My best-laid plans

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!

Musings on the Modern Modus Operandi

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.”

A Rabbit Hole

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.

Goddamn It

Filed under: Internet

Thanks to this asshole, I just lost the Game

Found on the Internets

Filed under: Humour and Internet

Amazingly enough, despite the fact that he talks like he’s got a mouthful of marbles, Sylvester Stallone makes an excellent interviewee… by email, at least.

Ain’t it Cool News has a long series consisting of fans asking Sly questions, and some of the answers are just comedy gold, and not because I’m laughing at him, because I’m laughing with him, at the questioners.

You’ll have to check out the whole set, but here’s a sample answer:

Please reconsider writing your autobiography! If not, would you consider writing a sequel to ‘Sly Moves’ which would focus primarily on mental health & attitude instead of physical health? I’m picturing a Stallone version of ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’ - what do you think?

curiousvinnie Mahwah, NJ

Thank you very much. I’m flattered that you think I’m a candidate for stable mental health. But the truth be known, I am insane with long, horrible fits of sanity. Now, if you can make insanity work for you, that’s actually called creativity. If you can’t, that’s called a menace to society. Thank you.

Find the rest:

Round One
Round Two
Round Three
Round Four
Round Five
Round Six
Round Seven
Round Eight
Rounds Nine and Ten
Round Eleven
Round Twelve
Round Thirteen

Can’t say that you’ll read them all, but there are some gems in there.

(PS - apologies for the silly quote layout; I’ll be fixing that sometime soon)

Maynard

Filed under: General Thoughts, Internet, Media and Rants

Nothing on internet censorship (note: If you’re on a Canadian ISP and reading this, there are now sites blocked for all Canadians. Right now they’re kiddie porn only… but it’s a short step from that to deciding other sites are objectionable and blockable. Your ISP — the one you pay to provide you with internet access — is doing this. Respond as you will).

What I’m actually posting on is an excellent interview with Maynard James Keenan (of Tool) at the Onion AV Club.

The quote that really got me is this one:

All I can do is say I smell a rat. I don’t know where it is or what kind of rat it is, but as an artist, I can express how [I feel about it]. But I couldn’t responsibly stand up and tell people which way to go, because then I’m just as guilty as the people who are telling everybody else what to do and where to go.

He’s quite a guy, one with whom I’ve no doubt that I could argue for days.

Signs you drink with the wrong people

Filed under: Asides, Humour, Internet and Media

Odds are, Beau should not be allowed to see this link: We Are Your Friends

It’s video, so don’t bother, on a slow connection.

Update:

The file at the original location was moved, so this Youtube link has it. If I find the better version again, I’ll upload it and host it here.

Justice vs. Simian: We Are Your Friends

Update again

The link is fixed, it’s a local file now. Will work ‘til doomsday.

How to steal an election by hacking the vote

Filed under: Events, Internet and Rants

How to steal an election by hacking the vote, from Ars Technica.

The next two weeks, I’ll be posting unadorned links of interest. Enjoy!

Dream… Orange? Mango? Passionfruit? Lemon?

Filed under: Internet

Oh, if only more of you used Macs

Well, it really doesn’t matter, of course. However, there’s a neat app called Tangerine that tickles my music-lovin’ soul. It scans iTunes for songs with similar beat patterns and groups them into playlists so that you get automagical mood-based playlists.

It’s tough to say how much mileage I’ll get out of this; I have an extensive and complex set of automatic playlists that may or may not be eclipsed by this. Still, it’s got promise.

And, they claim they’ll give me a free license for shilling for them. How can that possibly be bad?

Warning Signs for Tomorrow

Filed under: Humour

This might mark me as exceptionally nerdy, but I just love this set of warning signs for tomorrow, dug up via the instapundit.

Some favourites:

This is the scary one — it should probably be posted in most banks, office buildings, my building, and Britain.

Perhaps those times when you’ve got a project due the next morning “all of a sudden” even though you never let things sit that long?

My life, according to Shaw, some days.

I can just picture this hanging in an effete coffee shop, over books by Sartre, being studiedly ignored by a gaggle of pseudo-intellectual first-year philosophy students.

Seen over the magazine rack containing US, Cosmo, and Maxim.

I think I should get a shirt with this one on it