Filed under: Humour, Internet and Media
Well, to the mildly obsessive-compulsive amongst you, or to the pop-culture archaeologists, I am so, so sorry to do this:
TV Tropes is the biggest timesink I have ever encountered. I recommend starting with shout outs or Jossed or, perhaps, a favourite show.
I’ve done just about nothing in the last two days but read this damned site. It even references Girl Genius!
Filed under: Internet and Media
Following up on my previous musings:
Where has all the pubic hair gone?
Posted on April 5th, 2008 by Chris
Filed under: General Thoughts, Internet and Media
This is a bit of a catch-all posting; I’ve been entertained by a few of the things I’ve seen recently, enraged by others, and figured I would pass on a few tidbits.
Seen on thursday evening in a restaurant: A little boy, probably a bit over one year old, starts to do that high-pitched attention-getter crying bit, and after a token effort at calming him by his father, the mother pulls out a portable DVD player and sets it up on the table so that he can watch a TV show and shut the hell up.
Overheard this morning in a Starbucks: A couple having coffee together, both looking modern, professional, and stereotypically ‘starbucky’… Talking about playing online RPGs, power-leveling, and gold farming.
In the news: A film, Fitna, that is — as do so many things these days — enraging the religious of the eastern world to the point of sputtering threats. Please note, “The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.”
Posted on March 29th, 2008 by Chris
Filed under: Internet
Although this link is NSFW, and also NSFPrudes, I kind of like it.
No idea how long it’ll be online, but I’ve already seen some interesting and well-shot erotica on it. Also, while it’s mostly images of women, there’s a gallery of well-formed nude men in it too; a nice sidelight for the ladies. There may be more in the archive, and I imagine it’d be fun going hunting 
Posted on February 17th, 2008 by Chris
Filed under: Humour and Internet
Apropos of nothing, here’s a few funny Craigslist postings, culled from Metafilter:
$772,000 a year, and still lonely (mirrored on Jezebel because it was deleted)
Of course you could just read the original Metafilter thread…
Posted on February 14th, 2008 by Chris
Filed under: Internet and Media
If you want to while away a few hours, and find out more about one of the more unnerving celebrity-sponsored cults out there, I recommend checking out Operation Clambake when you have some time to spare.
What I get out of this is a low-level sense of fear that the reportage we get on the subject of scientology — or the lack thereof, more accurately — is a reflection of a more thorough penetration of the media by this very media-savvy organization.
And then I accuse myself of being paranoid and move on… but never completely without a care.
Scientology is the one and only thing that makes me glad it is impossible to be elected in the US or Canada without professing to some christian belief system.
This post brought to you as a tiny, tiny shot from the Internet’s side of Scientology vs. The Internet.
Posted on January 31st, 2008 by Chris
Filed under: Internet, Media and Rants
Well, by this time I’m sure that all of us have heard of, and been outraged by, the story of Sandra Bergen, the Saskatchewan woman who sued her dealer when the methamphetamines that she overdosed on left her in a coma.
(She’s got a website, by the way: Meth Today. Very… irritating web design, leaving aside any other cause for complaint.)
My initial reaction was a resigned disgust so intense that I couldn’t even get disgusted by it. I saw the headline, blinked once, and went on with my day, secure in the fact that at least I am not so pathetically stupid nor incapable of taking responsibility for my actions. Nor, in the main, has that sentiment changed; this sad individual made bad choices that led her to pain. However, I’ve questioned this a bit today, enroute to that final conclusion, and I thought I’d share my thoughts, such as they are.
There’s a lot of questions about addiction and its position as an illness; whether an addict is responsible for their actions, or if they should be treated as being sick and preyed upon. I fall on the former side of the fence, and have for most — if not all — of my adult life. Coming from the other side in this, however, is the argument that there are already criminal responsibilities in this matter, and that this woman was guilty of those crimes, but that the civil responsibility should be shared between her and her procurer.
So, I thought about this for a while… in fact, I was thinking about it as I started this post and even then I was waffling in the other direction — until I started framing it as responsibility in the second paragraph. It’s seductive, though, this idea that the blame for this kind of choice can be ‘shared’ somehow, as though we’re not really in control and so how can anyone really point a finger at us if we do something catastrophically stupid. But that seductive call is a siren, luring one onto some metaphorical rocks… (here I stop with the attempted classical metaphors). The sad truth of the matter is that, irrespective of the criminal acts being perpetrated, Sandra is no less responsible for her actions than any other person that harms themselves in the pursuit of pleasure. If I jump out of a plane and injure myself, I’m not going to blame the pilot of the plane, nor will I blame the instructor who ‘gave me my first hit.’
And that’s what’s happening here. And it shouldn’t.
Posted on January 14th, 2008 by Chris
Filed under: Internet, Media and Science
Well, thank you, Stewart Brand, for doing a fine job of saying something that I’ve held to be true for a good long time: Good old stuff sucks.
This is part of the EDGE questions for 2008; “What did you change your mind about in 2007?” This is a web thing, I suppose, but some fine thinkers are involved, and their responses run the gamut from predictable (Sam Harris) to interesting (Richard Dawkins).
I recommend checking the rest of them out from the provided links. I’m on my way to work, but I think that this evening I’ll try to add my own “What did I change my mind about in 2007?” to it; if I can find one
Posted on January 2nd, 2008 by Chris
Filed under: Humour and Internet
The Midwest Teen Sex Show is freakin’ excellent, even though I’m neither in the midwest, nor a teen.
Posted on December 16th, 2007 by Chris
Filed under: Internet
On a significantly lighter note, here’s a place you can go when you run out of books to read:
This is a wiki collecting a significant fraction of the Ask Metafilter questions pertaining to suggested books.
I fear this list… It means I’ll be nose-deep in books soon. I’ve been expanding my reading tastes a bit lately, and this is only going to push that harder.
Posted on December 9th, 2007 by Chris
Posted on April 26th, 2008 by Chris
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