[via Bacon and Eh's] The headline says it all: Sherry Enema Kills Man.
{ 0 comments }
From the monthly archives:
February 2005
I’ve been sorting through my technology trunk and found a couple of
goodies for which I have no use.Drop me a line if you’re interested:
128 MB PC2100 DDR RAM (from my PowerBook 12″ 867Mhz — I replaced it with a 512 MB stick)Claimed!Mad Catz DVD Remote control and receiver for the originalPlayStation 2. It was given to me for Christmas, but it doesn’t fit the
new, slim-profile PS2. It looks like the remote control in the Mad Catz PS2 Starter Kit. Claimed!
I
assume that they’re in working order (the RAM should be — it’s never
been used, outside of some possible QA testing at Apple).
{ 1 comment }
As a firm believer in quid pro quo, I do check from time to time to make sure that you’re on my blogroll if
I’m on yours. If this isn’t the case, let me know, either in the
comments or by emailing me.
{ 16 comments }
Last night at dinner at a Chinese restaurant:
Dad: Joey, your mother bought the dress she’s going to wear to your wedding. Now you REALLY have to get married.
{ 1 comment }
“Burning Man, here we come!” Click the photo to see a site associated with this TV show.
{ 5 comments }
I’ve just come back from an evening out with my coworkers Darryl,
Andrew and Sandra, buzzed off a fair number of Crown-Royal-and-Cokes,
dark beers, and getting invited by the band to join them onstange in a
performance of Steepenwolf’s Born to be Wild.
I’m drunk, but far too amped to fall asleep just yet, so here is the
Accordion Guy Eightfold Noble Path to Living Well (with apologies to Siddhartha Gautama for stealing his schtick):
- Snile broadly
- Laugh lustily
- Eat sensibly
- Exercise regularly
- Code completely (a tip of the hat to Steve McConnell)
- Party heartily
- Learn constantly
- Give generously
- Love unconditionally
- Make sure your last words aren’t “Hey, everybody — watch this!”
Well, that’s enough intoxipontification. Now, to bed.
{ 11 comments }
The voting for the 2005 Bloggies closes tonight at 10 p.m.. If you appreciate this blog, please voite for it for “Best Canadian Blog!”
I know Dave Winer disapproves of all the Bloggie-related self-promotion, saying that it lacks dignity. I respond in the street argot of his native Brooklyn: “Dignity, schmignity!” It’s an election, and you’ve got to campaign to win.
{ 5 comments }
Ayn Rand (nee Alissa “Alice”
Zinovievna Rosenbaum) would’ve turned 100 yesterday. To quote Chistopher “Incoming Signals” Bahn, we should all bake cakes and then not share them with anybody.
Rand did get a few things right, in my opinion: communism bad,
capitalism good, reward the talented who produce good output. But her
philosophy, Objectivism, also casts petty selfishness, meanness and
“screw you” as virtues and altruism and charity as vice. Its version of
morality is overly simple and already comes built-in with any five-year
old.
Her followers at the Ayn Rand Institute are no picnic either. Consider the essay What Young People Really Need: Not Volunteerism but Happiness and Heroes:
There is nothing wrong with an individual doing charity work, if it
is not a sacrifice for him. But charity is not a moral ideal, nor does
human life depend on it. Achievement is the moral ideal because man’s
life does depend on it.
If you live by this code of achievement, and struggle for your own
values and attain happiness, then, as a by-product, your life will
serve as an inspiration to others, showing them how much is possible,
giving them courage to struggle for their own achievements. Michael
Jordan, for example, has been termed a “know-nothing capitalist” by
those who, like the President [Bill Clinton at the time the article was written -- Joey], hold that goodness consists of taking
poor children to the zoo on a summer day. But a question needs to be
raised to the advocates of volunteerism. What do you think young people
find more inspiring: the sight of Jimmy Carter building churches in the
jungles of Guatemala, or the vision of Michael Jordan soaring through
the air, winning championships and earning millions, then flashing his
joyous, brilliant, life-giving smile? The truth is that Michael
Jordan’s extraordinary success has inspired far more young people,
poor, middle-class or rich, black, white or Asian, to strive for their
own dreams than an army of social workers could ever think possible. As Ayn Rand puts it in Atlas Shrugged, “The sight of an achievement is the greatest gift that a human being could offer to others.”
What. An. Ass. The parable A Boy’s Life or Death is even worse, suffering from both bad philospohy and ham-fisted writing.
Ayn Rand is the topic of discussion on MetaFilter and on the cover of this month’s issue of Reason magazine. If you’d like to find out more about her from a devotee and a detractor, consider this essay by acolyte Leonard Peikoff and this smackdown by Catherine Daligga.
(Amusing note: according to Daligga’s essay, Rand’s funeral wreath was a six-foot floral dollar sign. She was gangsta rap before gangsta rap!). Bling bling, Annie!
Proof that there’s a dating service for every subculture: there’s an Ayn Rand dating and networking site!
Who wants to bet that all those dates are “Dutch”?
{ 3 comments }
My friend and fellow DJ from Clark Hall Pub at Crazy Go Nuts University, Chris “Planet Simpson” Turner, has had a rough weekend. His wife, Ashley Bristowe — also a friend of mine from Crazy Go Nuts University – writes that they had to put down their dog, Pony, after she viciously attacked Chris.
Poor Chris required 40 stitches to his face, and it was decided then
and there that she had to be put down, especially with a baby due very
soon.
It was a difficult choice and it must’ve been hard on them, but it was
the right one. Hang tough, guys, and get well soon, Chris.
{ 1 comment }
I’m selling off some of my glass and hematite jewellery that I’ve
made in hopes of earning some cash to go towards bills I can’t pay at
the moment. Please e.mail me at liz@lizvang.com to make a bid for the piece you would like.
The set comes with necklace and matching earrings and as I said before, they are all handmade by me, myself and I.
Click thumbnail to view larger.
Buy her stuff and give her a hand!
(Remember, boys, Valentine’s Day is coming soon…)
{ 0 comments }
I’ve taken on some ambitious work and career-building projects (as well
as the ambitious project of getting married), so my time’s been at a
premium and I owe a number of people phone calls, emails, appearances
at their fabulous karaoke shows and the like. I promise I’ll get back to you folks soon.
{ 0 comments }
[via Davezilla] While we’re discussing Ann Coulter, let’s talk about a somewhat related topic: the Anti-Panti.
The name alone should give you some clue as to what it is and what it does. Here’s the description on the Anti-Panti web site:
anti-panti is the answer to all this
underwear nonsense. — thongs, g-strings, low-riders, briefs, boy-cut,
bikini — the list never ends. With Anti-Panti you do not have to
choose. You do not have to think about which underwear works with which
pants, or which is low enough not to peek out the back of your jeans.
Anti-Panti is an adhesive-backed cotton disc that sticks to the inside
of your pants and eliminates the need to wear underwear.
The ergonomic engineer in me says “that can’t be terribly comfortable”
(although thong underwear doesn’t look comfortable either). The party
boy in me says “Wendy, can we put these on the wedding registry?”
Clearly I am unqualified to discuss the merits of the Anti-Panti. I
know a number of free-thinking women who still squirm at the word
“panties” (”It just sounds wrong!”); I imagine they’d have trouble
ordering the product by name. I also expect that Xeni Jardin, Boing Boing’s specialist on all matters rumpy-pumpy will write a first-hand review soon (either her, or the equally entertaining Annalee Newitz would do just fine).
Women readers, what do you think? (I already know what the men readers are thinking: “PHWOOOOOAAARRRR!”)
{ 1 comment }
“And Canada also pitched in during the War of the Worlds in 1938…”
Here’s a video clip (700K, QuickTime, enclosure) featuring Ann “Four
legs good, two legs better!” Coulter doing what she does best — going
with her gut feeling and coming up with unsubstantiated facts to back
them up. In this segment, an appearance on the CBC’s news magazine show, The Fifth Estate, she’s quite sure that Canada participated in
the Vietnam war (which in fact, was not the case).
I’ll put my cards on the table right now: Coulter is a completely
insane bitch. Her worldview is that sort of “if you’re not completely
with us, you’re must be an enemy after our precious bodily fluids”
thinking — consider her books Treason (in which she equates anything other than her brand of neoconservatism as such) and How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)
(the sort of back-patting cliquery that one should’ve dispensed with
after high school). I’ve read both books and must say that I’ve seen
better paper after wiping my ass.
{ 18 comments }
IKEA has a cute little artifical intelligence program, Anna, who will gladly try to help meet your strangely-named disposable Swedish furniture needs.
Honorary GTABlogger Davezilla had some other Swedish needs (I’ll bet they were strangely-named, too), and he compiled this animation which chronicles his conversation with Anna.
In case you’re not familiar with the term, here’s the Wikipedia entry for “Turing Test”.
{ 0 comments }
closes on Thursday, February 3rd at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
(that’s GMT-5). If you enjoy this blog, please vote for it for “Best
Canadian Blog”!
And now the five reasons — five particularly well-received entries from 2004:
- Christine on the Secret Swing
Thestory that ended up on Boing Boing, leading to MuchMusic and the Globe
and Mail contacting me about its location and subsequently doing
stories on it.
- Must-Know Canadian Tunes?
Inwhich I ask for readers’ help to suggest pop/rock songs that are part
of the Canadian experience that my love fiancee, who is American, may
not have heard..
- The Breakup Style of PowerPoint
We spend at least 40 hours a week at work — surely some office culture has seeped into unexpected places in our lives. - Quite Possibly the First Time the Word “Blog” was Used in Comics
Theteenaged Spider-Man was a pretty angsty guy — I’m sure he’d have had a
LiveJournal — but the credit goes to Superman for what was possibly
the first time the word “blog” was used in comics.
- Almost 30 Years Later, and I Still Don’t Belong
Inwhich an extremely right-wing writer gets up my nose about who’s really
Canadian and who’s not. It aslo gave rise to this button, which got
bandied about a lot more than I thought it ever would:
It doesn’t get any more Canadian than this!
Please vote, and thank you for your support!
{ 1 comment }
