Monday, April 30, 2007

dave and lee read haiku

here's dave and i reading haiku we wrote at a bar in montreal at a meeting two years ago. home video quality...

lee loves norah poem.

if you haven't seen this poem, see my myspace page and look at the early blog posts (http://www.myspace.com/163363057). i have the slideshow there, with words.
here is just a video of me trying to recite it at the retreat this year. probably won't be that entertaining for you guys.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Killer Rabbits

Am I alone in never having heard of This incident?

I especially enjoy the Monty Python comment

Thursday, April 26, 2007

don't try this at home...

In following carrot-woman's lead, "for everyone else's entertainment", today an egg exploded in my face and my lip hurts.

It went something like this:

I was, in "hobbit"-style, scrounging for food for lunch and had a couple of hard-boiled eggs in the fridge in my office. I was really excited about adding these to my hodge-podge lunch, until I opened the container containing (that's why they call it a container) my eggs in it, pulled one out, and remembered that everything in that tiny little contraption of a cooling device (a.k.a. piece o' crap fridge) partially freezes.

I was very disappointed because I didn't want to wait for the eggs to thaw, and I didn't want to eat half-frozen hard-boiled eggs.

I thought to myself, I wonder if they will thaw if I put them in the microwave for 30 seconds? And then I thought, and I wonder if egg shells will burn in the microwave?

Well, only one way to find out... I decided that the microwave would surely thaw my eggs, and if I smelled or saw any signs of burning, I would quickly remove the eggs. One person in the lounge where I went to microwave them mentioned that eggs can explode if you microwave them, but I said mine were hard-boiled, so that shouldn't happened. She agreed, no, that shouldn't happen.

Now before you jump ahead and think that you know the ending, that really one of the eggs was not hard-boiled because I had mixed it up with a raw one and that it exploded in my face when I opened the microwave, no, no, no, that is NOT what happened. The eggs were indeed both hard-boiled.

So, I put them in the microwave for 30 seconds or so, removed them, and returned to my office to enjoy them with some salt. The egg shells didn't burn either.

I sat down at my desk and peeled the egg shell off the first one I picked up. The shell was a little hot, but the egg itself seemed okay. After peeling the shell, I put a little salt on it, put it up to my mouth, started to take a bite, teeth biting down, and *POP*!!! It exploded in my face!!!

My upper lip suddenly burnt terribly and started to feel numb. I promptly looked down at what I thought was a non-explosive and edible device called an egg, something I was apparently very wrong about, and saw the remnants of the bottom half of the white of the egg, encapsulating bits of yellowish-grayish-brownish yolk. Other bits of that yolk were sparsely scattered in my lap, on my shirt, and on my desk and the many things that cover it.

Needless to say, I was very disappointed about this bit of my lunch. While I did not eat the other egg as I had lost my appetite for egg by this point, I did de-shell it and cut it open with a knife (with my face partially turned and as far away from it as possible), and it was completely harmless. I tossed it into the garbage.

The End.

I wasn't going to post anymore...

... since I'm starting to feel lame for being the only one to post here.

But this article was just too strange not to share.

Pop quiz:
Which is more disturbing:
(a) there are people SO gullible out there
(b) there are people so willing to take advantage of (a)
(c) there are people who don't know the difference between a dog and a sheep
(d) these people think they are responsible enough to own and care for a pet

***EDIT***
THIS has a much better picture! (And worse puns)

RE: bees

Most amusing quote from this article:
"[B]ees may suffer from a diet that includes artificial supplements, concoctions akin to energy drinks and power bars."

at least I found the imagery amusing...

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Today's Top 5 List

  1. Today's half-baked hypothesis on the disappearing bees
  2. Obligatory monthly gas price story
  3. I didn't realize people were this desperate for action
  4. If you wanted to define irony...
  5. And lastly, for your viewing pleasure, may I introduce Chad Vader

Carrots

For everyone else's entertainment/pondering... I just woke up from a nap, since I came home feeling very ill. Chilled, light-headed, headachy, shaky, slightly nauseous... I feel completely better now. This is at least the third time this has happened that I can remember, always immediately after eating... baby carrots. Can one have an allergy/intolerance to carrots?! I tried googling it, and carrot allergies that come up are more like typical food allergies- itching, hives, anaphylactic shock. Very weird.

Party in Sweden's Pants


and you're invited.

Extreme living

The Hotel Version

Finally...


...a presidential debate worth watching.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

RE: Oh my...

I didn't read this terribly thoroughly, but I think my favorite part is the reference to the voicemail at the very end, urging pesky callers to "get a sense of humor and/or a life, in that order."

Oh my...

Sometimes I don't understand people.

Strategic Incompetence

Who knew there was an actual name for this often observed phenomenon?

I must admit, though, to being guilty of this from time to time.

i love you! (my weng weng)

You don't say.

I, for one, figured this was pretty much a given already.

I want to read the proposal...

... that funded THIS

I also would love to know how they even came up with the idea for it in the first place...

And I'm not entirely sure if I should be disturbed that this article comes with audio and video at the end...

brilliant

yo, this idea is already the best ever!
i'll post something interesting at some point, oh, but right now i'm busy inputting 2851 elevations from a stupid topomap. stupid school. stupid GIS. stupid me for being in grad school rather than getting rich. i think that msnbc article might have it all wrong. surely the rich are smarter, just for getting rich. we should've done that BEFORE grad school...

Not too bright? You can still be rich!

LINK

Just another day at work...

... playing in the dirt with marbles...

Ah, the life of a NASA scientist.

An Inconsistant Truth

Sneaky Energy Wasters - Phantom Loads

From LIPA:

SNEAKY ENERGY WASTERS – PHANTOM LOADS
Love the convenience of a remote control? Channel surfing? Turning off the air conditioner from across the room? Think about it. How many remote controls do you have in your home? How many television sets and cable boxes? These appliances remain partially on, even though they appear to be turned off. Anything that can be powered by a remote control is in some measure “on,” all day, every day, so that it is ready to receive the “on” signal from the remote. How much electricity do they use? Not much. Approximately 7/10 of a kilowatt hour. But when you have multiple “phantom” appliances running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, those kWhs add up.

Anything with a clock–VCRs, coffee makers, microwave ovens, ranges, receivers, etc.–also uses a small amount of power all the time. Anything that uses a "power cube," such as answering machines, hand held video games and electric toothbrushes, uses very tiny amounts of power; maybe only a watt or two, but they are always using electricity. One solution for clocks is battery power. A wall mounted clock runs for nearly a year on a single battery.

Watch out for those small transformers that plug into the wall outlet to power a lower voltage appliance like cell phones. These villainous wastrels are usually very inefficient; usually having around twenty percent efficiency (which means that for every dime's worth of electricity consumed, they throw away six or eight cents worth). You can stop wasting that energy (and money) by pulling the plug.

Charging through the brush...

... is the rare Borneo Rhino, never before captured on camera!
and no, this is not a Planet Earth special.

I didn't kill no motherfucking lion

SNL Ray Lewis Disney Parody

Add to My Profile | More Videos

I mean really...

... how do they get funding for this stuff?

~R

In the beginning there was...

... the story that started this whole blog thing
The Kryptonite Story (complete with pictures!)

~R

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Inaugural Address

My fellow Beacon Hillers...

(Okay, kind of a lame start, but that was the only thing that came to mind.)

Do what you will here, post funny websites, strange things in the news, or whatever else you think the "house" needs to know about. All the news that may or may not be fit to print.

Have fun, guys.

~R