Archive for September, 2010

Things I Learned 2010-09

  • The classic bedbug strain that all newly caught bugs are compared against is a colony originally from Fort Dix, N.J., that a researcher kept alive for 30 years by letting it feed on him. [source]
  • In the UK, a “Victor Mildrew” is term for an archetypal grumpy old man. [source]
  • “The Room”, a 2003 indie film, is the Citizen Kane of bad movies.   No, really.  [sample 1, sample 2] [how I learned it]
  • Despite what everyone else believes, Treasury Secretary Geitner never worked at Goldman Sachs, or any investment bank, or any private bank, for that matter.  [source]
  • Bosu balls, those half balance ball/ half platform  apparatuses at the gym, are bullshit. [source]
  • Also bullshit:  Myers-Briggs Personality Test, created by two non-scientists, a mother-daughter team., a mother-daughter team. [source]
  • The protagonist of the film “Rules of Attraction”, Sean Bateman (played by James Van Der Beek) is brothers with the main character from “American Psycho”, Patrick Bateman.  Both are based on books by Easton Ellis. [source]
  • The fish became a Christian symbol largely because the Greek word for it, ichthos, is an acronym for iesous christos theou ouios soter, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour”. [source]
  • abattoir – n. a slaughterhouse.

• From the 'things I learned' dept • #

Video: Chop.  Slow motion HD footage of an axe splitting a log.  Funny how the log splits fully even before the axes travels the entire way; should really be called “log shattering”.

• From the 'Links' dept • • #

RAR

Is it possible that I have gotten more crabby??? I don’t speak, I snarl. I don’t breathe, I spit venom. I don’t sleep, I just am between naps. I hiss like a Tasmanian devil with cancerous lesions on my goddamn face.

• From the 'Life' dept • • #

Goals

That my hours are few is palpable to me now, in ways that are likely unfathomable to my younger self, who was wealthy in time, hope, and energy. As such, old habits must yield to more constructive efforts. I am sure you have heard this song before. Somewhere along this course, I stopped recording, capturing, and writing. I aim to cure this.

AND SO, I have reset my feed reader to near-zero, turned in my badge as a level-one primary source Internet meme deputy, and hope to use this time in positive ways. Perhaps stop squeezing amusement or distraction from every parcel of time. Let my brain breathe.

My goals: (1) read a novel that does not contain word balloons, (2) write a short novel, and (3) make the most beautiful, elegant, clever, and intelligent woman I can find fall in love with me. These items may not be sorted order of difficulty.

• From the 'Life' dept • • #

Re: The Social Network movie about Facebook

Why did Hollywood re-make Pirates of Silicon Valley, but with Facebook, and why is David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club) directing it??

Update: ugh and screenplay by Aaron Sorkin?? I think i actually have to see this movie.

• From the 'Life' dept • 1

NY Fashion Week 1

credit: Sam Horine, NY Mag

Presenting: “Tommy Hottpants, 26, a D.J. and promoter who lives in Chinatown.” – NY Magazine. God save Chinatown.

• From the 'Life' dept • #