it comes in pints?

99 balloons 56 Questions

Stolen from the Lovely Ricki.

UPDATE: Shit. Had to shut this down already because of the f*ckin' spammers.

The Friday Fuck Off Thread

I'm sure you all will have stuff that's much worse, but for now, Guy Ritchie can fuck off. I finally watched that piece of shit movie of his last night and now I'm pissed off. It's not just that Revolver was bad. It's that asswad had the nerve to run around after it was panned saying that it was because we were all just too stupid to get it. That was the most retarded fucking movie I have ever seen in my life. That is not an exaggeration, folks. I mean it. Worst fucking movie ever made.

The fuck off floor is yours.

Coming up

UPDATE: It's Flemming Rose and it will be about 6:40PDT. ANOTHER UPDATE: Some technical issues, moved to (probably) 7:30.

I don't see it on their guest list on the website, but coming up this morning at a few minutes after six, I think, on KSFO will be the a representative of newspaper that published the Danish Muslim cartoons. I didn't catch the name, so I don't know yet if it's Flemming Rose or another. I'll update when I know more. If interested, you can listen here.

Remember, keep it young, keep it hip

Well, y'all know I ain't much in the way of hip. But the Sainted Bride is off to a work function this evening and I'm left unsupervised. So what did I do after perusing all the cool internet porn sites?

Twelve Angry Men

Well, more like eight angry men and four angry women. Well not so much angry as... well not even peeved. All wanting to do our civic duty, and only somewhat inconvenienced (more for some than others, of course, but we're all committed to doing our civic duty. And stuff). And we did.

And yeah, I forgot to post this earlier when I got home from the duty.

Blast from the past

Okay, I really, truly, honestly have no idea why this popped into my head this evening. But when I was younger, my little bros sometimes watched Wonderama. I was a little old for it when it went national, but it was kind of cool. Especially since I was bordering on pre-adolescent and kind of in a snotty, Jr. High type mindset when I saw it.

And I so desperately wanted to catch an aardvark and go on that show just to show up that Bob McAllister.

Of course, I'm matured some in the last 35-40 years or so. I guess.

Oh. Good. Lord.

One more brief American Idol post. Just caught a few seconds, walking back into the house after watering plants. But Rasta boy needs to go home. Not least for reminding me of that (mercifully) short reggae phase that Eric Clapton went through.

Eric, drugs are bad. I'm glad you got it out of your system. 'Nuff said.

SHORT UPDATE: For the guy who came on later, yeah it was pretty good but it's not wise to choose a Ben E. King song because, dude, you're not Ben and if you don't fricking NAIL it, you'll get marked down more than otherwise. Just sayin'...

And now again

Since I'm a wee bit out of touch, I thought I would provide a video one of the songs the Caps performed last night.

I was hoping to find "Ebony and Ovary" but I think it's too recent. Also, there was a McGreevey song the Bingster and Bill would have enjoyed but, alas, couldn't find that one either. So here's a different one. Enjoy.

And now...

...off to see these folks.

UPDATE: Spec. Tac. U. Lar. Especially the new (and especially topical right now) "Ebony and Ovary".

They even hung out in the lobby after the show, signed CDs, and such. We bought their two latest and got them autographed. DNT got autographs on two copies of the latest Lirty Dies lyrics as well, one for a friend at school who had just missed them in Sacto not long ago.

And tomorrow, back to jury duty.

Jury Duty

And now I'm off to report for it.

UPDATE: And I'm on it. Knew it as soon as my name was called for the first 12 in voir dire (I can spell it, I just can't pronounce it) because there's no reason, being a fairly average, non-offending sort. Mostly.

SECOND UPDATE: Just as an irrelevant aside, the pay sucks ($15 a day, starting second day, plus $0.15 a mile, starting second day). But the hours were way primo. Instead of leaving the house before 5am and getting home about 6pm, I left the house about 8:15am and got home about 5pm. Of course, all that stuff I'm not doing at work will still be waiting for me when I get back...

Country/Western Music Trivia (Yet another Retread Edition)

So that sorta-fisking of Nick Bostrom took a lot out of me. Also, I've still got a lot of stuff to do in the yard, and dinner to make, and miles to go before I sleep. So I have nothing new on the trivia front. So in order to have at least something to post, I went back through some of my previous posts to find questions that no one got. And I think I may have thought of a couple of new ones. Maybe. How would I know? I'm like, totally tired and old.

But in any case, I hope you will enjoy these retreads/new questions that I may or may not remember the answers to in the cold, harsh light of day:

Heroine

Pfc. Monica Brown: A true heroine. Hoo-rah, indeed.

Moose Butter

Now that I've got your attention...

Daughter Number Two is home this weekend, that we may see these folks.

More than that, because she's home we went out to dinner and then she decided she wanted to see "The Music Man" at the high school. So we did. Fun. And now it's late. And I'm wired from being up too late, so I'm drinking beer and blogging. Sorta.

Anyhoo, a while back, DNT played for me a recording by "comedy a cappella quartet" moosebutter ("98% a cappella, 100% goofy"). I don't remember just what it was, being a long, long time ago, but today she passed along their rendition of "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer". Tres amusing ("Won't you slay my guide tonight?").

It's not currently available on Youtube (though their puppet version of "Psycho the Musical" is), so I uploaded it. Enjoy the whole thing. You will not be disappointed.

Who's Afraid of a Martian Probe?

Apologies in advance. I didn't realize how long this had gotten until I finished, and since I have stuff going on tonight and tomorrow, I'm not going to try to edit it down to a reasonable length. You have been warned, but I, in my infinite mercy, have hidden it below the fold for those of you not interested.

The Friday Fuck Off Thread

Condescending bastards who talk to grown adults as if they're four years old because they seem to think they're the only person in the world who ever got an education or had the occasion to crack a fucking book from time to time can fuck the fucking fuck off. Think carefully before you say the words "you should read...." to someone, especially when there's a good chance you're speaking to somebody who already has fucking read...

I know that's a stupid one, but I've collided with these people far too often. No, Mr. McSmarterthaneveryone, I don't need to pick up a copy of that Howard Zinn book that so many people seem to think makes them a brainiac because they keep a copy on their shelves. I read it when I was fucking seventeen. In college. Bite me.

Go ahead. Bite back.

I have no title for this post because it's too long and I'm wasted

[UPDATE: I corrected the honorific for Dr. Bostrom; that should have occurred to me last night]

Our buddy Bings linked to an article by Nick Bostrom. I mocked a bit of it below, probably unfairly, but the phrase amused me.

And this may have gotten overly long and rambling, so apologies in advance if it's not up to my usual super-journalistic-fiskatory standards. Which I doubt it would be even if I actually had such standards. My only defense is that Dr. Bostrom's article is also overly long and rambling. And I'm drinking.

A little help here?

So today, Google has had a picture by Jeff Koons on their homepage, as they so often have special pictures on holidays and other event. I had no idea who he is so I clicked on it. Then I, er, googled his name. Sounds kind of interesting but I still can't figure it out.

Anybody know why? Is there some particular reason or is it just a pretty picture? Enquiring minds want to know!

For our buddy, Mr. Bingley

It's not the post I promised him, that will have to be later. But I think he'll appreciate it.

And speaking of malpractice

And by the way, the f*** happened to basic honesty and decency?

I've never looked at Craigslist, heard a little about it but that's all. I get the concept, I suppose, but don't know details of how it works. However, I am willing to give Craigslist a small bit of advice:

Clamp down on stuff like this (registration probably required).

Doug Kelley was perplexed when Craigslist ads for his Sacramento carpet-cleaning business started disappearing from the popular Web site. Every time he re-posted one of his classified ads, it would vanish – often within minutes.

After competitors' ads started showing up, some of them openly denigrating his company, West Coast Carpet Care, Kelley knew he had a problem.

Since then, Kelley estimates he has spent $11,000 in attorney's and court fees fighting his online business adversaries.

"You'd think (Craigslist) would want to get rid of the tweakers and keep good-quality, licensed business people who are productive members of society," he said.

Like other small businesses worldwide using the free classified Web site, Kelley stumbled last year onto a little-known dark side of Craigslist.

Some critics say it's a situation where anything goes, including slanderous attacks and competitors ejecting each other's ads in a process called "flagging."

Using conventional software to circumvent Craigslist rules, some individuals have figured out how to quash competition by removing ads of their rivals, whether they're house-cleaning services or real estate sellers.

Craigslist employs an automatic tool that yanks offensive or false ads if enough different users flag them. The problem: Single users can cheat the system with software that makes the flagging appear to be from multiple users.

It's a different form of Internet advertising sabotage, similar to "click fraud" where individuals repeatedly click on a rival's paid Web advertisement on Google or other search engines, to run up their rivals' costs.

Nonsensical phrase of the day

I can't figure out if it's a redundancy, an oxymoron, or just a meaningless phrase:

The former president has privately told people that his wife's campaign has committed "political malpractice," according to Time magazine.

Go figure

Well. Nice to know the California Democrats are keeping the state safe for voter fraud:

The Assembly Committee on Elections and Redistricting killed a proposal in January by Assemblyman Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, requiring California voters to show one of six forms of ID at a polling place. Under Assembly Bill 9, a voter without identification could use a provisional ballot but would be required to show a valid ID card to the county registrar within five days. The bill failed on a party-line vote and is dead for the year.

Opponents included the American Civil Liberties Union, as well as public employee unions such as the California Teachers Association.

Critics said the bill raised constitutional problems similar to those in the Supreme Court case and expressed concerns that an ID requirement would impose new costs on some voters and deter others by creating long waits at polling places.

SacBee story via McGehee, and more here from Prof. Bainbridge.

Forget Marketing

HR is the devil.

For my putative son

And a contest. Or what passes for a contest here. Oh, and a moral: be careful who you wish to have for a father.

Oh yeah, contest. 1000 MBP points to anyone who can identify the singer, er, author, er, utterer of the following passage (as best I can recall the exact phrasing):

Jazzed (updated)

Pumped. Stoked. Way happy. Pick your adjective.

Today was my first day on my new schedule. It worked out well. Not that I had any actual time off, I've been working on lots of stuff, but it's good because it's stuff I wouldn't have had time for otherwise.

Also, I'm feeling good about what was accomplished today.

Country/Western Trivia (Random Singlets Edition)

UPDATE: Hmm. Looks like the rest aren't going to get answered so the answers are filed in. Oddly, my good buddy Julie didn't get the rest of the answers from the same song she got two from. All of the odd ones except the last are from the same song.

I know I've leaned heavily on Rock 'n Roll for a few weeks, so I thought I'd flip back over to my country side. A couple of days ago, a song from the far distant past popped into my head, a song which is just a sort of one-hit-wonder type so far as I know. And I thought, "Hey, that would make a kinda cool trivia category, singlets from a way long time ago."

A video

So I think that I finally, by cheating (explained later), managed to come up with a reasonably good trivia post. Still putting it together. Meantime, on my weekly Sunday bike ride, an old TV sketch popped into my head for no really good reason. So when I got home, I had to look it up. There were multiple episodes of it on the show but this is the only one I found posted on youtube.

From one of the best sketch comedy shows of all time:

No trivia post yet

And not yet sure if there will be one this weekend. I had a great idea but I'm not yet sure I can come up with enough songs for the category. Sigh. I will persevere, of course.

But in other breaking news...

Random "Taxi" quote strangely applicable to stories ripped from today's headlines

Well, not really applicable to today's headlines, but strangely applicable to Emily's post below. More accurately, applicable to my comment on Emily's post. Sort of. But I find it amusing, and it's as best as I can recall the actual quotes and characters:

[Emily adds: sorry, Ken. I had to close the comments on this post. The spammers apparently have a fetish for dropping their links in it.]

Chippy's Latest

Chippy McGuinness has written up her latest column. It's a compilation of her top ten moments in hockey history.