Coping with Infoglut

So, I'm going to have to scale back a bit on HDF for a little while. Not like I'm all that diligent about posting anyway, but now I have a legitimate reason. Since I started continuing my organized education seriously for the first time in almost a decade, I've been, well, freaking the fuck out over the workload I've put on myself. Sure, it's the teachers that assign it, but I'm the one who decided to take so many classes.

Anyway, as I start to process the amount of work on my table, I realized that the time I usually spend dicking around on the internet and observing will now be spent eating, sleeping, and trying to go to the gym. Yes, this too is a sad development in my life, but if I don't have the time to walk a couple miles a day or whatever and I'm spending that much more time staring at a computer, it means I'm going to have to start getting more exercise. The plus side is that I'll still have one outlet in which I can listen to podcasts.

Anyway, I'm going to try to post here as often as possible, but don't get pissy if I go a few days without posting here and there. I really am trying to get this done. So bear with me.

ratfarts

It's Haiku season!!!!

Yawning on the porch,
the mountains say good morning.
My cat licks himself.


waiting in the mist,
it takes ages to warm up;
my stupid shower.


The airfield diner;
little planes will come and go
while we eat our eggs


Pitt/Villanova;
we better pull this one off,
just to shut him up.

Pennsylvania: Where flipping off a cop is your constitutionally protected right

Nerd out over coffee and espresso over here.

It's a very scientific but ultimately pretty interesting article. Kill some time with it.

I'm going to try to post regularly over the weekend, but I can't promise anything. Pitt being in the Elite 8 sorta shook up everything, and I'm trying to enjoy as much time poolside before my classes start on monday. In any case, Pitt won, and the Primal Scream show in Philly was scarcely attended. Was everyone watching the 'Nova game?

Despite that he forgets some of the words, or that his voice has changed entirely from when he recorded the song. Despite the fact that he punches up the rhythm and sounds 50 years older... Hearing Bob Dylan play "Billy" live for the first time still excites me beyond the words my brain can summon. I've seen him twice and to be honest always felt a bit underwhelmed. Not that I should've loved it (being the staunch traditionalist that I am, I've always preferred an acoustic Dylan), but hearing this, I'm wondering if I can catch him the next time he tours the US and maybe get to hear one of my favorite songs.

It's a conundrum.

PS There's also a new Theme Time Radio Hour on that site (this one's theme: "Truth and Lies"). So it's a pretty good day all around.

Man survived two A-Bomb attacks

You know what might be the only thing worse than surviving through an atomic attack? Living through two of them in four days, probably.

Wow.

I've mentioned this before and I was mocked cruelly. Now I am here to tell you once again:

KOMODO DRAGONS: THE THREAT IS VERY REAL

"A man picking fruit on an island in eastern Indonesia fell out of a tree where he was then mauled to death by two Komodo dragons."

Yeah, that's right. They're killing folks.

I'm really not all that sure what to make of this Away We Go movie. On one hand, I've enjoyed something from pretty much everyone involved at some point (except perhaps Maya Rudolph). On the other hand, this whole project is a They Might Be Giants soundtrack away from me hating it on principle alone.

Let's hope it's better than that (?)

Check out this statue in Moscow of two blindfolded children being chased around a park as "the victims of adult vices".

Now, being the youngest of 5 meant that I had no shortage of methods being employed in hopes of scaring the living shit out of me. Most of them worked pretty well. I remember one night when I was left in the care of my siblings when my parents went out somewhere. About halfway through the night, my oldest sister turned to me and said that they were all my parents now, since Mom and Dad weren't coming home. when I asked why not she told me, without batting an eye, that they were eaten by bears. I was 5, and my trouble with sleeping probably started right around there.
There was a belt that hung on the wall in my grandparents' home, one with these rusty coins attached to it. Every one of the children in my family had told everyone else about why it hung there, and that there were a few very sore asses that regretted having met it. I swear its' presence alone kept me from mouthing off to anyone until I was well into my mid-20s.
Now, that said, none of that affected me the way seeing this statue as a small child would. This is like the scariest parts of the The Wall movie* come to life.

Keep in mind that this is 2000 yards away from the Kremlin! The most haunting thing we have in DC is what... Arlington? The Vietnam Memorial? Arlington isn't scary, and the Vet Wall is more somber than scary. You can't be all that scared when there are wall rubbings involved, right?

Maybe we should consider one of these, but Americanize the whole thing. Put up a donkey playing Rock Band, or an aardvark watching a movie with CGI'd talking dogs. It's time to scare our kids straight! What if there was an elephant coordinating bum fights!?? Think of all the terrible shit we can help end, just by erecting some creepy-ass statues on the National Mall! I guess we probably can't afford it at the moment, but I'm gonna start writing some letters now...

Check out some more pictures at English Russia (but don't read the comments, okay? They're just not good for you. Ever).

*Come to think of it, this too was used to scare me as a child, along with KISS album covers, threat of BB gun, and clowns.

Eddie Bo, R.I.P.

New Orleans lost another giant in Eddie Bo, who passed away on Wednesday. Songs like "Hook & Sling" and "Check Your Bucket" were always favorites, and nearly impossible to listen to and stay in a bad mood. May your legacy never die, Eddie.

Learn and hear more of him here.

Just because it makes me laugh my ass off every time I see it

(via Eye on Springfield)

View-Master R.I.P.

There was an interesting article in last week's Economist about the decline of the View-Master, and a few mentions of its history and many uses. I know that it's really just the advance of technology and that these things cannot compete with a PS4 or whatever, but it still made me nostalgic for that time when I had one of those things. Despite it being somewhat antiquated by the early 80s when I used mine, it was still a pretty interesting toy to have. In addition to having all the discs for whatever movies and stories were popular with me when I was using it (The Black Hole and The Jungle Book were two I remember well), I also had whatever discs could float down through siblings, relatives, rummage sales, trips to national parks, etc...
So, as a kid I ended up with this weird , encompassing view (haha) of not only my own pop culture, but also that which preceded my by up to 40 years or whatever it was I found. It was kind of humbling, being presented with decades of expired fads in the face of your own, knowing that someday, Thundercats would be just some really godawful show to be exploited for nostalgic purposes by VH-1. And me, I guess. It reminds me when a friend's dad saw us all playing G.I. Joe out in the neighborhood somewhere and he decided to show us his old figures, which were at least 5 times the size of ours and looked much more like dolls than anything else we had at the time. Cloth fabric clothes instead of plastic!!??

Anyway, remember the View-Master fondly, folks. It's almost gone.

DOOM

How awesome is Steve McNiven? His artwork has only gotten better and better since Civil War, and it was already pretty breathtaking by then. In addition to being one of my favorite artists to ever draw Spidey, this week he gave us... DOOM in the future! Is it a coincidence that this image was released the same week that (formerly MF) DOOM's album leaked? Probably not. That said, who cares. I love this art so much.

(queue up the Quiet Riot)

Obama picks Pitt to go to the Final Four

Well, here's to that. Don't jinx us, buddy.

Actually, I get a little nervous every time I see this, but that might be more a result of my being weirdly superstitious or because I'm just not used to seeing it. Either way, I'm excited.

Also, I didn't comment on that Sixers game the other night in LA. I haven't gone out on St. Patrick's day in probably 8 years or so. I hate the big bar holidays, and this one is no exception.

But I wanted to see the Sixers play and beat the Lakers. And they DID, with Iguodala hitting a game-winning 3 in the last seconds of the game. I've never cheered so loud or come so close to getting beat up. What a great game.

Dems pressuring Arlen Specter to switch sides

Rendell, Specter, and Biden, anyway.

Though I can't really imagine why. He's gonna have a hell of a time getting reelected, as far as I can tell, and no matter what side of the aisle he's running for, he's got a questionable last few years under his belt.

I actually like Specter, for what it's worth. Not on everything (not on all that much, to be honest), but I respect him for sticking to his convictions, especially when it's in the face of party mandate, which it's prone to do quite often. Which probably wouldn't make him the most ideal candidate for the Dems in the senate, right?

In any case, I'm glad he recognizes the desperate need for moderate Republicans at this point, and good for him for doing so.

Anyway, I put the odds at 50 to 1.

Half-abandoned

In continuing my theme of abandoned houses, there's a really cool photo essay at dornob of townhouses in Camden, half of which has been abandoned. You see a lot of these in the dwindling mid-Atlantic cities like Baltimore and Philly (and Chester), and it's always pretty remarkable Probably the result of regional architecture and urban flight as much as anything, but it's still an interesting sight.

(from Neatorama)

Apparently, my hometown newspaper is publishing op-eds by John Yoo.

That's about as embarrassing as it gets.