This has been hiding out on Ning for long enough, thought I’d share.
Category: humor
The plants have your number.
So … your plant needs water, maybe some sunlight. It gives you a call to ask for a little help. Assuming you provide some care, it will call you back later to express its thanks.
Mind. Blown.
On one of my recent flights home I had the fortune to sit next to an interesting woman who happened to be in marketing. We got to talking about libraries a bit, and she sympathized that if people only knew the breadth and depth of the services their libraries offered, they would want to move in. Given her field, it’s no surprise that her advice was, “You guys need to get in touch with us.” It’s true. In my experience, libraries like to market themselves, and it probably works to some extent. Marketing is not our specialty, though, and our efforts at marketing are probably akin to the results we might get if we gave a marketing expert a book and asked them to catalog it (sure, it sounds easy until I ask you what the 245 MARC field is for, and then you’re baffled). Maybe it’s time libraries went to the experts for their marketing.
Wyoming Libraries are there already, and their campaign is awesome. It’s intelligent, sassy, and multi-modal. They have a library mud flap girl, a library Eiffel Tower billboard, and two radio spots. From the site:
Wyoming’s libraries are as expansive as the state, and as close as down the street.
Libraries offer more than many people realize, and we want to reach out beyond our regular users to let people know this. The new statewide marketing campaign is designed to increase understanding, use and support of Wyoming libraries.
I don’t know about you, but their campaign makes me want to move to Wyoming and use a library. I’d love to know how effective the campaign has been so far in bringing new users into the library, but that’s always a dodgey statistic at best, and I imagine it will take some time before any valid results can be analyzed.
In the meantime, I need to find myself some of those mud flaps …
In the grand tradition.
There once was a library lad
who wanted to graduate, bad.
He wrote every essay,
but oh what a mess, eh?
There always were more to be had.
It’s not entirely accurate because at this point the end is certainly in sight (I’ll be HOME in about a month), but there is still plenty of residual “this-will-never-end” feeling to last me for awhile.
On the upswing, things are going well with my application process, and I have a videoconference interview coming up … on my birthday. After the phone interview, this is another first for me, so it’s exciting but I’m a little nervous about it as well. Maybe one day they’ll even want to meet me.
To wrap up, I’d like to drop in part of what I wrote over at La Casa today, because sometimes even I can appreciate my own writing, and because where I stand on creating comics is also where I stand on creating any content; perhaps most topically, it’s where I stand on self-creation, on developing one’s self as a human being, as an artist (of any kind), as a friend, as a lover, and as a professional. The idea is that we create something of worth and offer it to the world; ideally, something unique that we’ve learned, through introspection and hard work, how to offer.
I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about the kind of comic I want to create. La Casa has been a journey – no, an experiment, really. It’s been a ride. It’s been something, anyway, but a lot of times I don’t know where to go with it, and I don’t know if it’s the story that I want to tell. There are thousands of comics out there, all of them telling stories, all of them with their own worth and audience and humor, and I’m happy that ours has been one of them, but at the same time I somehow want to find a way to make our comic different. I want to find the story that will be our comic, the characters that will drive the story, the merge between art and writing that will, at the very least, be uniquely ours. I’m really not talking about popularity, just the idea that in creating content and putting it out there for people to see, one has a responsibility to make that content … worth something. To somebody.
We start with a dream, and one by one pluck down the stars to light our path.
We start with a dream …
Bound to be your new, favorite library game. Learn everything you can about the library guru and then challenge your friends to out-six-degrees you. More fun than “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” because a.) It’s library-related, so obviously excellent; b.) It’s obscure, which as we all know means “hip”, and 3.) SDofKB gets easier and easier every day, and you like a challenge. Also, when it comes to Library Science, Ranganathan was like the coolest guy around. Theo did it in reverse, but he’s off to a good start with a hybrid Six Degrees of RangaBacon sort of thing:
1. Ranganathan died in 1972 which was the same year that the Pierre Hotel Robbery happened.
2. The Pierre Hotel was robbed by Samuel Nalo and Robert Comfort of the Luchese crime family.
3. Don Licio Lucchesi was a character named in the Godfather part III.
4. The Godfather Part III co-starred Sofia Coppola who was also in The Outsiders.
5. The Outsiders starred Matt Dillon who (6) was in Wild Things with Kevin Bacon.
Tasty.
Crap, and all this time …
From Stuff White People Like:
#81 Graduate School: Tho’ thank goodness I’m attaining a practical degree! #75 Threatening to Move to Canada: Does it count as “threatening” if I actually did move? #72 Study Abroad: Does Canada count as “abroad”? What about that three months I spent in France? *le sigh* #68 Michel Gondry: Guilty as charged. #65 Co-Ed Sports: Well yeah, that’s how I met my fiance!
Also guilty of liking: Recycling, Bicycles, Natural Medicine, Juno (the movie), Irony, Vintage, Public Radio, Plays, Breakfast Places, The Daily Show, David Sedaris, Wine, Microbreweries, Tea, Wes Anderson Movies, Barack Obama, Organic Food, Farmer’s Markets, and Coffee.
That’s 24 of 84 things currently listed on the site. I guess I’m beyond hope at this point. Oh well, guess I’ll go drink some coffee and listen to This American Life, since it’s the weekend and I don’t have to go back to my graduate school classes in Canada until Monday.
I’m in an alliterative mood today. Besides, sibilants are sexy.
ABC News, among others, is a-huffle
over another Joss Whedon kerfuffle.
“Why can’t he”, they say,
“keep his girls ungay,
or at least make the sex more a-muffled?”
Double-meaning FTW.
The story is interesting itself, of course, especially if you’re a Buffy fan. Perhaps even more interesting are the current 113-odd comments of people calling for censorship and of people responding to the people asking for censorship, telling them that they’re uninformed idiots. Personally, I don’t know what the big issue is. (That was a comic book joke, right there.) BtVS had plenty of steamy moments in the show. In one episode, Buffy almost gets sexed-to-death as she and Riley get it on at a haunted party. Less graphic, but equally blatant in its own right, is when Tara goes down on Willow in the musical episode singing, “Lost in ecstasy / Spread beneath my Willow tree.” The camera pans up, of course, just as Willow begins to levitate over the bed. No, that’s not obvious at all.
So what if Buffy gets a little saucy between the pages. Graphically, it’s nothing worse than what we see on the standard Image comic cover. Even DC and Marvel covers can get pretty racy these days. Ideologically? Well, considering chicks are making out on street corners these days (albeit in Canada) as a form of protest, I’d say that it’s only a matter of time before the taboo gets … well, less taboo.
In the meantime, good for Buffy, and as she so eloquently puts it, “Wow.”
Last time I could only get to 7. With Nick and Abby’s help, I made it to 10.
Top 10 Tubular Testaments to Wit
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Firefly
- House M.D.
- The Simpsons
- The Muppet Show
- Monty Python’s Flying Circus
- Mystery Science Theater Three Thousand (MST3K)
- Angel
- Mythbusters
- Sesame Street
There are some runners-up as well.
First, Mensa says “‘Dese TV shows R smart!”
Then, Johnny replies, “Yar, where be me Simpsons!? Yar!” (Note that in this story, Johnny is clearly a pirate.)
Finally, I retort, “Guh, I don’t even know if I can list 10 television shows.” Yep, that’s me, always ready with a witty repartee.
I’ll try anyway. My top 10 smart television shows, old and new.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Firefly
- House M.D.
- The Simpsons
- Angel
- Monty Python’s Flying Circus
- Mythbusters
I can only make it to seven, and I almost feel that putting Monty Python on the list is cheating. Then again, Mensa mentioned M*A*S*H, so I don’t feel too bad. That show was awful. And yes, I included three Joss Whedon shows. But that’s because he’s an amazing genius, and his shows show it.
What about you, what’s your favorite “smart” show?
Italicized is the search performed on Google, the number is where this site ends up on the results list, and then the link to the referred post.
what to do instead of homework — #1 (post)
the taste of French Rabbit — #5 (post)
Best of all:
hot makeouts — #5 (post)
For reals. I’m fifth on a list of 5,220 when you google hot makeouts. That makes me, like, a makeout god.
And I’m evidently what to do instead of homework. Stats are fun!
Ornery Ahniwa arbitrates all of the arguments all his associates have;
an arduous task, he cries out, “Helas!”, and ardently argues augmenting alliances.
Inspired by Steve Martin’s new alphabet book, which was highlighted on NPR this morning.
Jessy Randall has put together a nice list of the “streaking, singing, and other funny stuff people have done in libraries.” Included are videos of “study breakdancing”, “pac man reenactments”, and even a clip from Sesame Street.
Make sure you don’t miss the peep research or the library musical!
Finally, you can claim experience points for housework.
Recruit a party of adventurers from your household or office, and whenever one of you completes a chore, you can log it and claim XP.
Sing along to the most popular BtVS (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) episode ever, Once More with Feeling, on the big screen! We’ll be heading up to the Seattle showing on Saturday, June 30th (tomorrow), so if you’re in the area, you should definitely join us!
Also, if you have a whole lot more cash than I do, you might be interested in this. It’s times like this that I wish I weren’t dirt poor. No wait, I pretty much wish that all the time.
Dude. Monkey, Ninja, Pirate, Robot: The Role-Playing Game!?
Monkey, Ninja, Pirate, Robot: The Role-Playing Game!
There’s also one called “Ninja Burger.” Both games are based on the “PDQ” system (Prose Descriptive Qualities), created by Chad Underkoffler, about whom Eric Burns just did a lovely little write-up.
Silly though it may be, it’s the little things like this that make me feel like it’s an alright world, after all.
“Order is illegal! It goes against the laws of thermodynamics.”
“Anarchists educated in entropy? The epitome of irony!”
Sinfest started on the 17th of January, 2000, with decent black and white art and a couple interesting characters. Since then, it has evolved to become one of the most well-polished, consistent, and funny webcomics I read. I’ve just been catching up a bit. Considering that Sinfest updates with near perfect consistency, seven days a week, there’s plenty there to look at, and nearly 2500 strips to read if you want to start from the beginning. There’s plenty of schwag too, if you’re in for that sort of thing.
The strip pictured is one of the sunday strips, larger and in color, with a different style. I love the styling on Monique in the “of love” panel, though for some reason it makes me think of Final Fantasy games. Honestly, one of things I like about Sinfest is that it does a great job of being a really sexy comic, without ever crossing the line.
If you’re interested in crossing the line, on the other hand, check out Jess Fink’s “Dirty Limericks” over at adultwebcomics.com. It is what it sounds like, so probably best not to read it anywhere you might get in trouble.
This may not be the kind of trickery I’m eager to deal with at the crack of dawn (assuming I ever actually attempted to wake up that early). Even so, it’s one of the coolest little gadgets I’ve seen in a long time. After all, everyone loves a cheeky little robot.
Snip from Thinkgeek:
Sleep is the little death, and dying kinda sucks, so we avoid it whenever possible. Problem is, if you don’t sleep, you tend to pass out an inopportune times, like driving, operating heavy droids, and various sex type behaviors. Thankfully, unplanned narcolepsy can be avoided by a strict regimen of planned sleep. Don’t let sleep take you over though; too much means no work done! You need a boot to the butt to wake you up, and Clocky is here with said metaphorical boot! Clocky’s robotic wheels propel this little alarm off your nightstand, spinning away from your grasp. Turning and spinning, it forces you out of bed to chase down this adorable noisy demon, making you instantly alert and ready to face the day.
Link: http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/91f2/?cpg=52H