“Getcha Popcorn Ready”
The NY Times had a pretty fascinating article yesterday on professional athletes who trademark their own names, nicknames and catchphrases:
[Darelle] Revis cited Owens and Ochocinco as players who have successfully marketed themselves, even if, in the case of Ochocinco, Revis said, “I wouldn’t do some of the things he does.”
Owens wrote a children’s book, had a breakfast cereal named for him, made guest appearances on several television shows and commercials, and in 2009 starred in a VH1 reality show, “The T. O. Show.” In addition to registering “I Love Me Some Me,” he has also sought protection for “Getcha Popcorn Ready” and a logo featuring his initials, T. O.
Did you know that Pat Riley owns the rights to “three-peat?”
ClickToFlash
I don’t know if Adobe Flash on a PC is as much of a CPU drain as it is on a Mac, or even if there is an equivalent plug-in for a PC, but last night I installed ClickToFlash, and our laptop is running quick, fast, and quiet. It’s amazing how one piece of software can be so poorly written, and so ubiquitous, as to make every action on a computer feel equivalent to swimming in quicksand.
When you install the plug-in, flash video looks like this:
Simply click the image, though, and play the video you want. No annoying Flash video ads taking over an entire web page you are trying to read, ever.
And I just don’t have the desire to knit
Henrietta and Merna Spread Christmas Cheer
The Immutable Facts of Life
Susan Orlean put together a brief, but rather beautiful post on her New Yorker blog about the limits of technological progress and coping with the harsh realities of our humanness–namely the deterioration of our bodies and minds. She uses her mother, who’s slowly been drifting into dementia, as an example:
Sometimes I’m dazzled by how modern and fabulous we are, and how easy everything can be for us; that’s the gilded glow of technology, and I marvel at it all the time. And then my mom will call, and in the course of the conversation she’ll say something disjointed that disturbs me and reminds me of her frailty, and then she’ll mention that it’s snowing hard in Ohio and I’ll wonder how she’s going to get to the grocery store, and I look at my gadgets and gizmos, and I realize none of them will help me. If anything, they’ve filled me with the unreal idea that everything is possible; that virtual is actual; that you can delete things you don’t like; that you can find and have whatever it is you want whenever you want it; but instead I’m learning that the truest, immutable facts of life are a lot harder and slower and sometimes sadder, and always mystifying.
The more of life I experience the more I’m convinced that more so than death, war or utter annihilation, my greatest fear is that those I love will one day lose the ability to remember me or recognize my face. I don’t think an iPad can change that.
Story Lines
I sprained my ankle fucking.
When I fish I don’t want some asshole telling me about his phone.
I went to post her bail and then had to call her grandma to come for all our bails.
If you find a bottle of scotch about yea big it’s mine.
People get moving fast away from something, it’s time to go.
She cooked but didn’t like us.
I bought a coat that had several .45 caliber holes in it, and I was mostly warm that winter in El Paso.
air sacks
Time for a slurp
of Duck Soup, you think?
Sinterklass is Coming to Town
Sinterklaas met hijskraan / Saint Nicholas being lifted 1962
the most heinous of Wikileaks cables
I hate talking about Wikileaks. I think the hype about how it changes the governmental game is ridiculous, but now I finally see the value.
Christian Dating Tips, Outtakes
Vail Pass Wildlife Crossing
Five proposed wildlife overpasses for I-70 in Vail Colorado.
from the comments
I’m trying to think of how I would explain to my wife why I need to buy an ebook about Christian Dating Tips.
from the comments
You guys are so lucky I saved some of the comments on the video before he disabled them. My favs:
EwokTheMoid: “Hi. That top makes you look like you’re trying to use your sinful woman’s nature to distract me from my Christ-centered purity. Don’t get me wrong; that top is cute. But tell the truth. Are you trying to use your sinful woman’s nature to distract me from my Christ-centered purity?”
Exallium: “DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO — Yesterday, I saw this and felt INSPIRED. So, I did what he said, I went to a church, and found a girl, and approached her. I said “Hey, those boots… are you in a gang or something? Don’t get me wrong, they’re adoreable… but honestly, what gives?” The guy behind me punched me in the back of the head, and his 3 buddies all ganged up on me. Now I’m in a hospital, bandaged, bruised, and still an atheist. THATS THE LAST TIME I INTERRUPT A WEDDING FOR THIS SHIT”
Treycarnes: [excerpt] “I tried to talk to her about dove tails but she didnt know what they were.”
waxed, nailed, and stacked
Yesterday I put books on the shelves.
Also, I found this note (I assume Amy’s):
List of Pleasurable Squeaks
Basketball players’ shoes on the court
Fingers moving up and down strings of an acoustic guitar
from the spam
Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
Amazon gives Nielsen BookScan to authors
Even the publishers don’t have this information:
Authors with books for sale on Amazon who have signed up to use Author Central, the site’s free author portal, will be able to see the book-sales information starting Thursday morning.
The data, provided by Nielsen BookScan, include nationwide sales information from Barnes & Noble, Target and other big-box brick-and-mortar retailers, from Amazon.com and from some independent booksellers. Nielsen estimates that BookScan captures 75% of print book sales in the U.S. retail market.
BookScan’s sales tallies do not currently include sales of e-books, for the Kindle or other devices.
(via)
headline of the day, III
SeaWorld — We DON’T Use Cow Vaginas!
@cybersanta
My friend Aaron wrote a Twitter bot that searches for tweets of the form “I want a ______”, rephrases them as a message from Santa, and sends them back to their author.
It’s amazing to read what people tweet about wanting.
headline of the day, II
The Baby May Be Giving You Mommy Thumb
headline of the day
World’s Most Popular Car Color: Silver under threat from Black
from the spam
What can I say about Dabangg. Total Paisa Vasool. Non stop action. Pure Bollywood. Masala, Masala and more Masala. A damn cool mustache sporting, chashme wearing Salman.
from the comments
Several years ago, at this time of year, a young man who worked for me was diagnosed with melanoma of the central nervous system–as rare and deadly as it sounds. He was 26 years old. He handled his illness and certain death with more grace than one would think possible. He and his fiancee had been planning a wedding for the following summer, but because they knew he would not live that long, they decided to have a small wedding around the holidays. It was lovely, and he was beaming, so happy he was to be marrying the woman he loved.
We decided to host a wake for him while he was still alive. He was that kind of guy. So the entire staff came to my house, ate a great meal, and got very drunk together. He wore a do-rag to cover his scarred and bald head. It was a wonderful party, a wonderful celebration of his life. We all laughed to the point of near hysteria.
We were fortunate to be able to pay him for a number of months beyond the point at which he could no longer work. He died the day his work benefits ended, two months longer than his doctors expected him to live. He wanted his wife to have the money for her future.
Christian pick up lines
Make it stop.
Brooke Fraser, Something in the Water
I can’t explain, this made me inexplicably happy tonight.
