Month: August 2003

Bone up on your 19th century slang with the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, you mar-all coxcomb.

Hi all, been a long time since I’ve posted here, and I wish I had something more positive to say. But I just feel the need to point out that, while us humans think we’re pretty smart because we can invent digital watches and whatnot, our general stupidity far surpasses that of any other animal. I saw proof of this fact while commuting to work this morning.

The scene: a D.C. area Metro train in an underground station loading/unloading passengers. Man carrying 1 y.o. boy on shoulders boards train. A dull *thunk* is clearly heard throughout the train car. Child is horizontal, still on dad’s shoulders. A sudden gasp from other passengers. Child begins to cry loudly. Man suddenly realizes train doors not designed to accomodate piggy-back riders, takes interest in child.

Now, I realize that this man did not mean to harm his child, and I hope he will not make this mistake again. But honestly, have you ever seen a dog, cat, lemur, bird, or any other animal forget to protect its offspring? Somewhere in the evolutionary process, something went terribly wrong. Luckily, children are highly resilient (nature’s compensation for parents’ shortcomings?) and after a couple minutes the kid seemed fine. I imagine dad suffered more from the disapproving looks of fellow passengers. Something tells me he’ll forget to mention the incident to his wife.

The BBC reports that “an international team of model aeroplane enthusiasts say they have managed the first successful flight by a lightweight remote-controlled plane across the Atlantic,” flying a “balsa wood and mylar plane … 3,039 kilometres (1,888 miles) using satellite navigation and an autopilot system overseen by engineers and radio operators using laptop computers.” The aircraft, known as The Spirit of Butts Farm after its testing site, was in the air for 38 hours, taking off from Canada and landing in Ireland. Congratulations are in order for this very cool achievement!

SFGate.com reports on the research of James Kellaris of the University of Cincinnati, who has found that “some 98 percent of listeners were at one time or another bothered by a tune that wouldn’t leave their heads.” He has dubbed this phenomenon an “earworm,” from the German ohrwurm to “convey the parasitic nature of the travel of songs into their listeners’ ears, only to then get lodged and played on mental continuum.” I can definitely attest to this affliction, since as recently as yesterday I was ranting about how the commercialized version of Journey’s “Any Way You Want It” has mind-numbingly ingrained itself into my psyche, to the point of making one of my favorite Journey tunes unbearable.

The article goes on to point out some “common offenders;” if you’re susceptible to this kind of thing you may want to skip this list: 😉

the Kit-Kat jingle (“Gimme a break”)

“Who Let the Dogs Out”

Queen’s “We Will Rock You”

the Theme To “Mission: Impossible”

“YMCA”

“Whoomp, There It Is”

“The Lion Sleeps Tonight”

“It’s a Small World After All”

As I mentioned, I know that I’m very susceptible to this kind of thing; right now, I’m replaying Coldplay’s “Clocks” in my head after hearing it on the way to work. At least it’s not as annoying as, say, Paul Lekakis’ “Boom Boom Let’s Go Back To My Room” (just for you, Ulana :-P) or some of the many suggestions in the Metafilter thread…

The Council of Elrond reports on a last-minute candidate for California governor – Gollum, AKA Smeagol has decided to throw his hat into the ring, joining the several hundred candidates already in the fray. Running for the “Precious Party,” his platform is still a bit of an unknown, although he has made his feelings clear on environmentalism (“When the yellow face goes down…nasssty lights stay off”) and education (“Teach them about fisssshesss…”). His financial backing comes from a somewhat unlikely source, George Lucas, so he definitely has deep pockets in this campaign. However, whether he can transform his popularity on the silver screen into a legitimate shot at the election remains to be seen…

One of my favorite Journey songs used to be “Any Way You Want It,” but it has unfortunately been ruined for me by the evil folks at Ford Motor Company, who find it necessary to inundate the airwaves with their commercials featuring the song. I swear that I’ve seen the commercial dozens of times over the last week, to the point where I can’t listen to it any more at all. How sad. 🙁 It’s definitely not the first song to be ruined for me by a commercial, but I really think it’s the worst case of oversaturation I can think of in recent memory. Oh, and that damn Madonna/Missy Elliott Gap commercial is really grating on me too…

Some recent visitors to my ‘80 site have pointed out that many of my links are outdated or broken, and damned if they aren’t right. I never have enough time to work on all of the different projects I’d like to, and one of the things that has fallen by the wayside is routine maintenance of the pages on the site. Well, I’ve started to make it right, and although it may take me a little time to get through them all, I’ll get to them all soon.

I’ve started with my ’80s music links page, which should now contain all working links, as well as some new links I’ve been hoarding for some time. Also, now that I’m developing my photographic and digital manipulation skillz, seeing how crappy some of the images on my pages really bothers me, so I’ve also added some new and better optimized graphics to the page. I need to add that to the list of things to do as well, but I’m slowly working my way through. Thanks for your patience in the meantime…

Oh my God, are these hilarious! Check out Nerve.com’s Pickup Line Contest winners; I think the second one made me disturb my co-workers, I laughed so loud… 🙂 (probably NSFW, but only because of some of the language)

Movie fans (and critics) seem to think so, as Gigli has been rated the worst movie ever by IMDB voters. I think I’d like to see it, though, if only to make a drinking game out of it, and, of course, to hear J. Lo utter the line “It’s turkey time. Gobble, gobble!” as she lies on the bed, legs spread, in attempt to seduce Ben Affleck. I wish I was kidding about that, but apparently, it’s true.

Check out Transportation Around the World: 1911-1993, which includes photographic galleries of air, land, and water transportation that are searchable by place, mode of transport, and more.