Egon & Elska, husband and pony: I still haven't decided if I think this is real. It looks real. If it is, I guess I can understand why you'd want to explain your reasons for marrying a horse, but a website about it will just make you look like a kook. Oh wait, you married a horse ... too late. [via Strange Brew]
Just so long as the eagle isn't a Canadian sparrow: Sad news for some of my friends and readers - the kiwi is exposed as an Australian cuckoo. I think the part where they go out on the streets of New Zealand, tell random people this news, and have people tell them they're wrong is cute. [via Nutlog]
Simpson's Quote of the Week: "They bite and kick and scratch. And sometimes we fall in love." -- why you can't get bully protection against girls
"things to do in the middle of night when you are too sick to sleep"
No, no reason why...
First, of course, is video games. But if you're sick, you're looking for something mindless. You don't want to concentrate. You want lots of little games, none of which are that complicated. You want the shockwave and java games of Game House. Actually, you really do. They are nicely executed, and they run really well even when my modem is pretending to only be 33.6 Kbps. If you've been reading me for a while, you know I'm a Mah Jong fan - their version is quite nice. Collapse is pretty good too.
After finding that X-Wing Origami pattern, I've gotten re-interested in learning how to do origami. I read a book about the basics when I was a kid, but haven't touched it since. The web, of course, has a wealth of information on the topic. Joesph Wu's Origami Page is a great place to see what's possible. This guy is crazy-good - he gets commissioned to make the origami you may see in ads. www.origami.com has tons of diagrams, including most of those found on Wu's page. The diagrams are ranked by difficulty, which I found very useful.
Of course, catching up on web pages is a good middle-of-the-night activity. I finally got around to checking out a bunch of personal journals and got sucked into the archives of When in Doubt, Use Parsley. I'm glad to see Brunching Shuttlecocks back - the latest Lore was quite funny. I did some Google browsing - they claim that the two most related sites to Screenshot are NowThis and Medley. Color me not surprised... And today they happened to post one of the few really funny Tom the Dancing Bug cartoons, so I felt vindicated in checked that strip out each week.
Like this evening: I stopped to get some dinner-stuffs on the way home, and decided what I was really craving was instant oatmeal. I haven't bought instant oatmeal in years, and was very excited to find out that they have changed the packaging of the variety packs. Rather than getting 2 each of five different flavors, including boring plain and the nasty raisin one, you get four each of maple & brown sugar and apple & cinnamon, and 2 cinnamon & spice. These are great flavors, and you can make two at a time and not have an odd package and you don't have to decide whether to eat the nasty flavors early, while your oatmeal craving level is high, and get them out of the way, or save them until last and possibly "lose" them in the back of the cupboard until they get stale. This was the highlight of my day, folks.
So, I eat dinner (yummmmm - oatmeal.....), and I'm thinking I'll get back to work, but I call a friend to check how she's doing, since I heard rumor she hurt her arm the other day. And then another friend asks if I want to come by and watch the West Wing re-run. Not much effort is required to convince me to go. But I'm good, and go straight home after the show (well, and a couple of games of darts) and even get back to work. Except I remember the other item I bought at the food store. The "writing-cravings" impulse buy. The Cheddar Chex Mix.
So I end up sitting here on my bed, with my laptop propped on my legs, writing and eating my way through a bag of chex mix until I feel ill. Cheddar flavoring on chex mix is bad. There aren't even any of those odd, spicy stick things in it. Go with regular Chex Mix if that's what you're looking for, or Dorritos if you want the fake cheesy coating experience, but don't mix the two.
As I said, just a little wiggy....
You deserve some links after that:
Everything I Need to Know About Sed I Learned from Web Pages: I was up until about 4 last night playing with sed. I am becoming a sed junky. What a wonderful, messed up, classicly UNIX language. Some great references are:
- Do It With Sed - my favorite of the bunch
- this short sed tutorial
- this FAQ about sed
- handy one-liners in sed - some of these are bizarre
Speaking of sed....: Perhaps it's because it's almost 3am, but this made me laugh really hard. I hesitate to admit it, but I've actually read this book. But not in alphabetical order. [via BrainLog]
Everyone write in "Coat Tree": The National Arbor Day Foundation is taking a vote on what the American National Tree should be. I haven't voted, but if I were to, I'd probably choose redwood. It just seems like a better national tree than some of the other finalists. Like palm. Or buckeye - isn't that the Ohio state tree? [via PCJM]
Better than Lego: "Fold a Yoda" You have to love it. [via Pith and Vinegar]
Why 365???: The top songs of the century according to the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts - and I even know some of them. Actually, you have to go down to #7 and the West Side Story original cast album (which doesn't seem like a top song of the century to me...) to find something I couldn't sing along with. It's an interesting list; they claim it's meant to educate "youngsters" on the music of the past century, in a variety of genres. Which makes me wonder how this can be a ranked list, as compared to just a compilation of songs. Because then I wouldn't have to ask how "Theme from Shaft" ended up above "What a Wonderful World", "Prince's "1999" got ranked above Van Halen's "Jump" and U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", and anything by The Village People ended up above any rendition of Ave Maria.
They are, of course, perfectly positioned for the page-a-day "Songs of the Century" calendar. More fun would be a website that, every day for a year, had one of the songs from the list available to listen to.
| You've
Lost That Loving Feeling You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips And there's no tenderness like before in your fingertips You're trying hard not to show it, baby But baby, baby I know it You've lost that lovin' feeling Whoa, that lovin' feeling You've lost that lovin' feeling Now it's gone, gone, gone, wooooooh Now there's no welcome look in your eyes when I reach for you And now you're starting to criticize little things I do It makes me just feel like crying, baby 'Cause baby, something in you is dying You've lost that lovin' feeling Whoa, that lovin' feeling You've lost that lovin' feeling Now it's gone, gone, gone, wooooooh Baby, baby, I get down on my knees for you If you would only love me like you used to do, yeah We had a love, a love, a love you don't find everyday So don't, don't, don't, don't let it slip away Baby, baby, baby, baby I beg of you please, please I need your love, I need your love I need your love, I need your love So bring it on back, so bring it on back Bring it on back, so bring it on back |
Stand
By Me When the night has come And the land is dark And the moon is the only light we'll see No, I won't be afraid No, I won't be afraid Just as long as you stand Stand by me So darling, darling, stand by me, oh, stand by me oh, stand, stand by me stand by me If the sky that we look upon should tumble and fall or the mountains should crumble in the sea I won't cry, I won't cry, No, I won't shed a tear Just as long as you stand Stand by me So darling, darling, stand by me, oh, stand by me oh, stand, stand by me stand by me |
all told, it was lots of snow
snowy winter hills
"Fold a X-Wing"
Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky
Is a hazy shade of winter.
Look around
Leaves are brown
There's a patch of snow on the ground.
-- Hazy Shade of Winter, Simon & Garfunkel
By my reckoning, it started snowing seriously a little after noon yesterday, and it literally hasn't stopped yet. Sure, the snow gets lighter occasionally, but there are always flakes in the air. Not that the university has any plans to close.
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
-- Robert Frost
So, what to do with all of this cold, wet stuff? Snowmen are always fun. Not enough snow where you are? Try this very cute "Build a Snowman" applet.
If you want to get more sophisticated, why not try snow sculpture? There are international snow sculpture competitions held in Colorado each January, and the results are amazing. There are things here I would never have dreamed you could make with snow...
If you're the competative type, maybe you want to engage in a snowball fight. Good thing you're on earth. According to "Why You Can't Have a Snowball Fight on Mars":
I quickly realized that a snowball fight is not possible on Ganymede. Nor, it turns out, is any kind of snowball fight possible on any planet or moon in our solar system, with the sole exception of snowball fights using ordinary H2O snow on Earth. The spoilsports are the physics of snowball manufacture and certain peculiarities of the H2O molecule.
After that, you probably want to come in and warm up with a hot chocolatey beverage.... I know I would. Much better than the instant mixes, though a little more work, check out: Hot Cocoa (with or without spices), White Hot Chocolate, or an Italian Hot Cocoa. If you're not the chocolate type, maybe you'd like a Hot Buttered Cow or some traditional (but easy) mulled cider.
The weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we’ve no place to go
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
Well, it doesn’t show signs of stopping
But we’ve got some corn for popping
And the lights are turned way down low
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
-- Let It Snow
Personal note to friends and family elsewhere: I, of course, am keeping safe and warm. The sidewalks and roads are surprisingly clear and the temperature is quite reasonable.
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