myself off for now, that's a good chunk of links. Not to mention I've probably managed to insult everyone at least once with all the crap I've had sitting around for weeks waiting to get posted, heh.