A year's end

What an odd year. I had to break someone's heart, which I have never had to do before (What kind of nerd googles "how to break up with someone?"). I started grad school and a new job in the same week. I have a marvelous new dog and lovely new friends.

This entire paragraph is wonderful...

but I love that it leads up to this sentence:
"There seemed to be something wrong with the way she felt about herself and other people."
--The Corrections

Understanding Marx-Thanks Hime

Lost Nativity Scene

Song in my head

I have had this song in my head for days. And it goes with what is going on with me. I was glad to find this video by Tim and Eric.

Don't visit your girl at work.

Also don't visit anyone you WANT to go out with at work. ESPECIALLY if she does not work with the public. This is extra awkward and means that she must entertain you.

Magicians get laid

Thank you Everything is Terrible. What else can you make disappear?

The guy at 1:30 has a most awesome mo.

Christmas memories with Dolly

When I was little, I idolized Dolly Parton. I said that when I got older, I wanted big boobs and then I could change my name to Dolly and be Dolly Purdin. Adorable.

I still love her. When I was in the third grade, my cousin and I were going to lipsych this for our school talent show. I chickened out and my aunt got mad at me.

Night riders

Last night's ride was so much fun and I thank Bill for inviting me, but also for fixing up my bike. What a difference! I think we did about twelve miles, drunkenly for some of us.

Remind me never to talk while filming. Here we are approaching a house someone dubbed "sexual Santa." You cannot see why in the video because I kept running out batteries.





Off to finish my Christmas shopping, buy the last of the Sparks in stores and go to the dog park.

Everything is discontinued

So yesterday I found out that Mixwit is being shut down at the end of the year. Today I found out that Sparks will not be made anymore.

I don't even care about the band here, I am just excited about Sparks. If there is one thing anyone can get me this holiday season, it is cases upon cases of Sparks.

Christmas pessimism

Greed!

I just heard this passage and it was amazing

From The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen.

"Oh, the misanthropy and sourness. Gary wanted to enjoy being a man of wealth and leisure, but the country was making it none too easy. All around him, millions of newly minted American millionaires were engaged in the identical pursuit of feeling extraordinary. Of buying the perfect Victorian. Of skiing the virgin slope. Of knowing the chef personally. Of locating the beach that had no footprints. There were further tens of millions of young Americans who didn't have money, but were nonetheless chasing the perfect cool. And meanwhile, the sad truth was that not everyone could be extraordinary. Not everyone could be extremely cool, because whom would this leave to be ordinary? Who'd perform the thankless work of being comparatively uncool?"

Look what came in today.

Uh huh. As a proud Scot, I need to let people know to quit wearing kilts grocery shopping and shit like that.

Oh Snap flow chart

You know who got told last night? The guys I played scrabble with! Oh snap!

Most uneventful weekend

Reading, scrabble and the dog park. Oh man how I lost at Scrabble. I need to practice for the tournament in February.

I love this video about consumption.

I'm wearing shorts

Suck it New York friends!! I'm off to Beth Marie's.

Last night I rigged the jankiest webcam ever

I had a webcam from the mid 90's that remarkably still worked! It was grainy as hell, but it worked. Now all I need is a mic instead of headphones and I am all set.

Oh no!

New Music -Pamplamoose

I have a girl crush on the singer.

What the hell are these people doing in the voting booths?

Minnesota Public Radio has a site with the contested votes. What the hell are some of these people doing in the voting booth?

New puppy cam

In case you were missing those pups, there is a new puppy cam.

Let's convert your boozing into food stuffs.

This site lets you convert your alcohol into it's food equivalent.

I drank about 1000 calories. What the hell is a jaffa cake?

Tandem Umbrella

I think this will only work if you are about the same height. A lovely idea though.

BS Bingo

This will come in handy very soon as I have some meetings that I will be attending.

Bull Shit Bingo

This is for you Jen!

Jen! I got your card today and look what you made happen!

My friend Chris is so talented

This is his new video. I miss his presence here, but I am glad he is doing his thing up there.

Fun with dogs and sound

More fartsy, less artsy

Greg and I went to the Urban Street Bazaar and Art Conspiracy Auction. It was so much fun. We were supposed to go to the Bake Sale at Dan's, but Greg is old so he had to go home and watch Murder She Wrote or something along those lines.

I also finally got to check out the Soda Gallery.

These quilts were amazing.

This is my favorite, it is about a slut. Please look at the detail. Most art doesn't make you LOL, but this quilt did.

Then it was on to the Art Conspiracy Auction. They give the artists 24 hours, they create, the bidding starts at twenty. Some of the auctioneers were better than others.

I bid 20 on this one, right after I did someone yelled $100. People like angry clouds.

Greg won this one called Chowder (that isn't the name, but that is what we called it.). He was the envy of many others.

Christmas

I was clearly not one of those kids that was afrad of Santa. Check out my hand.

Awesome doll that was made to look like me. Again check out my hand.

As an eight year old girl I did NOT want a train set for Christmas. I was being nice for my dad's sake.

I have ALWAYS had that cowlick.

Holy shit

I can dance my Ph. D.

Look, I don't know if you can do this in Library Science, but oh my god, yes.

Merry Christmas

I went through my Christmas stuff today and found that I had left all my ornaments at my exes, had a stocking for my dead dog and had a card addressed to myself and another ex. Merry freaking Christmas.

Greatest screen cap ever

Click for detail.

People are still visiting Roald Dahl's estate.

You would think that Dahl's widow could think of a nicer way to tell the children their idol is dead, but then again I guess it is sort of fitting for someone who married Roald Dahl.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/books/Roald-Dahl-Is-Dead-Blog

Best quote I have heard during lunch with the family.

"I am getting you a neutering for Christmas."

Post-paper sigh

I love the feeling you get when you turn in a paper you have been working on for forever.

Btw, Greg, your cat is fine.

Seriously

Why can't we win at trivia? There were so many degrees at that table last night it wasn't funny.

This is a post for my mother.

Please quit Internet stalking me.

Thank you.

Around town

Paste magazine named Denton best music scene of 2008

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/dc9/2008/11/paste_names_denton_the_best_mu.php

Where's my OJ prize?

Best recently heard phrase

"she has a Hanakkuh of birthdays."

Eavesdropping Granny

Apparently I called my Grandmother at midnight Thursday accidentally. My Grandmother said that I was with "some guy" and that she stayed on the phone listening for ten minutes. I told her that I was sorry I woke her and she told me that it was "interesting." So, for the record, I think my Grandmother is a voyeur.

She only hung up because she heard me say "Ok! I am going in now." And then she heard me walk up to my door and closed it and heard nothing else. She also informed me that she was awoken the night before because she had left the thermostat on. When she got up to turn it off, there was a possum on her couch. She tried to poke it with a stick but it wouldn't move and she had to throw it out by it's tail.

That is your Granny update for the week.

Quiz Night

We got all three questions right but did not win. Also, this never happened:

Good Show Live Music Series at the Fairmount

Prop 8 Protest in Dallas

In case you were pining for the days of the "YES WE CAN!" chants, you clearly were not at the Prop 8 protest in Dallas.

It was a nice turn out, even though it has just turned bitterly cold here in the North Texas area. Paula and I both brought our dogs, which sort of made us look like the gayest straight people there. My favorite sign was the one that said, "When do I get to vote on YOUR marriage."

There was some Jesus group out there with about 5 people, which was kind of sad.

Paula and I walked by Neiman Marcus on the way back and I wanted to take pictures of the Christmas displays. She said this was "ridiculous," but she was wearing this outfit:

So she kind of had no argument.

Here's the link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDJ9n20rCTU

Here's the link to the CBS news story:

http://cbs11tv.com/local/Gay.Rights.California.2.865605.html

Here is the ridicuous Neiman Marcus displays, all recycled stuff:

Morgan Spurlock and Free Jamesons

Greg and I went to see Morgan Spurlock speak at UNT last night. I don't really agree with some of Spurlock's tactics even if I agree with the message. I don't eat at McDonald's but I understand why people do, having lived with someone who ate fast food for every meal of the day (No exaggeration). Spurlock did an hour of stand up / speaking, which Greg thought was too rehearsed, but I enjoyed. He mainly stuck to talking about Super Size Me.

He mentioned in his speech that the CEO of McDonalds died of a heart attack and the CEO after that got sick with cancer. I think it was a little mean-spirited of him to use this to his own ends. Also, many otherwise healthy people get colorectal cancer. He failed to mention that the second CEO died. Comically enough, I was extremely excited to see an Einstein's Bagels in the ground floor of the Union.

The speech was packed and afterwards, Spurlock took a few questions from the audience. I asked him if it was difficult being a meat eater and living with a vegan, which I meant more logistically. I know as a vegetarian, it is hard to find places that I and all my friends can dine at. He said that it wasn't because he doesn't cook meat in the house and his wife is a great cook...so I guess I better work on my minimal cooking skills. A lot of people asked questions about making it in the film industry and one guy had some weird question about porn that he kind of trailed off on. Some guy asked to shake his hand, which was actually really cute and sweet. His basic advice as far as film making was to keep track of the money and do as much of it yourself as you can.

While this girl was in line to ask a question, she thought she would just hold a conversation at normal level with the person next to her. She went on for ten minutes this way. The several people giving her a dirty look didn't stop her, but me taking her picture did. I did this awesome ghetto photoshop.

Afterwards we went to the Loophole for a beer, but it turned into a longer night than I had planned because they were giving away free Jameson's. I was hurting this morning, but I had my bagel to keep me toasty.

The reaction to the election at Dan's

I am FINALLY getting around to posting this. This is the best clip I have of the reaction at Dan's after it was announced that Obama won. I think this does not EVEN show the freak out that was happening there. That place made so much money that night. There were so many happy, drinking people that night.

My reaction..."Oh my God! I can't believe it!" was repeated about a million times. So yeah, sorry about that.

Hopefully I will have video of tonight's Morgan Spurlock speech up a little quicker.

My favorite video from NY

Puppy cam

When I get down at work, I can count on this to help.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/shiba-inu-puppy-cam

Hiking at the Nature Center with shitty music

I just don't know what to do with myself

YouTube Contest Challenges Users To Make A 'Good' Video

Yay, nice things!

I forgot my wallet and only realized AFTER I had ordered my coffee and picked up the paper. Someone behind me was nice enough to get it for me. And today is my favorite kind of weather!

Well, it's official

My dog HATES the iphone. He keeps trying to take it from me whenever I pick it up. I think I am going to have to do what I did to the Roomba and scold the iphone in front of the dog. Seriously.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/main/5858775.html

The white flag of singlehood

This video is just like exclaiming, "hey! I never want to get laid again."

Denton-louder than Times Square

I got a call Saturday morning from Chris, who lives in New York. He asked where the hell I was and why it was so loud. I told him Jupiter House.

He said that he was in the middle of Times Square and it wasn't that loud there. (This led to many questions about why he was in Times Square.)

One cat's ennui

Monkey Butt

monkey's butt is red from min oh on Vimeo.

Short reads

Six Word Memiors

True Stories. One sentence.

Some favorites:
One night on ecstasy, I stopped a fight between two drag queens in the ladies restroom and then I made them give each other a hug.

When I was 5 or so my mom would tell me to lie down before she tied my tie and I just now realized at the age of 19 that she did this because she's a funeral director.


I held my father's hand as he died in that hospital room and realized I'd never held his hand before that moment.

Best bookmark ever!

In honor of Banned Books Week.

Making Books video from 1947

I love watching assembly lines, I think they are calming. This is a nice little video showing the process of making books. I like the sexism at about 8:25 in.

Printing a Book, Old School from Armin Vit on Vimeo.

Book of Smells

Oh my, this book looks delightful:
http://www.cornerhouse.org/books/info.aspx?ID=2719&page=0
It catalogs scents that most people have never had the chance to smell such as the smell of the bubonic plague and the metallic smell that follows an atomic explosion.

I don't see it available anywhere.

Vegetarian "quotes"

Well is it?