And where did this killer headache come from, I wonder? Being snowbound for the third day? Too much reading? (Let us sincerely hope not.) Anticipation of things I still need to do that probably aren't getting done this weekend (taxes, ironing, Megillat Vashti, etc.)? Who knows. I have a pain patch on my left shoulder, ear medicine in my left ear and my head is still owie. So I figure, as long as I have this pain why not share it? And Gerard found a really good way to do just that - with a "talking photo" of myself singing a song I've never heard of:
I have no idea if that worked or not...
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Silly Site o' the Day
And so we approach another Purim without me finishing Megillat Vashti, despite having a willing collaborator, artist, publisher and distributor. Fear of success strikes again! Actually it's more mundane than that, I've just been too busy at work, and when I finally have a few days off all I want to do is succumb to a few of the less savory of the seven deadly sins. This weekend I'm afraid it's been mostly sloth and gluttony. But in, you know, a good way; I've cooked myself a couple egg dishes for breakfasts and a nice tofu stir fry for today's lunch (alas, that and a couple yogurts could not remedy the real problem of the store-bought pre-packaged microwaveable "Buffalo strips" which constituted last evening's ill-advised dinner and today's rumbly tummy) and I've gotten through a fair number of Vertigo comics from the last two years' worth of DC comp boxes whilst, erm, "elevating my feet." I swear, I haven't even touched the Sushi Cat game (via Robyn Lee at Serious Eats, of course, with honorable mention to Carolyn Ibis via email), and by golly you'd think I would.
"O hai, Mommy! You know, you still have ironing to do...
"...see the shirts hanging from the back of the chair that you really should take care of so I can be more comfuhtables on this bolster?"
"She's right, you know. This ironing board ain't gonna work itself."
Oh, who asked you two?
Silly Site o' the Day
I don't know why I agonize so over some decisions that other people make right away. It would be obvious to just about anyone that venturing outside in this weather, when my presence at my job is nowhere near mandatory today, would be a foolish and possibly even dangerous thing to do. Yet it took me a full half hour to decide that last night. Damned work ethic! So the snow's still falling and I'm here with Robin and the cats enjoying not having to leave the apartment. Slept much of the morning, spending most of the day reading comics (hooray, I've finished all the DCU comps and am now down to only two boxes, all the Vertigo and Wildstorm titles that intrigue me from the past, um, year and a half or so), keeping fairly up to date on my blog reading, watching the Olympics of course, and thinking of any entries I might submit for the annual ClearMark and WonderMark awards (via the king of Wondermark himself, David Malki)...
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Silly Site o' the Day
Very icky weather out there, so I made the executive decision to listen to the weather folks who are advising "if you don't have to go out tomorrow, don't." Maybe I'll just stay in and read emails from crazy people (via the News Writer)...
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Silly Site o' the Day
I wish Blogger let us attach little mp3 snippets to our blogs so that mine would play a few seconds this whenever it opened. Until such time, I suppose I'll have to do with turning my URL into music using Code Organ (via Terry), which I don't find nearly as pleasing to the ear.
"Come on Mom, you always say you're going to do your ironing and you never do. See, the sizing and wrinkle release sprays are right behind me! Come on now, this weekend for sure!"
Laissez le bon temps whatever, I haven't seen any Mardi Gras-themed silly sites, so how about the other thing we're talking about in NY, more snow? Via Laura, Simon's Cat is back:
I love the bird's laughter.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Silly Site o' the Day
So, so tired. I blame the snow. I can't even get worked up about the overuse of Auto-Tune on Symphony of Science (via PZ Myers)...back to Olympics watching now...
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Year of the Tiger Valentine's Blogaround
Because I've missed so many milestones already since the last blogaround I did, I may as well acknowledge two I'm not missing. Onward:
• Vinnie remember his late mother-in-law Jackie, who was indeed quite the character. I had the pleasure of knowing her as well, and always thought of her as the height of Manhattan sophistication.
• I hope Michael Davis can make it through the day without Fluffy.
• Air America is no more, and Mark Evanier has the best view I've read on why it won't necessarily be missed even by those of us once rooting for it to succeed.
• Great news - Donna is able to blog again! I would really have missed her.
• Heidi has moved to new digs due to PW no longer requiring her fine services, and Jen's looking for a new gig. Meanwhile, it's been over a year since Robin had any pencilling or inking work, which just isn't right.
• I totally agree with Sarah, these matroyshkas are lovely and I wish I had some (I collect the things), even though they're hella expensive (I collect the things, cheap).
• I don't know why pink is still my favorite color, but Val's post about pink almost made my eyes bleed anyway.
• Speaking of girly things, I have no particular emotional attachment to Rainbow Brite (a little after my time), but did she really need a makeover that turns her from a cute little kid into a svelte pre-teen?
• Mark Morford examines our culture of whiny disappointment. Otherwise known as (a) the Internet, (b) fandom, (c) life (don't talk to me about life).
• Over at HuffPo, Spencer Green has handy monickers for Oscar-nominated films. I think the reason so many of them are given to cliche is because, as Jennifer Kesler points out, they're filled with the same old white guys instead of having more diversity of character like, you know, life. I've said the same thing about comics for years. One type of person is as boring for me to read (and as devoid of imagination) as one type of body. If we had more diversity, maybe (as Annalee nicely skewers) male math geeks wouldn't extrapolate the entire galaxy to explain why they personally can't find a mate, which is about as pathetic as denying global warming by looking outside your window and seeing snow in your personal back yard. Or deciding the G-spot isn't real based on anecdotal "evidence."
• I hope "mansplaining" becomes an actual neologism, and I'm sorry I missed its birth.
• While Republican conservative politics-as-usual marches on, it's well worth remembering, as Digby reminds us, that they pretty much had their way for the last decade and created just about every mess we're in today.
• Merle Kessler makes a good point about the petty criminal O'Keefe: pimps don't actually dress like that outside of 30-year-old TV shows and movies. Of course, he didn't dress that way when he scammed ACORN, he just mugged for the cameras. Wow, this guy's a lying sack of shit all around, isn't he?
• Lance Mannion's essay on Sarah Palin and the crib notes on her hand is must reading. He's absolutely right, it just doesn't matter, because it gives her even more cred with her peeps who believe smart = bad/suspect.
• I've never played Rock Band (we can't afford to trick out our TV with any additives like X-boxes and Wii's) but I totally agree with Amanda that people who sniff at Rock Band are old curmudgeons who might as well be shaking their fists at those kids on their lawns.
• I like Mike Norton's idea of a sarcasm/irony emoticon, particularly one with a previous existence.
Too cold in this room, back under the bedroom covers to try to get more sleep...
Silly Site o' the Day
Blogaround coming shortly, this time for sure! I had one of those dreams where Robin and I were staying somewhere that inevitably turned out to be some weird version of my childhood home in NJ, and a bus was coming to get us and bring us home, but we weren't packed or dressed and it became a frantic race to convince the bus to wait for us while clothing and papers and food appeared out of nowhere needing to be stuffed in suitcases... and I woke up at 5 AM needing to Do Stuff. I hate when that happens. I also hate when Bloglines once again abandons LiveJournal feeds, with which I catch up using Google Reader, and where (via Arthur's blog) I just found these 30 unintentionally hilarious (actually, I think rather sad) conservative political placards. Mind you, this is the mentality that applauds Tea Party convention speeches decrying non-white voters' lack of spelling talents.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Silly Site o' the Day
Nah, no ironing nor blogaround done, but I'm caught up in blog reading and have made significant headway in comics reading, and of course there's the Olympics which puts pay to all other plans anyway. Haven't found any Olympic-themed silly sites yet, but as tomorrow's Valentine's Day I thought I'd post this clever wedding save-the-date "trailer":
It's been one of those weeks when I didn't even remember I had photos on the camera when I went to take more last night. Here's one I like because it features both cats:
Today's goals are to get some ironing done and to attempt a blogaround. Good luck to all that!
Friday, February 12, 2010
Silly Site o' the Day
Watching the Olympics opening ceremony, natch. No Olympic-themed Silly Sites yet, so you'll have to content yourselves for the moment with first-person Tetris (via the Awl).
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Silly Site o' the Day
Continued stomach problems plague me, although most of my other body aches seem to be on the wane. In any case, I was in the office by 8 and out by 12:30 and spent much of this afternoon sleeping, so my body must have needed to heal on some level. And it let me come home to the piles of snow all over our driveway (which has yet to be plowed) in daylight again. I notice most of the blogs, at least the few I've perused today, are talking about the Daily Show and Colbert report mocking climate change deniers saying that excessive snow in the US this February is proof that, um, we're not seeing more extreme weather as a result of global climate change? At least the Anti-Feathered Dinosaurs contingent (via Annalee at io9) are funny - they deny science (tongue in cheek, of course) because they don't think it's as cool as the fiction we're used to believing.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Silly Site o' the Day
Wow, what incredible beauty in the city today. Nasty for some of us to be in, standing over half an hour (thank goodness it was in daylight, as our company's co-managing partner closed our NY and NJ offices early) waiting for the express bus, but once it arrived and journeyed up Central Park West then through the park itself, it was astounding and awe-inspiring viewing the winter wonderland. All's still well here, no power outages thank goodness, Robin and I are both slowly recovering from recent physical setbacks and fevers -- but it's treacherous walking in our neighborhood, so I'm hoping we're both okay enough to wade through the snow for a block and a half so I can catch the express bus in super-early tomorrow to set up for a meeting. Meanwhile, as Xeni so aptly puts it, "the official Muppets Studio channel on YouTube just keeps getting better and better." Case in point, all over the interwebs today:
I can dig it! Doubtless lots of digging will be going on tomorrow.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Silly Site o' the Day
Still not 100%, I suspect, but it's nice to wake up to this little video featuring somepeople I know in actual Real Life (such as it is):
Despite my food poisoning (had to leave work a bit early today as I'm still not close to 100%) I watched the Superbowl and its attendant ads last night, albeit sans planned snacks. Overall, eh. Lots of "women pussywhip their significant others, the bitches!" ads. Hey, at least there weren't any ads for this (an oldie-but-goodie from BoingBoing)...
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Silly Site o' the Day
Oh my. I think this is the first time that I've experienced my absolute most dreaded symptom of illness twice in one evening. Seriously, it was like an episode of Family Guy. Been laid up all day with food poisoning, most likely from yesterday's lunch (where Rob and I ate different things) than the lovely dinner I made. Not sure I'm going to work tomorrow at this point, especially since my fever has gradually risen to above 100 degrees this afternoon. So much for all those Superbowl snackies we bought yesterday morning! On the other hand, things could be so much worse; I could be caught in an area suffering from what Robin informed me has been given a nauseatingly cutesy name by CNN. "Because hey, when you want to be informed about disasters, it's our job to give them catchy names instead!" So here you go, folks, have a nice soothing game of Snowmageddon. (I had embedded it here but didn't realize the annoying music plays every time you go to my page; sorry about that!
I have the feeling our Superbowl ads are going to be like Avatar, full of expensive, cliche-laden sound and fury signifying nothing. We just can't seem to do it like the British:
The mindless but oddly compelling Man vs. Food live show is on the Travel Channel now (TC is quickly becoming the new Food Network, isn't it?), but I have no idea if host Adam Somethingorother has ever braved the challenge of what to do when you've dropped food on the floor:
White Rabbits! And speaking of British superstitions, are all those wacky skeptics still okay after their "overdose" protests on Saturday? I used to be a bit less skeptical of homeopathy than I am now, although I still swear by arnica, which I've actually seen bring out my bruises and help heal them faster. Via PZ Myers.
