Silly Site o' the Day

For my Steinman-loving husband, and via Bora Zivkovic, the latest riff on the Dustin McLean literal video idea:



Apparently this DAScottJr person who posted this literal video also collects 'em.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via BoingBoing, a sentiment with which I can identify, even though I'm probably early more often than not:



I love that the character literally jumps a shark. Here's the equally fascinating Sorry I'm Late site.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via the Rachel Maddow Show, it's "Auto-Tune the News" #4:



Wow, at last something Gingrich is good at!

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

Now that my ironing is done (only six tops from the just-done laundry to take care of this coming weekend), Amy misses the ironing board being put away. Now that my jewelry is also organized and I found some Mardi Gras-type beads left over, I decided to give them to her as a treat and snap one last shot of her riding the board, as it were:



As you can see, she looks thrilled. Meanwhile, back in Robin's studio, Datsa's now found another spot to usurp from Amy:



As of this morning, another bit of "organizing" is now finished, as my state quarters map is finally filled in after 8+ long years. I'll always treasure this piece of pseudo-kitschiness, because many of the quarters were fastened in there by my Dad, who had a knack for pushing them in the slots that nobody, not even the otherwise-strong Robin, has quite been able to match. So every time I look at the map I think of Dad. And apparently Datsa thinks of another place on which to rub his head.



Naturally, Amy came 'round to see what the fuss was about:



And now, to work!

Silly Site o' the Day

A fun post on making paraeidolia work for you, by the Consumerist (via Adam at Serious Eats). What a friend we have in Cheetos! Update: Oh, for goodness sake - Jesus in Marmite.

Silly Site o' the Day

Next time you go to a networking event, why not consider giving out tasty business cards made of beef jerky (via BoingBoing)? If I were to get a bunch of these and give them out to y'all, then you'd find that, to quote Robin's favorite mondegreen, "Every time you go away / You take a piece of meat with you."

Silly Site o' the Day

For Peter and Kath on their 8th wedding anniversary, we present Generator Land's Greek God Generator, because hey, they're certainly two of my personal heroes. Hit the "God Me" button a few times and see what you get. Let's see, for Kath, how about Eosphorichore, Goddess of Staplers and Pet Dander? And for Peter: Heketer, God of Uncontrolled Intersections and Applause.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Robin, now you too can give people the Sonic Finger! My favorite is probably the first one, offering "the highest quality pure digital silence available."

Memorial Day Blogaround

As I was leaving work on Friday, a fellow building tenant mentioned he would be working over the holiday. Memorial Day, he said, meant nothing to him. "What's it supposed to memorialize? What are we celebrating?" he asked. Not having the complete history of the holiday in front of me, I mumbled something about how it's to honor those who've died in war, and that for me it's a day of remembrance decrying the concept of war in general. "Have you ever known anyone personally who's died in a war?" he kindly retorted. And I thought about it. And I realized that, aside from losing a great many relatives to the Holocaust -- which was always in the abstract as it happened long before I was born so I never met any of those folks except in photo albums -- and my Dad dodging Allied bullets and hiding in Romanian bunkers and my ex-husband often putting himself in harm's way during his Navy tours, I don't know that war losses have ever touched my family personally. And maybe my relative privilege is part of the problem. Maybe war is still too much of an abstract for most of the people who might be able to do something about ending it.

Well. I'm finally caught up with blog-reading, so here's a long-overdue blogaround for you:

• There's been a flurry of construction activity on Broadway lately, as I've noticed during my daily morning stroll from the Columbus Circle subway station to the office. It started with repaving both Broadway and 7th Avenue, then digging up Broadway to put in bike lanes and what look like spaces for planters -- and now up-for-borderline-illegal-re-election Mayor Bloomberg has suddenly announced that the Herald Square (33-35th Streets) and Times Square (42-47th Streets) sections will become pedestrian-only for the rest of the year as an experiment. The southbound version of my express bus (which I usually don't take) will change routes, as apparently will the buses I take to get to Midtown Comics after work, but amazingly there's nothing about this on the MTA's website. New York, where the locals are always the last to know!

• Apparently the big foiled-Riverdale-synagogue bombing plot was manufactured pretty much wholesale (thanks, Liz) by the Bush-era FBI. Way to give my neighborhood a scare, dipsh*ts. Some of us are still oversensitive to terror tactics, even as I agree with Amanda that "the War on Terra doesn’t have the power to frighten nearly as much as the possibility that you’re going to work tomorrow to find that your job won’t be waiting for you." I'm sorry, can someone tell me again why we should assume government police and spy agencies ever tell us the truth?

• I can't keep up with all the technology. Not only is most Cool New Stuff out of my price range as long as Robin's between assignments, but I can't see where I'd find the time. Every now and then I flirt with the idea of a Kindle or smartphone to take with me on my daily commute, but that's my down-time and I'm pretty content right now with just my iPod. And my company's server blocks most social networking, Twittering and the like (although you may find me on LinkedIn during a workday). But still, it doesn't hurt to read about stuff like this going on even if I don't necessarily consider it aspirational. I found Heidi's review of mobile phone comics content fascinating, and her musings about Twitter in our culture brought a smile to my face. Kevin Drum examines Peter Suderman's claims about the 'net and concludes that books still occupy a tremendous place in our lives. Well, sure, for those of you with Kindles!

• Via Vastleft, a Daily Howler history of Maureen Dowd's gender-trashing. Honestly, a little blog plagiarism should be the least of any thinking person's objections about her writing. Not to mention her flightiness when interviewing the head Twitterati, as Sean points out.

• Speaking of privilege as we were above, Jill links to a good rundown of all the things you don't have to think about when you're not poor that wind up costing poor folks far more than they cost us middle-classers.

• Susie has a nice compilation post about single-payer -- which is not the same as single-provider or lack of choice! I wonder why people confuse the two, other than the gajillions spent by insurance companies to confuse them. If my health insurance were properly administered by the government, I figure just about any doctor would be in-network. The way it works now, every time I get new health insurance (and in my last job the company changed HMOs every couple of years) I have to find at least one new doctor, which means severing whatever doctor-patient relationships I'd previously cultivated. And that's just wrong.

• Mick at Fact-esque hits the nail on the head -- for many true believers, particularly on the right wing of the political bird (where mindless lockstep obedience is considered a virtue), movement politics is a religion, and the free market (as opposed to the prophet who threw out money-changers) is the god.

• Here in Oppositeland, the current Speaker of the House is excoriated in our "liberal" media, while a former, disgraced Speaker with no apparent base or expertise is elevated. Steve Benen examiners the truth behind the "Pelosi non-popularity" fiction, and Eric Boehlert asks why anyone should care what the Newt thinks. (Also from Eric -- false equivalency, you're doing it right! If you really want to show Obama/Bush parallels, you could do worse than to take notes from how the Daily Show does it, no punches pulled.)

• Another must-read inspirational post from Melissa McEwan on why Shakesville exists.

• Good one from Mustang Bobby pointing out what a sick hypothetical fantasy the "ticking time bomb" scenario really is. There's a reason we've only ever seen this in fiction; it's to heighten dramatic effect and goose the viewer/reader. These scenarios bear about as much resemblance to reality, says Bobby, as the possibilities that "we might get struck by an asteroid, too, or get attacked by the Borg, or by the monster that lives under my bed."

• You know you're in trouble when a site says "Begin by believing and then just do it." (Wasn't that Amway's old slogan?) PZ Myers links to the Reincarnation Bank scam. I'd be tempted to call it a Silly Site but it appears these crooks are dead serious.

• Will we ever see this country's former leaders finally held accountable for their many illegalities, the way other enlightened societies do with theirs? Highly doubtful, opines William Wolfrum, who says it "will all end in pizza," the same as other collusions among the powerful. I can well believe it; our media doesn't even have the balls to repudiate an event like the White House Correspondents' Dinner because most of them are so happy to be Kewl Kids with access and partying privileges, rather than doing their presumed job of being an adversarial press.

• For all his usual rudeness, the Rude Pundit actually sounds more reasonable (to me) in his interpretation of President Obama's recent speech regarding Guantanamo than do others in the left-osphere.

• On the frontiers of science, I'm with Susie, I want one too. Sean presents helpful rules for time travel writers. And as Maru points out, it's worth remembering that this picture is not to scale. Think "dust mites" rather than "litter."

• Hope you've been following the multi-author saga of Potato Moon over at Peter David's blog. They're currently up to part 37. I signed up to write a chapter way back when, but haven't heard back yet. And I love what Colleen Doran says here about copyright and the collective unconscious. It's not that the CU isn't a possibly valid theory, mind you, but the ability to tap into it isn't something just anyone can do, so the people who can accomplish that most successfully, at least to my mind, deserve the accolades and recognition and monetary compensation.

• I haven't been to a cinema in ages so, naturally, haven't yet seen the Star Trek movie, but I think Lis Riba makes an excellent point here about future childbirth. Like I always say, you can't blame people for not being ahead of their time -- except when they're supposed to be. Maybe it's cause Hollywood, as Amanda points out, is still a'scared of girls and, like, their cooties or somesuch. (Note, that's "cooties" with an "ies.")

• Lance Mannion, who still has the most masculine-sounding movie name of anyone I know, handily shoots down stupid gender theory regarding work. He also brings the visceral to the abortion debate, which gave me a lot to think about; and has one of the best "non-reviews" of Star Trek I've read so far.

• Speaking of Lance, I bet you'd already forgotten the Republican-created brouhaha (ha ha ha!) about the President preferring mustard on his burgers. Lance dissects that nicely (in his opinion it all comes down to the Fear of the Other), as does Jesse Taylor in his examination of "common man elitism."

• Thomas Dolby remembers a lost love amid an obscure Bowie song (and accompanying Bowie anecdote, natch).

• Kai points out what should be obvious, that the best place to deal with someone you consider a racist is at an anti-racism conference, and boycotting same is just myopic.

• Cara Kulwicki ruminates over the John Lennon song "Woman is the Nigger of the World." While I understand her point that the n-word is almost always problematic coming out of the mouth of a privileged white person, in a much stronger way than "Working Class Hero" is problematic coming from a multi-millionaire. But I'm of a different generation than Cara, and I maintain that at the time it first came out the song was incredibly powerful (and very meaningful for us second-wave feminists), and I think the argument can be made that it had to be linguistically offensive because, in American English, the n-word (like the c-word) denotes the lowest, basest insult a societally-privileged group can hurl at a non-privileged group, and that was the point of the song, accept no substitutions. At the time, this wasn't considered "reinforcing other types of oppression" the way it might be today.

• Cara also updates Beatles Rock Band release news, complete with some lovely Macca footage. J.C. Christian applies the techniques of wacko Beatles conspiracy theorist Niezgoda to the phenomenon that is ABBA. And, via Sheila Lennon (no relation so far as I know), here's a commercially-staged mass singalong of Hey Jude in Trafalgar Square:



• Lastly, here's a nerdgasm photo, via Dennis at the Comedy Central blog:



And another Elayne-nerdgasm photo of my jewelry storage work in progress, this time featuring all the stuff I wear now occupying two acrylic earring holders (the back one only sparsely utilized so far) and two new acrylic necklace holders:



And now, ironing awaits!

Wiki Editor Wanted

So I was looking at the Wikipedia page for the Marvel Try-out Book of 1986, the one for which Robin won the lettering portion, and they mention every other winner of that book except for Robin! I'd try to correct it myself but I never signed up for Wiki-editing privileges. Any comics folk out there have this ability? It seems pretty silly for the page on the Try-out Book to be so incomplete when Robin's own Wiki page (which he didn't do himself, and which could also use updating) mentions that he won the contest (albeit not that he won for lettering, then went on to be known mostly for inking although of course he's pencilled and coloured as well).

Silly Site o' the Day

This week's Target: Women made me laugh out loud more than usual, perhaps because I'm facing the co-equal bane of laundry, namely ironing:



Only about a dozen tops left to iron by tomorrow... I wish men did ironing (it's a gag, you have to watch the video)...

Silly Site o' the Day

I hope someone besides me is collecting all the Untergang video riffs. Here's my last post on that. This time Der Fuhrer is in a furor over the new Star Trek movie:



Via lots of places, but I'll credit Ginger. One of these days I'm going to have to watch all these movies. I'm guessing most of 'em will be out on DVD by the end of the year.

Belated Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

Too wiped last night to cat-blog. Good job I went to sleep at around 9:30, as Datsa woke us up at 2:30 AM. And 4:30. And 5:30. I love him, but honestly! Here he is real close up, cradled in one arm as the other hand holds the camera:



And Amy left us some "presents" in the computer room which I had to carefully navigate on the way to my computer. I love her, but honestly! Here she is yesterday on "s'e heart":



As I happened to be talking with Robin about getting a desk fan for work, he found these amusing videos of Hector the cat playing with a Zippi vinyl-bladed desk fan:





I love my husband, but honestly!

Silly Site o' the Day

My first early-release Friday! Got a lot done, shopped for the weekend, even got caught up with most blogs. I still don't feel like spending the time on a blogaround, but I'm getting closer. In the meantime, via Robin, a bit that's not so much silly as way cool:



Apparently the cartoonist in question is slated to be on Rachel Maddow's show tonight.

Silly Site o' the Day

Say, do you know anyone who, like me, tends to use 10 words where one will do? By all means, introduce them to GiantURL (via Mike at Left is Right), one of the more giggly useless sites around!

Silly Site o' the Day

Big ol' blogaround coming Any Day Now. Meantime, have fun with the Obamanator from Generator Land.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Frank Paynter, this Wolfram|Alpha project sounds fascinating, and I for one welcome our mechanical computing overlords.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Robin, if you need to keep track of your promise jetpacks, you'll want to go to Jetpack International. Say guys, I've been waiting for mine since '75, when's it going to arrive already?

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Claire at Loobylu, I love this Paper Moon Flickr group!

Silly Site o' the Day

This one's for the still-sleeping Robin, who appreciates both silly comic-book team fights and being a font geek:



Via Mike at Left is Right.

Silly Site o' the Day

Thank you, Ginger, I never would have envisioned this:



Cue Robin with the Welsh shepherd jokes!

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

My brother gave us a throw -- well, a "throw"-what I'm not sure, just a throw. So I threw it on the living room couch, and I now have a couple of grateful kitties. Here's one, settling in:





The beauty part is, the cat hair will now accumulate on the throw, rather than the couch's pillows.

Silly Site o' the Day

At last, an actual food blog acknowledges that the Cult of the Undercooked is indeed a bad thing! Via Robyn at Serious Eats:



Now if only the celebrity chefs they cover would consider leaving this horrific cult and acknowledge that our digestive systems have specifically evolved to process meat that's actually cooked, instead of pretending that "pink in the middle" is "perfectly done," there'd be a lot fewer stomach aches (and healthier eaters) as a result.

Silly Site o' the Day

Okay, color me intrigued:



Via Matt Tobey on the Comedy Central blog. If this were about 30 years ago, I coulda been a contender...

Silly Site o' the Day

He gets by with a little help from his friends, or something like it:



Via BoingBoing.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Brian Alvey on Facebook:



Snarkiness - there's an app for that!

Belated Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

Kitties missed their "Mommy," yes they did!



"Oh, you're back?" *sigh*

Silly Site o' the Day

Had a great time with Mom yesterday and today, bought her Mom's Day pressie, saw my bro and sis-in-law, drove home rather white-knuckled in this afternoon's high winds but was able to slow to a 45-minute crawl getting onto the GW Bridge. Did a fair amount of blog-reading but I haven't been able to find any more Mother's Day-related silly sites, so instead I'm going to post a movie preview parody that, alas, Mom can't see on dial-up. Sorry Mom!



Via Marv Wolfman, darn him anyway 'cause I'm giggling uncontrollably now.

Bloglines is Back

...at least for the moment, but in trying to find out what happened I ran across this interesting item and now I'm seriously considering migrating my RSS feeds elsewhere. I have to do some experimenting to see what feed reader works well in both IE and Firefox, updates all the feeds with which I've been having lots of problems lately (Avedon's, most LiveJournal feeds, etc.) and isn't blocked by my company's servers. Until then I'm just hoping someone buys Bloglines from Ask.com and starts to maintain it again...

Silly Site o' the Day

Off to Mom's in a little while, hoping that the Bloglines site will have returned by the time my laptop and I arrive so I can try to catch up on my blog reading. As I'll be there in person I won't need MomSourcing (via Xeni at BoingBoing).

Silly Site o' the Day

You know, the part of me who was a lot younger and fangirl-enthusiastic than I can muster up these days really wants to see the new Star Trek movie today. The older, staid me with too much else to do settles for Ward Churchill Sutton's (thanks for the correction, Cat!) 15-slideshow review (via Tom Tomorrow) and this brilliant bit from the Onion:



Even Wil Wheaton loved that video. Edited to add: And I've never seen the video of this either:



Thanks for the reminder, Debra!

Silly Site o' the Day

Everyone in my company has tomorrow off for Employee Appreciation Day, and I couldn't possibly appreciate the timing more. Hurt my foot a couple days ago and it finally feels better, so I'm theoretically revved up to take care of errands tomorrow so I can head down to Mom's for the weekend. I say "theoretically" because in reality I'm just really, really wiped. The humidity combined with all the atmospheric allergens seem to have gotten everyone down. Before I forget, though, via Mark Evanier, what if President Obama's first 100 days were a Facebook page? I also love the little "Worst 100 Days" video at the bottom.

Silly Site o' the Day

Tired. Have some more Sarah Haskins! Here's one on tough love:



And I adored this one about medicine:



Enjoy!

Silly Site o' the Day

Say ma'am, do I have the so-called swine flu? Well, do you? Via BoingBoing.

Silly Site o' the Day

Ick, rain for awhile. Lots of puddle reflections, I'll warrant. Here's an image reflection generator, via Gerard.

Silly Site o' the Day

Love this video that Rachel Maddow ran on her show this past week. There's just something cool about an auto-tuner...



Cool factoid: My Mom watches The Rachel as well!

Silly Site o' the Day

Just to remind everyone:



You can go here to find out where your nearest FCBD-supporting shop is. Storefront sign generator via Gerard.

Belated Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

Happy Caturday! I finally organized my clothes and now have a ton of ironing ahead, which pleases kitties just fine as they still get to play with the Magic Ironing Board Cover String:



That was well after the thunderstorm, when Amy found a new place to cower - the bottom of my bedside where I usually keep my sneakers:



Notice the comics next to her. There are three very full boxes' worth. This is why I'm not celebrating Free Comic Book Day today. I was originally going to drag Mom to a comic book store near her, but in the end I just wasn't sure FCBD was worth a 2-hours-each-way drive. But enough about that, here's Datsa posing by his food and water dishes as usual:



He's also glad I didn't schlep down to Jersey today, it would have been one less person at whom to meow incessantly.

Deadjournals

Bloglines and Livejournal just don't seem to mix lately. As I've mentioned previously, my company's servers block most direct blog links, so during my lunch hour and such I can only read most blogs via their RSS feeds. Bloglines is my reader of choice, and I'm subscribed to over 700 feeds there so I'm not about to switch. Livejournal's feeds seem to be really wonky, at least on Bloglines. There was a period of a few months when I wasn't getting anything, then it suddenly righted itself. Now I'm having the same problem; most Livejournal feeds haven't updated since March 6. Part of the problem might be that I was subscribed to a lot of Atom feeds, and in some cases when I replace those with "www.livejournal.com/users/[username]/data/rss" I have success, but even so a lot of those feeds haven't updated since March 6 either. So, my apologies to my Livejournal friends; I'm trying to update your feeds as best I can so I can continue to follow your bloggy adventures! (Needless to say, my company's servers block almost all social networking other than LinkedIn, so I can't follow your Tweets and whatnot either during the day...)

Silly Site o' the Day

White Rabbits! I know just about everyone has already run the Jane Lynch-produced A Gaythering Storm, featuring other folks like Alicia Silverstone, Lance Bass, George Takei and an absolutely hilarious Sarah Chalke, so I guess it's time for me to run it as well:



From the Funny or Die website, naturally.