Geek Alphabet T
Threadless put out a fantastic little homage to nerd-dom with a t-shirt featuring some of my favorite film characters. Can you name them all?
(via)
dear clusterflock (from the spam)
Denny Glenn asks:
How’s the world using you?
garabaggio accumulazione & The Decline
Hefner – I Love Only You
[http://www.clusterflock.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/11-I-Love-Only-You.mp3]
It’s one of those albums you find in a bargain bin for two dollars at the record store and find yourself listening to it nine years later.
Internet dating, 1
37-year-old male contacts 26-year-old female in same city, on the day she signed up for a dating site:
Your profile’s really cute and I think you’re yummy. :)
What’s it going to take to persuade you to meet up for drinks or a picnic?
Better yet, will you be my muse? I’d seriously love to draw or paint you.
The Book of Enoch, a translation, Chapters 3 – 5
Okay, let’s break this down a little. There’s cryptic stuff about winter and summer, evergreens, the number 14. It’s possible these have local significance, or refer to stellar structures — constellations — that represent the times of year. I’ll chunk in a little bit about sin and redemption, lay the groundwork for future generations, the stories of the stars that became our gods, the world’s longest game of telephone. Y’all come back, you hear?
The Second Coming
National Geographic wasn’t able to make them live together, but they have a new documentary about three dudes who think they are Jesus.
Meet three men who believe the Second Coming has already occurred and that they walk the Earth as the Messiah. Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, the founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in the Philippines, claims to have built a worldwide following of six million. Sergei Torop, a former Russian traffic policeman, is believed by thousands to be the literal reincarnation of Jesus of Nazareth. Then, David Shayler, a former British MI5 agent and whistle-blower, claims to be the Jesus soul incarnated as man.
dear clusterflock
Favorite euphemism.
in case you didn’t know what to play on the blasted thing
thanks, Michael.
Gypsies (Tramps and Thieves)
My mother had a thing about gypsies. And when she spoke of them, she could put a sharp bite on the gyp-, on that first syllable, that left no doubt that it was not a good thing.
She spoke of gypsies more frequently than you might expect from a Connecticut transplant to Texas. To my father’s question, “Can we turn on some lights in here? The place looks like a goddamned funeral parlor,” she habitually retorted, “Do you want everyone passing by to think gypsies live here?”
they’ll really be in trouble when the bees finally come
For those who want to read clusterflock in the spirit of the world cup.
Where do I sign up?
My friend, doing her best to sincerely work it online, was assaulted with this profile of a possible “match” on a popular dating website. I think her exact words were “OMG, think I’m in LOVE!” I told her to try chatroulette instead- all the charm, and with video.
I am an outgoing, friendly, caring guy. My friends say I am funny and what not. I enjoy riding my bike, tubing down the Poudre, smoking that dank, and longboarding. My favorite music artists are, Tech N9ne, Wiz Khalifa, Lil Wayne, Cordazar Broadus, and O’Shea Jackson, oh, and can’t forget that Owl City. Movies wise, I enjoy comedy more than any other genre. Caddyshack, Porky’s, Soul Plane, Sex Drive, Step Brothers, and The Hangover. I don’t watch much TV but when I do I like to watch Ren and Stimpy. I am looking for women that enjoy somewhat the same activities as I do. I do not like women who are stuck up and won’t put out. Other than that, bring on the Poon
-Ronya
Green Forms
These were growing all over the place on the clusterflockstock2 mountain. I originally identified them as skunk cabbage, but found this gymnastic bit of taxonomy at swcoloradowildflowers.com:
There are often arguments over Veratrum tenuipetalum’s common name: Some people call it “Skunk Cabbage”. But it is not related to the Skunk Cabbage of the East. It is even more often called “False Hellebore” because it resembles European Hellebores. But it is not a Hellebore. It is commonly called “Corn Lily” because it is hard to look at without thinking “Corn”. But it is not related to Corn, and some botanists do not even classify it as a Lily. Common names often produce problems.
Whatever it is, I love the unfolding process.
photo out of context
(via marginal revolution)
a catalogue of fear, 7
Every moment something goes what can I do to fix it?
Dear clusterflock
What’s your relationship to your [emotional/physical/telekinetic/etc] needs?
how to survive the cold
When subjected to literally freezing temperatures, the embryos of yeast and garden worms do not live, researchers found. A full 99 percent of those in the experiment died after 24 hours of exposure to temperatures just above freezing.
But, when first deprived of oxygen, 66 percent of the yeast and 97 percent of the garden worms survived. Upon re-warming and reintroduction of oxygen, the “two widely divergent organisms” reanimated and showed normal life spans, said scientists in a statement.
Quote out of context
“What motivated him to throw a puppy at the Hell’s Angels is currently unclear,” said a spokesman for local police, adding that the student had lately been suffering from depression.
FFDC
Those who have spent time in our nation’s capitol [sic] will be familiar with the odd phenomenon of FFDC: Famous for DC. This is a backhanded compliment that becomes increasingly meaningless in direct proportion to one’s physical distance from the Capitol Beltway. As the cynical, venal vultures at Bravo have elected to do some sort of “Real Housewives of DC” thing, herewith my recommendations for the cast, most of whom should be considered FFDCs:
quote out of context
Making predictions about the floating and swimming abilities of giraffes is fun, but does it have any wider implications?
gladiator graveyard
Dozens of headless skeletons excavated from a northern English building site appear to be the remains of Roman gladiators, one of whom had bites from a lion, tiger, bear or other large animal, archaeologists said.
Oh my.
Six-word memoirs
You’ve likely heard of the six-word memoir or six-word story as putatively made famous by Ernest Hemingway:
For sale: baby shoes, never used.
What’s yours?
Oh, okay, I see the difference
Elvis’s inconvenient truth
Listening to “Aloha from Hawaii” this morning I noticed the following amendment to the lyrics of “Suspicious Minds”:
I’ve never lied to you
No, not much…
Heh.
from the comments
I value critics, but a critic must obey certain rules for me to engage fully with the intended work. A critic mustn’t waste my time. As a critic myself, that has been one of my hardest lessons to learn. Also, I never assume that the way I feel about a work is correct. I may not know enough about the world in general to properly perceive a work on all the levels it deserves.
When I write a Criterion DVD review, I often find the essay to be one of the most moving portions of their release, and one of the very finest reasons for purchasing one of their DVDs. When the essays are good, well-written by people who understand and adore the film and the history behind it, it takes what seems to be a slightly boring three hour dubbed-Italian epic and transforms it in my mind. I suddenly see how it was made, the troubles it faced, the history behind the events, nuances of the film I hadn’t noticed. And I love it that much more for the understanding I now have.
