Selfish Crab

Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas is a valid Windows XP SP2 authentication key and installation disc so that I can properly dual boot my laptop to play video games, without having to resort to (1) slipstreaming, or (2) interacting with underworld-types to get a cracked version.   I mean, I don’t think MS even sells these things anymore;  it’s the sort of thing only you and your magic elves can bring me.  Remember, a volume license makes a great stocking stuffer.

milk and cookies forever,

Selfish Crab.

# 2008 Nov 24    {Life}    #

I have made the executive decision that I need to use the word “fuck” and other swear words more often in my writing.  Here is an example:

Fuck law school and its infinite store of disappointments, regrets, and melancholy.

Yes, I know three of those words are synonyms. However, (1) fuck you, and (2) not unlike ice cream, sadness comes in many flavors, and in law school, you just get to try them all.   In fact, it is a veritable world tour of the 7 land masses of misery.   If sadness was a sugared confection, law school is a golden fucking ticket, tucked away behind a chocolate bar, granting you access to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate I-have-chosen-a-career-of-shit Factory.   Did I mention I recently joined my college reunion committee?  I plan on setting up a Reunion Day lecture event, entitled “Hi Would You Like to Be More Pathetic: 5 Reasons You Should Leave a Career Actually Creating Something Useful: an Engineering to Law Primer”.  Tickets are on pre-order via a custom sundial registration form coming to you soon.

# 2008 Nov 20    {law school}    #

Video: Trailer for Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, which is slaking both the sudden thirst for vampire stories and the longstanding appetite for prequels.

See also, Trailer for Star Trek (prequel + director of Lost).

# 2008 Nov 19    {Links}    #

Photo:  now-Dodge Gymnasium at Columbia University circa 1908 (via kottke). The semi-circle room, second-level running track, the distinct cross-hatch rail design, the stone columns (now covered with cushions), it’s all there, and is now over 100 years old apparently.  The students pictured are playing a brand new game called “basketball” (invented 1891).

See also: Flag Rush in 1910, a tradition wherein sophomores stake a flag and defend it from an onslaught of freshmen.  Taken in front of Hamilton Hall.

# 2008 Nov 16    {Columbia}    #

Halloween shop employees by selfish crab.

# 2008 Nov 14    {Life}    #

1. Alcohol.   Driving automobiles.
2. Sleeping pills.  Operating heavy machinery.
3. Chatting with parents.  Partitioning your hard drive for dual-boot.

Because sometimes you misread the small white-on-blue text labels and select the wrong partition to reformat as NTFS and you wind up blowing away your entire laptop.

# 2008 Nov 10    {nerd}    #

spiderman in the wild by selfish crab.

Read the rest of this entry »

# 2008 Nov 8    {Life}    #

1. Until the 1960s, Brooklyn, NY produced 20% of the nation’s beer.  [source]
2. The city of Shabim, Yemen is an ancient city laden with towering buildings made of mud (mud!!), up to 5 to 11 stories high.  Thankfully, rain comes infrequently.  [source]
3. In designing its interrogation program after 9/11 (criticized by many as torture), the CIA turned to its own internal experts, who had studied Cold War-era interrogation methods designed to elicit false confessions (good for propaganda).  [source]
4. President-elect Obama’s new chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is the brother of Ari Emanuel, the basis for super-agent Ari Gold on Entourage.  [source]

# 2008 Nov 6    {Links}    2

Film Forum by selfish crab.

# 2008 Nov 4    {Life}    #

Brooklyn Bridge by selfish crab.

# 2008 Nov 4    {Life}    #